When Brian Koch, owner of South San Francisco’s Terra Ferma Landscapes, drove through Napa during the post-harvest season, he was always struck by the sight of expired vines piled into gigantic orbs that dot the open fields. Feelings of melancholy mixed with a little regenerative inspiration stayed with him as he visited with clients in the area.
Those mounds of spent vines that ultimately get burned are part of what distinguishes the Wine Country landscape and were the inspiration for his firm’s show garden, titled Vintage California. The garden will be one of 20 on display and judged at the San Francisco Flower Garden Show in San Mateo.
The show, under new ownership this year, is the nation’s third largest and runs next Wednesday through Sunday. It focuses on connecting leading home gardeners with landscapers, designers and garden educators.
Aside from the show gardens, the event features thousands of flowers and floral designs, innovative gardening products, cooking demonstrations from Bay Area chefs and hands-on science activities for kids. It will include in-depth seminars on topics like fruit and vegetable carving and DIY wedding flowers and speakers discussing issues like drought-friendly gardening, edible gardens and sustainability.
Five members of Terra Ferma’s staff have worked on the design of their display since last December when they learned that they were selected to participate.
“The show’s been on my radar for many years and we’ve been waiting for the right time,” said Koch about making a display. “Collaboratively we felt that this was a good idea to move forward with.”
Countless hours have gone in to creating the garden from the original grapevine inspiration, and Koch and his staff are pleased with its evolution from a single vision into a layered garden experience. The display will act as an example of how their business creates detailed landscapes every day focused on a holistic approach.
The centerpiece of the garden is a vine orb, measuring approximately 12-feet in diameter and handwoven from harvested and dried grapevines. Visitors will be able to walk inside, sit, contemplate and enjoy the space, both inwardly and outwardly.
With a 682-square-feet display space, every inch and angle is maximized to help tell the story.
“This globe is a tribute to those vines and all their hard work,” Koch said.
The garden’s Vintage California theme is a play on the word vintage, harkening to the area’s older estates.
“The design is a regionally appropriate rendition of this romantic notion of what a vineyard is to many,” said John Hreno, Terra Ferma’s design studio director.
The region’s topography is replicated by the use of plants, tiered in layers and each representing the wine country’s microclimates and the plants that the region supports. From the use of cypress and California redwoods, shrubs and ferns that thrive in the fog belt, to a water feature that flows into a twisting gravel bed, each layer represents the region’s diverse ecosystem.
The rows or lines on the lowest elevation of the garden speak to the linear rows of the vineyards and other California agricultural crops.
“Our goal was to show visitors that any of these layers can be applied to your own climate,” Hreno said.
Other custom design features and materials include illuminated inverted wine bottle-concrete pavers, tight-fitting stacked stone walls using stone from regional quarries and found steel troughs cut in half to funnel water as part of the waterfall.
“Those troughs represent the way water used to be transported from higher elevations to low-lying areas,” said Koch.
Besides using California natives and other drought-tolerant and Mediterranean plants, Koch turned to found and reclaimed objects to help with the garden’s nostalgic and regenerative message.
“Even the vine orb we created was repurposed from an item that would have been burned and put back in to the soil,” said Koch. “To be resourceful requires a lot of creativity.”
The garden was built in stages outdoors and inside the firm’s Petaluma warehouse during the last three months and had to be broken down and recreated inside the Expo Hall this week. Even the woven vine globe – constructed so that it could be transported from Petaluma to San Mateo in two halves – had to be reattached once it arrived.
Great lighting and a bit of theater go into the installation of these show gardens. Associate designer Adam Nugent reflected on his own high school and college theater experience when designing the landscape.
“This is a unique thing,” he said. “The temporary nature of designing a set and the mystery of knowing you have nothing behind the walls is similar to this project, plus you’re dealing with living plants and have to support them.”
For Hreno, he is ready for Terra Firma to show of their design and building skills to create fantastical gardens.
“Part of our role as landscape designers and builders is making our clients’ dreams come true, so this is a fun experience,” he said. “Our goal is always to create tasteful, provocative and thoughtful gardens without being gratuitous.”
San Francisco Flower Garden Show
10 a.m.-7 p.m. next Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. San Mateo Event Center, 1346 Saratoga Dr, San Mateo. All show 5-day pass is $30; adult day tickets are $20. www.sfgardenshow.com
Sophia Markoulakis is a Peninsula freelance writer. E-mail OnthePeninsula@sfchronicle.com. This story appeared in the Sunday Peninsula Zone.
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