Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Gardens at Cornerstone, Sonoma

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 approximately 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 Their website is sorely out of date and many of the gardens are not listed, unfortunately this means for most of these gardens I can’t tell you who designed the garden or what their intent was.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.

23 comments:

  1. Nice tour, it's always fun to see well-designed gardens any time of year.

    The triangle plantings look awesome and those agaves with grasses are a great looking combination too.

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    1. Lucky you could replicate the Agaves and Grasses one!

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  2. Most interesting structures in some of these gardens. The trash can arbors are different that's for sure. I love all the smaller grasses here. I also respect how you know exactly what you like and don't like and you are not afraid to so say, love that!

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    1. Thanks Darla, I've been told that's not necessarily a good personality trait.

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  3. Loree, you are killing me with your Bay Area series. ;-)

    Seriously, thanks for sharing! I like the pipe and the agaves.

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    1. You're welcome! Hope your visit is coming up soon.

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  4. Stuff like this makes me hate my life. How in the world will I get a giant metal sewage pipe into my yard as I now badly need one?

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    1. I was going to suggest a small culvert planter but I guess it isn't quite the same when you can't walk through it.

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  5. Some interesting ideas here. These gardens make metal mesh look as good as it gets and I like the Eucalyptus wall. The edible garden seems a bit bleak - I would think they'd be doing more with cold-weather greens now, or early spring crops like peas and lettuce but maybe it's actually too warm for those down there now. Very different garden options...you certainly ran the gamut of plant-oriented venues on your whirlwind tour!

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    1. I agree that it seemed odd the edible garden was so bare. No doubt there is something they could grow year round.

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  6. I've never been there, but now I have to go. Weird stuff that actually speaks to me. But as NotSoAngryRedHead said, how do you reproduce this at home?

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    1. Oh I think there are lots of ideas to be gleaned that would work well in a home garden, and then there are the pure fantasy moments.

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  7. Loree, the grass meadow is John Greenlees installation. I truly have no idea how this place stays in business..I love to go out there-it's only 20 minutes away from me , but there never seems to be anyone else around. I'm hoping they can hold on for awhile-such a unique business plan.

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    1. Interesting, I imagined it could pull a good size crowd on a sunny afternoon. Only 20 minutes away from you huh? You live in beautiful country!

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  8. Oh, I love that big pipe, how marvelous! What a great visit. Love the grasses with the rusty metal sphere too.

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    1. Isn't it funny how much people are drawn to the pipe?

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  9. As KS says, Photos 10 and 11 are John Greenlee's meadow that has been trimmed for the winter growth. The ceramic bamboo are the artworks of Marcia Donahue of Berkeley who does fantastic work. It looks lovely even in the rain.

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    1. Thanks Bracey, I do like the ceramic works of Ms Donahue.

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  10. Splendid photos of an enchanting place. Definitely has to be on my "to visit" list for next visit to DD in the Bay Area.

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    1. Enchanting is a perfect word to describe it Patricia.

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  11. Next time you come to the bay area, you need to check out the UC Berkeley Botanical Program and also the UC Santa Cruz botanical program (leucadendrons etc) gardens. The berkeley one i think must be on like 25 acres in the hills above the stadium. It is really a great place to visit.

    If you go to UC Santa Cruz, make sure to stop in at DIG Gardens, which is similar to Flora Grubb buy maybe about half the selection. But still very nice garden / living store.

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    1. The Berkeley Botanical Garden is a definite for our next Bay Area journey. The husband and I were there in 2009 and loved it, such a gorgeous place. And yes, thank you for the reminder...UC Santa Cruz looks to be Protea heaven, I've seen a few pictures others have posted and can't wait to see it myself someday. DIG Gardens...now on the list too!

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  12. The garden with the agaves was designed by James VanSweden of Oehme and VanSweden. I was there on one of the days that VanSweden was out visiting the garden and making final adjustments during planting. My only real critique of Cornerstone is the level of maintenance and care. Many of the gardens are really very careworn and weather beaten year round. They often use alot of materials that don't hold up to the sun and are not replaced in a timely manner to really show off the concepts to their fullest.

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