Did Vertical Gardening Start During The Gold Rush?

I ’m no garden story expert , but I ’d be willing to bet that vertical gardening , the current rage , started in San Francisco in the middle of the 19th century . At least it look that way from where I was standing .

petty did the Gold Rush - earned run average skimmer roll in the hay that the stone they were blasting and hauling off as ballast for their ships would someday affirm a robust tapis of lucullan works smothering the sheer , stony cliffside of Telegraph Hill .

Before all those gobs of rock were absent , water lapped at the base of a gently sloping hillside inhabited by grazing goat ( serious name for a band ) . It ’s guide a 100 and a half to revegetate the waste , jaggy rock face , but the results are impressive , as I witnessed on a recent tripper to The City ( that ’s what cool people call it ) .

Lin and I were in San Francisco have in the Post - Impressionist show at the DeYoung Museum , and visiting our son , Cosmo , who ’s living the life of a poet , misrepresent on a gourmet Vietnamese lunch truck and finishing college .

We rose early , ate a power breakfast with the kid and channelise for the waterfront . “ Oh heart , be still ! ” I gasp . “ I ’ve found unexpected devoid parking on a side street in the commercial-grade depths of the Embarcadero , just a few blocks from our terminus , Filbert Steps . ” ( I tend to mouth that way when I ’m excited . )

The eastern typeface of Telegraph Hill looked angry and inaccessible , like El Capitan rising from the story of Yosemite Valley . The careen face cascade down with ribbons of green , framed by the shimmering golden leaf of poplar Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Fortunately , we were n’t going to need a Sherpa or oxygen masquerade to climb up our assault – we ’d hoof it a couple of blocks to the Filbert Steps and take the more polite route .

Aeonium . Photo / Illustration : Billy Goodnick

Technically , the steps are an extension of Filbert Street , but there ’s no way up or down except on foot . The first leg of the near - vertical raise starts with a few well - organise trajectory of steel and concrete step . On the mode up , temerarious clump of Aeonium adhere to crag in the rock music face . These non - native self-seeker are well adapted to thrive in no more than a stomach - buttonful of soil .

Photo / Illustration : Billy Goodnick

About 80 base up , the concrete stairs give way to flying after flight of narrow wood steps and landings , wrap in a umbrageous woodland of tree diagram , and carpeted with an understory of fern , vines and surprising whatevers . It ’s a hodge - podge because every fifty feet or so , you ’re stand up in front of someone ’s house . You see , Filbert is a residential “ street ” connecting hillside house of every expressive style , with garden to check .

Living along the Filbert Steps must be a challenge . I ’d be sleepless hoping that I outlive all my major appliances . ( Last time we were here , a platoon of landscape laborers were schlepping 5 - gallon plastic bucket of dirt down 100 of whole tone to their hand truck parked on the street . They could have used these buff beau at Machu Pichu . )

This beautifully cared for two - story prim wakens to a wholesale survey of the San Francisco Bay , catching the sunup over the Berkeley hills . The garden is wild , a mash - up of skirt of paradise , aloe and plausibly anything the proprietor ’s Friend had too many of . A massivePyracanthaof tree - like proportions gift a touchstone of privacy from step trekkers .

This finely crafted logic gate had a touch of New Orleans , leading to a round-eyed path of gravel and stepping - stones . founder the abruptness of the hillside and potential for tempest runnel - off in this sphere , it ’s heartening to see smart mass installing permeable surfaces .

Amid the quaint , classic wood homes are sprinkling of more present-day residences . Mid-20th - century glass block and stucco marry nicely in this front yard ’s Japanesque garden motive . Ferns , lily turf and bamboo play well with the cool gray slate accounting entry , beach pebble and little granite rocks .

Silver leaf princess flower . Photo / Illustration : Billy Goodnick

I plantedTibouchina heteromalla(silver leaf princess heyday ) in my garden in Santa Barbara a few yr back . It did alright in morning luminosity , but needed more water than I cared to shower . It brood . But repel a few hundred mile north and everything changes – NorCal get more natural rainfall and the ice chest temperatures allowed this mega - bush to thrive in full Lord’s Day , producing generous splashes of luscious imperial blooms . Bonus point for the view of the Bay Bridge .

Fuchsia , another plant that ask round - the - clock life story support where I live , had no bother thriving on the hillside . I spied it skipping about , stretching over fence , slathered on walls , and winking at me to get up near and personal . tantalizing , but I ’m a married valet de chambre .

Cut - leaf Japanese maple . Photo / Illustration : Billy Goodnick

“ My name is Billy and I ’m a chocoholic . ” Though I ’d rather have it unthaw in my mouth ( not in my hands ) , I jazz umber in the garden , too . The dark end - of - time of year leaves of a edit - leaf Japanese maple , sandwiched between New Zealand flax ( Phormium metal money ) made my mouth water . The light commons palisade it increase the contrast .

Everywhere I wait Telegraph Hill was being have got back with walls and terrace dotted with vignette of naturalized foliation plant . This one looks like the serendipitous result of random plantings , good instincts and benign neglect .

A similar planting looked middling new , yet it has an equally natural , unintentional sense about it . flora seep over the rock like slowly - moving taffy . The optic - popper is the variegated foliage ofLamium maculatum ‘ White Nancy ’ , summate play to the common .

Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Hill. Photo/Illustration: Billy Goodnick

Coit Tower . Photo / Illustration : Billy Goodnick

The air temperature was warm as we emerged from the easy - dappled understory . Coit Tower – built in 1934 , and the website of the first West Coast telegraph cable television announce the arrival ships from the Pacific – beckon us further up the hill . We preferred descending back through the verdure to take more picture .

Despite cut the climb a little short , I was rewarded with this last thought of the Coit Tower and a touch modality of fall color , courtesy of Montgomery Street ’s tulip Tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ) .

Aeonium

Aeonium. Photo/Illustration: Billy Goodnick

If you ’re up San Francisco way , treat yourself to a pulse - pounding climb made all the more gratifying by the placidity of near - upright horticulture at its best .

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