Saturday, May 28, 2011

Serialplantfetisist's Garden

I got to enjoy a lovely afternoon in my Flickr friend's, Serialplantfetishist (aka Mark Delphine's) garden in Berkeley the other day. Check out more shots of his garden and cute doggies here.

He is unbelievably lucky to have a triple lot to plant and he's got many garden rooms filled with wonderful specimen plants.

entry

rose geranium arborromantic combolove this sceneeuphorbia lambii

nice aeonium zwartkopf swathpony tail palmnice corner benchamaranthus viridis and centaurea gymnocarpa

lightness and darkness

jungly

bench

greenhouse

cool door

awesome bromiliad

garden roomsoutdoor daybedrosa autumn sunsetfountain room

phormium brushstrokes

orange, silver and lime

shady seat

And his wife, Lia Cook, weaves the most amazing portrait tapestries. Check out her website here. So beautiful, I'd love to own one someday.

weaving

It was a lovely afternoon wandering around the garden and catching up with other plant geek friends!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Bay-Friendly Garden Tour

For this year's Bay-Friendly Garden Tour, I headed up to the Calef-Wallace garden on the Albany hill first thing, to check out a garden that was originally installed by the guys of Planet Horticulture. I love their work so I wanted to make sure and see it. No longer under their care, but you can definitely see their influences.

hillside pathrocks and aeoniumsthrough the gatesucculent fountain

hillside beds

retaining walls

shady patio

buddha and weeping cedardymondia patiopicasso quotegauguin quote

a little bit of lawn

containerblue pot

The steeply sloped garden has some fantastic views from the top.

albany bulb view

golden gate view

Some repurposed materials:

cute but look like potential snail homes

recycled bits

Next up was a stop at the Hedgecock-Sullivan garden in Oakland that belongs to the garden instructor at a local school. Lovingly constructed with help from her family, it is a great garden for kids.

succulents and shoes

yellow bench

work list

treehouse

treehouse originschicken feast

Next up, a succulent lover's paradise at the Crotty-Imhoff garden, also in Oakland:

succulent slopes

succulents and stones

lot o' succulents

spiderwebbies

icing on the cake

steps

water retentionphormium, etcbench and succulent slopesdoorstop

echeverias

I think I enjoyed the Oakland garden of Sally Leveille the most. Every corner was full of collections and clusters. The intriguing vignettes were made up mostly of finds from Craigslist. I love what a creative eye can do with other people's cast-offs.

succulent collectionscollectionsrusty stuffterra cotta pot temples

more pots

collander hanging baskets

buddha corner

bromiliad pot

shady steps

blue bottle

blue repetitionlumpy planty goodnessduddleya and whatnotshells and spines

geodes, bones and succulents

love those piles of rocks

I caught the last garden, the Chang-Buttner garden in Sunol, as they were closing but the owner was kind enough to walk us and another couple around. He must have felt bad for us having walked up a long and VERY steep hill in the pouring rain to get there. (Earlier attendees were able to catch a shuttle up the hill.) My mom was along for the tour and I joked with her to look like she was about to keel over once we got to the top so they wouldn't kick us out without getting to see the garden. I guess it worked since the owner came out and gave us a personal tour! Thanks Mom!

The house was built into the hill and had a large planted roof and an amazing view.

green roof house

green roof

back of the garden with rain

view with rain

stone benchcircular parking area

veggie beds

Above the house was a lovely pond with bridge.

bridge over the pond

bridge detailpond and green roof

Whew! Long post. Who made it to the end?