impossible garden
a hopeful mother makes a garden from rubble—harnessing the spirit of if-you-build-it-they-will-come—an act of nesting as complementary family planning.
trash removed, lumps levelled, stone walls fit, gravel laid, plants inserted, and graffiti focal wall primed. a restored service road (country road, country road, where i belong) connects this quarter-mile abandoned greenway between potrero hill live-work lofts and bayview warehouses.
all roads lead to the most stalwart drought-tolerant palette of native coastal scrub, naturalized succulents, and ever-brawny plants, who must eek out a living in the clay-meets-construction-debris soil in this urban canyon of full-shade wet winters and sun-baked dry summers. all watering is by hand. establishment only. this is a zero life-support (no irrigation) situation.
this industrial plot is as much testbed and laboratory as it is neighborhood gathering spot. already friends, neighbors, swallowtail, cats, bumblers, california slender salamanders, and goldfinch are coming ‘round. the welcome mat is out. a mural is up next to backdrop the industrial scene with a pastoral scrim—still figuring color way.
design/build terrene + friends
location san francisco, ca
date 2022 - ongoing
plant stars thus far : ceanothus ‘snow flurry’, california poppy, red flowering buckwheat (eriogonum grande var. rubescens), rock rose, aeonium, oenothera speciosa siskiyou, impatiens sodenii 'madonna' (white poor man's rhododendron), soft caress mahonia, myrica californica, green hopseed, stipa gigantea.
come back kid : coast rosemary, who had a hard first winter in the full shade canyon, but has revived beautifully (flowering even!) around the corner in her new spot in the winter sunbathing nook.
rooting for : romneya coulteri, davis gold toyon, who had a hard first year, but are still holding on. mugwort who keeps being weed-whacked down by the grounds manager mistaking their straggly flowerstalks for undesirables — if he only understood their dream power, but am fingers-crossed they continue to be hard at work underground root production. also geranium maderense and impatiens balfourii who went in in the shady parts winter 2023 between atmospheric rivers. newest addition of fuchsia denticulata whose tropical fireworks seduced me (perhaps beyond water-needy logic. we shall see).
r.i.p. : coral passion flower, kangaroo paw, lupine, ray hartman ceanothus, princess cape mallow (anisodontea elegans)