This was the final plant/garden related stop on my recent whirlwind trip to the Bay Area. In case you're not familiar with the Gardens at Cornerstone they are…"a series of walk-through gardens showcasing new and innovative designs from the world’s finest landscape architects and designers. When commissioned, these artists were given the freedom to create anything from traditional gardens to modern, conceptual installations…Each designer was provided a garden parcel of approximate ly 1,800 square feet, a few practical considerations and infinite opportunity."
Unfortunately by the time we arrived I had less than 40 minutes to try and soak it all in, oh and soak I did as it was POURING. Still, after 3 days of nonstop activity, I welcomed the opportunity to see the gardens in the almost meditative and peaceful state the rain, and solitude, brought on.
I made the decision to not spend time reading the signage about each garden, figuring I could go online later and do that. I was wrong! Their website is sorely out of date and many of the gardens are not listed, unfortunately this means for most of these gardens I can't tell you who designed the garden or what their intent was.
I loved the simple sea of blooming Beshorneria in this garden, and there was the occasional mismatched bloom to break things up.
This garden is called Attention!! Potager by Scott Daigre: "A home farm feeds the soul and the senses but this one feeds the body as well! Eat your bedding plants! Eat your borders! Eat the fence or arbor cover! Design the garden of your dreams and just add veggies." Of course out of season it takes on an entirely different feel…
I thought this was an elegant solution for climbers…
Sorry didn't get the name of this one…
Or this one, but I thought the trash can arbor was pretty amazing.
Love the metal triangle border here…
…but could do without the chair and "art"…
Bia Yun (White Cloud) by Andy Cao & Xavier Perrot (in collaboration with PLACE Studio, Portland, Oregon)…I love this one but couldn't for the life of me get a decent photo of it! For another look at this garden (and the others) visit my friend Ann's wordless Wednesday post last February.
This Garden, Rise from Planet Horticulture was a fav. Of course me being me I ended up walking through the garden backwards but hey, sometimes life is better that way.
"Rise is a celebration of color, texture, diversity, light, space and life. The plantings and landform, modeled on a natural landscape, are exaggerated to enhance the sense of separation from reality. Likewise the pipe exaggerates the sense of transition from one world into another."
I believe this pond was a garden into itself. I could have stood there for hours watching the rain fall on the very blue-green water.
Eucalyptus Soliloquy by Walter Hood and Alma Dusolier "features Eucalyptus windbreaks that divide field and vineyard. Eucalyptus Soliloquy is a conversation between distant groves and a built landscape of borrowed trees, orphan leaves, branches and seeds"
In this garden (no name or designer info available) the Agaves are the stars…as it should be!
This garden had a rope across the entrance saying it was closed for the season. Still I enjoyed the lines from a distance.
This was the final garden I looked at before we had to go, it also was the one that felt the most "arty" for art's sake. I'm sure there was some deeper meaning at work there but I just thought it was interesting, especially in the rain.
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