Thorne Our Guy for Landscape

Today David and I met with David Thorne, Principal, and Hillary Curtis, Designer and ex-SF Ballerina, of David Thorne Landscape Architects. We have been working with them for months and are so giggly about our current plan for mostly ultra-local natives plus some cool graywater sculptures and eco-fencing.  Landscape is one place where we need to do what brings a sensual experience without making us feel like slaves to green.  Think we got it, but let's see how it unfolds.

Their office is at 3315 Grand Avenue - who knew such designy and hot spaces existed on tired Grand Avenue?

Lush Native Garden: Not an Oxymoron

Tonight we ate oak leaf lettuce harvested from our garden, and we were feeling rather virtuous, as if we were channeling Michael Pollan. We've been slowly waking up to the fact that we need to work on landscaping, and our idea is to be ultra-local about it. Only problem is that the "Native Plant" gardens we've seen seem rather... scruffy, to say the least.



Have no fear, a beloved patient of mine has clued me into the work of noted local master Fourth Dimension, "restoring the Earth, one garden at a time." Check it out.


So we are slowly adjusting to the scene. We are letting go of the lush Mediterrenean garden with boug, fragrant clematis and vibrant color in favor of super local plants. We got turned onto the Native Here Nursery in Tilden Park, where they sell plants that are all started from seed gathered in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. We're just trying to avoid the scruff factor.