A little late, I am finally getting around to posting  some pictures of the vertical garden that we did with Kevin for Sunset’s Celebration Weekend.

Here is the latest vertical succulent garden installation by my sweetie, Kevin Smith. Pretty, huh?

Our new vertical succulent garden is the belle of the ball. I love watching people get excited about it. They are bringing their friends in to see it, taking pictures of it, coming in just to visit it. The notion of vertical gardens has really captured people’s imaginations. I think this one looks like an aerial photograph.

This garden was installed by my own Kevin Smith just before Thanksgiving. Kevin likes building these gardens with a frame, rather than as a “living wall.”  Framing the plants and hanging them on the wall allow you to look at them differently. Needless to say, people are inspired by this piece and Kevin is installing several more in the coming weeks around the Bay Area.

Caitlin Atkinson took these pictures, and I helped.

Vertical Garden

Detail of vertical garden at Flora Grubb Gardens

Last year Kevin and I remodeled the cottage behind our house. Seth Boor and Kevin collaborated on the design, and I got to help with the outdoor spaces. The final inspection happened on my due date.

These beautiful photos were taken by Marion Brenner and styled by Caitlin Atkinson.

Ames cottage front garden: Azara microphylla, Choisya ternata 'Sundance', Philodendron 'Xanadu', Astelia nivicola 'Red Gem'

This is the front of the cottage. The intention for this garden is that the Azara microphylla will grow up to about 20-feet and have a nice canopy that will be lovely from the street level as well as from the rooftop. The garden is designed to be ultra-low maintenance. The bright yellow shrubs are Choisya ternata ‘Sundance’, which are performing well. The Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ is a workhorse of a plant, looking lovely in all seasons. I just can’t seem to design a garden without Astelia nivicola ‘Red Gem, the silver grass-like plant that you can see just peeking over the curb. The Ceanothus griseus ‘Diamond Heights’ will someday pop up  over the little curb and soften the line a bit.

Ames cottage front door: Yucca 'Jewel' and Carex albula (Frosty Curls Sedge)

This is the front door. The sign above the front door is left over from when the cottage was a dance studio — Betty May’s School of Tap — for many years, from the 1940s until the 1980s.

The courtyard garden, with the vertical garden, Asparagus densiflorus 'Myers', and selected Echeveria.

The courtyard is my favorite part.  We packed a lot of garden into this tiny little courtyard. This  is a vertical succulent garden planted with sempervivum and a little horizontal bed with Myers asparagus and echeveria. I absolutely love this little garden.

Courtyard garden: concrete soaking tub by Concreteworks

This is the fantastically deep concrete soaking tub by our friend Mark Rogero at Concreteworks. When you sit in this tub you are in water up to your neck and all you can see is the garden and the sky. It is the ultimate luxury for such a small garden.