Welcome to Foliage Finder, where Curbed takes a look at public and private landscape projects around the Bay Area. Gardens will be chosen at random, but do drop us a line if you'd like to see a certain area featured.
Created to showcase designers, craftsmen, vintners, and artisans of all stripes, CornerStone Sonoma is a living gallery, with enough grasses, sedges, agaves and installation art to make San Francisco blush. These gardens were designed to host both artists and annual events, and with a gourmet restaurant, three wine tasting venues, shops, galleries, and a whole lot of top-notch design, CornerStone should be able to hold your interest for a full day. With its location at the gateway to Sonoma county, this space is the closest garden to San Francisco on Sunset's list of the top 13 to visit on the West Coast.
What's so great about this garden? Strong focus on Bay Area designers working with few restrictions in a natural setting, each of them given 1,800 square feet to do their thing. Like any gallery space, Cornerstone rotates work, so check the site to see who's currently featured.
Past designer alums include: the sublime Andy Cao who's been known to drip Swarovski crystal from metal clouds over the premises, as well as Dog Patch's own Topher Delaney whose rope spheres still roll across the Cornerstone grounds, and Brisbane's world famous John Greenlee, whose permanent Mediterranean meadow on site is still abating and actively cleansing the septic mound on which it was built. The power of plants, it boggles the mind.
· CornerStone Sonoma [Personal Site]
· Top 13 Public Gardens [Sunset Magazine]
·Designer Biographies [the Late Show Gardens]