Artist's Industrial Oasis, Bay Area Cool, With Cliff

The neighborhood:
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One of the busiest highways in America, directly adjacent.  I am traffic, hear me roar.
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The beautifully adorned cliff.  Leucadendrons with red foliage seem extremely popular in the bay area; they populated several of the Fling gardens we visited. 
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The talented gentleman who planted the cliff explained how he did it:  by hanging from a rope. Planted Agave attenuata accent the summer-gold grasses that grew there long before the garden was made.  Invasive Pampas grass in other spots on the cliff holds the stone together, thereby becoming more blessing than curse. 
Like many of the other gardens we toured on Fling,  this was an artist's garden.  The location was industrial, the vibe as hip as can be, the plants, choice.   
Protea:
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Passaflora:
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Human-made and nature-made sculptures:

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At the time of our visit, the cliff provided a deep-shade backdrop.  From it, top-lit plants jumped.      
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At twenty feet or more, lankier than I have ever seen it growing, was an Adenanthos(?? correct me, please!), with a bronzy Cordyline australis as companion.
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Beautiful trunk on that Adenanthos--the more I look at it, the more I think I'm wrong on the ID--so what is it?:
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An Agapanthus managing to bloom in its shade:
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The Cordyline was blooming as well:
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The home itself had two huge windows on the south and east sides that created frames for the garden and nearby hills.  A large workshop beneath the home for the artist resident.
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aaaaaa photo gartwo7210_zps9a3a4c6e.jpg  Calothamnus villosus (I think).  Growing in a pot, 90% smaller than my in-ground specimens. 
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Bay-area cool!
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Comments

  1. It was delightful meeting you at the fling Hoov! Great post about this garden. Seems like forever ago!

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  2. Who's the artist? I'd love to see more of the sculptures, as the two glimpses here are exactly the type of thing I'd put into my garden!

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    1. Matt Gil is the artist, see this link for more blog posts of this garden and there is a link to Matt Gil's website as well.

      Fling posts on this garden

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  3. Planted the steep slope from a rope...a much better use and outcome of rope tricks than one across town, used to mow a midwestern lawn! You're right, the timing of our visit with sun on plants and shadow on cliff behind it all, was perfect. A stunning way to visually distract from all the overhead traffic, without a fountain to do it.

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    1. No water feature save the Pacific ocean could have drowned out that traffic roar. The visuals certainly helped us forget it was there!

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    2. It was beautiful; I was surprised the light was so good despite it being nearly high noon, the worst time of day for photos.

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  4. Absolutely fantastic! This is one garden I would have loved to see. It's living testimony to what can be accomplished when one has a vision and determination.

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    1. Gerhard it was very nice to have met you, however briefly, at the Ruth Bancroft garden! It was indeed a great achievement to have built such a beautiful garden in such an unpromising location.

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  5. It's kind of a relief to discover that you're not 100% sure on the IDs, even though you're a California gardener. The Fling gardens had a steep learning curve for me. I love the trunk on that tree, I hope you get a positive ID.

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    1. There are more plants out there than we can imagine! It did look like Adenanthos, only it was so much taller than I would expect, most listings say 10' in height--that one must have been 20' at least, don't you think?

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  6. I also thought that tall beauty was Adenanthos. I'll look forward to hearing if others agree or disagree...

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    1. Yes, it's just the height that's got me puzzled.

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  7. Great pictures!

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  8. Thank you for the great photos and writing about our garden. I love the close-up shots. It was a pleasure to meet all you Garden Bloggers!

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    1. Your garden was the favorite of many, thank you so much for letting us visit. We loved it.

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