Private Gardens | Far Out Flora

Outer Sunset Super Garden

April 26, 2012 by Megan | 20 Comments

Sweet Succulent Planter

Last Friday before I headed to the San Francisco Botanical Garden I had to pay a bill, so I took a different route to the muni stop than normal to hit up a mailbox. I busted out my camera when I saw this awesome example of a succulent planter. Lots of different colors and textures, plants that are practically impossible to kill in our neighborhood and common enough people won’t steal them (succulent theft is a problem here).

Super Sweet Succulent Container

Then I saw this in front of the next house and kind of freaked out. Seriously? Agave attenuata ‘Kara’s Stripes’ and a bunch of other cool plants thoughtfully arranged in containers. There are tons of succulents in our hood, but not usually put together with this much care.

The Container Craziness Continues

Wholly crap, it doesn’t end! Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’ looking hot next to a golden Sedum with a dark purple Aeonium backdrop. Then something crazy happened. The owner of the house was out front saying good-bye to visitors, saw me freaking out taking tons of pictures and invited me out back to check things out.

Really?

Look at the beautiful raised bed down the center full of edible greens! This is how I envisioned our garden in a perfect world, but we drew the line at messing with hardscaping. As renters you have to draw the line somewhere.

Kalanchoe 'Fang' & friends

Dudleya pulverulenta (I think)

Man, this is embarrassing. You’d think I could easily pick out the difference between D. pulverulenta and D. brittonii by now, but I can never tell unless the two are both next to each other. My guess is for D. pulverulenta since the leaves don’t seem as narrow as the brittonii.

Lettuce land

Echium candicans

Big thanks goes out to Alan who let me check this fabulous garden out. I didn’t get to meet his wife/garden designer, but she did an amazing job!

TED’s Garden

December 20, 2011 by Matti | 5 Comments

Dudleya attenuata

You know the term, a man’s man? Well if there’s such thing as a gardener’s garden…this is the place. What a treat it was to visit Ted Kipping’s private oasis over in the Glen Park neighborhood. When Ted isn’t traveling to exotic locations seeking out rare plants in habitat or working his business at Tree Shapers, he’s constantly tweeking his garden.

Scleranthus biflorus

Ted has several hypertufaesque containers tucked in throughout his space. After I stopped drooling over that first pic of the Dudleya attenuata, I saw his Scleranthus biflorus, which was looking lusher than ours.

Lewisia cotyledon

I had a bunch of those…wow, why didn’t I think of that moments. Here’s a plant we have in our garden, but his Lewisia cotyledon looked way more cooler than ours. He does some amazing mini landscapes, and certainly influenced us to make our alpine container about a month back.

Dierama bee love

Megan tells me that Dierama are hot right now. The bee and me would have to agree. Sometimes called Fairy’s Fishing Rods, they fall in the same family as Crocosmia and put on quite a show.

Begonia foliosa var. miniata

Agave parryi

Agave parryi, always a fav. Slow growing, its gray spiky foliage spans to about a 30-inch diameter. Stunning accent plant, indeed.

Bromeliad fence

His Bro Fence was sweet. Ted shared with us a little trick. He uses a variety of Bromeliads to fill in holes and gaps within his garden until he finds just the right plant for that space. Since many Bros are easy to transplant and move around…they work well for his technique. Small potted plants work the same way. Brilliant.

Brugmansia & Blue Sky

Gratuitous Brugmansia and blue sky shot. It was one of those gorgeous fall days.

Plectranthus awesomus

Score! Ted dropped us a couple cuttings including a pinch of this shady loving limy Plectranthus. It’s gonna look great on our shady side.

Hey, if you get a moment, you must check out Ted’s Tree Shapers and see what makes him one of the most skilled Arborist in the Bay Area and beyond. You rock Ted!

– Far Out Flora

Marvelous Magic Garden

November 11, 2011 by Megan | 10 Comments

Viola Frey Sculpture

I’m taking a little break from my Wisconsin blog-o-rama fest (there’s only one, maybe two more left, I promise) to show you some pics of a super sweet private San Francisco garden we had the privilege of visiting back in mid-October. Right away we recognized the sculpture by Viola Frey. This amazing space was created by Aerin Moore and Christian Cobbs of Magic Gardens (their website is rad & they even have a nursery in Berkeley that I’m kind of embarrassed we haven’t visited yet). Here are a few of my favorite pics from the visit, but you can check them all out here.

Recycled wall

Aeonium 'Cyclops'

Sultry Salvia confertiflora

Succulents out front

Senecio vitalis & friends

Dreamy Euphorbia rigida

Passiflora bee party

Jim’s Courtyard Oasis

May 24, 2011 by Matti | 7 Comments

Piano and more.

Jim’s garden paradise is right in the heart of SOMA San Francisco. Many of you may not know, but that sweet Ford Edsel over at Flora Grubb? … That’s Jim’s planting too. BTW above in the pic, that’s an old piano next to the guitar.

Dancing Elephants.

It’s a small space that gets a little sun here and there and lots of reflective light in the evening. Man he has taken advantage of every single nook and cranny with design coolness and found objects.

Head and old radio.

Hanging Planters

These hanging hypertufas look well aged, almost like they were pulled right from the earth and suspended in mid air.

Funky chair

This simple solution was way to easy…wish I would have came across it sooner. Jim plunked down a colorful wooden board on an old retro chair for extra seating.

Aeoniums with bench

The day we visited it was actually raining out, so it was a challenge to get some of the photos, but the drops sure look great on these Aeoniums.

Wonder woman!

OMG, I about flipped over when we located Wonder Woman in the garden. I couldn’t find the invisible jet.

Aeonium with parking meter

Jim’s oasis is playful, eclectic, and delivers every bit of the things we love. Thanks for the tour.

- Far Out Flora

Utilitarian Franchise Garden

May 13, 2011 by Megan | 21 Comments

Our Sweet new pillows.

You never know where the garden world is going to take you. We were out and about looking at some cool indie crafts down in Hayes Valley (SF), and these awesome octopus pillows caught our eye. That’s were we met Tin of Utiltarian Franchise. Turns out that not only does Tin design the coolest pillows ever, he also is an avid gardener.

Staghorn Fern Grotto with Succulent Wall

A week later, we headed over to check it out. OMGosh, hands down…Tin’s garden is incredible. For the past two years, he has been filling every nook up and down with tons of succulents, bros and epiphytes.

Bros and succulents

Tin plays a lot with color and texture. Also without the ability to chop up the concrete, he uses a bunch of containers and vertical wall panels.

Succulent Wall.

Such as these sweet panels he made including the frames. So what does Tin do with his old serography screens when they are past their prime? He makes them into vertical walls. Man, I really wish I would have come up with that…it’s brilliant.

San Francisco in succulents.

Oh, and love the stags too. Also, <3 those hanging letters. He has collected enough letters to almost spell out San Francisco too…sans the F.

Succulent containers.

BTW as always, there are more pics of Tin’s work on our Flickr.

Big, bad A succulent panel Bromeliad Tree.

Geez, I want this succulent wall.

Bromeliad Tree.

Okay, so there’s a lot to take in at Tin’s garden…and can’t wait to head back. Wanting more info on Utilitarian Franchise designs, check out this SF Gate article. Hey Tin, we love the pillows and thanks for the tour.

– Far Our Flora