SF Garden Show 2011

Awards of Gold Medal Garden Creator and the California Landscape Contractors Association CLCA award culminated in a long adventure of creating a display garden for the 2011 SF Flower and Garden Show in San Mateo, CA.  Kim Leichner was one of a team of four designers including Tina Jauregui, Leslie Peluso and Corey Chetcuti.  They set out to gain exposure for the Landscape Architecture program at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA.  Beginning in Oct 2010 and ending with the build and the show in March 2011, it was an experience that exceeded their expectations. 

The completed project!   We had a lot of help from many volunteers and the professional assistance from West Bay Landscapes with Tony and crew. Drought tolerant natives of Ceanothus, Arctostaphylos, and Huechera are just a few of the plant materials along with non natives of Phormium and Arbutus 'Marina'.  A bioswale of native grasses by Delta Bluegrass is designed to assist in storm water management and flows horizontally across the space under the deck.  A small platform bridge makes it simple to transverse the bioswale from the shower area and back of the deck.  The roof is designed to maximize yield for rainwater catchment to make this garden completely self sustaining.  A covered deck serves many functions including sleeping outside and an outdoor shower partially screened by vertical living partitions of native succulent Dudleya offers cooling.  The raised planting bed hugging the deck is made from recycled steel concrete forms.  The natural rust patina adds to the ambiance. Most of the wood is reclaimed lumber from a number of sources including the demo of my own deck and Borg Fencing.  After some TLC all the redwood looked as good as new.  The rear wall and side staggered wall are faced with house siding.  Using the reverse side, the damaged siding had a new life in our project.  Since our display garden was next to the public restrooms, we designed windows into the wall for participants to see in the garden and folks in the garden to look out.  The lighting is all low voltage LEDs courtesy of SPJ Lighting. The hardscape materials are locally obtained rock products courtesy of LYNGSO.  The overall design is only 20' x 20' but seems much larger even when you are in the garden due to the use of space.  The deck is positioned on an angle and the shower partitions allowing sight lines over them helps open the space.  The horizontal lines in the walls also alludes to a larger space.   The roof line borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright and Asian elements shows homeowners they can have a beautiful pergola without a fancy and expensive router.