Thursday, January 22, 2009

Great article: Washing machine irrigates backyard fountain

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Washing machine irrigates backyard fountain

Ron Sullivan, Joe Eaton
Wednesday, January 21, 2009


Standing in her Oakland garden, Andrea Hurd listens to the first house finch of the year declare his territory in the single big tree. She's designed habitat for him and other birds here, but he's not what she's talking about.

"My big push as a designer is to find that sweet spot between art and ecology," she said. "That's when the garden sings. My clients always comment on how the space makes them feel. They might not know why, but that's it."


Hurd's Mariposa Gardening & Design company will have a display garden in the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show in March. The core of her model is assembled and running in her backyard right now.


She's named it a "living fountain." It's a hanging garden of sorts, in galvanized tubs: two tiers of horticultural horsetails, yellow-striped rushes, sweet flag, lobelia and scarlet monkey flower presided over by tall papyrus, nodding imperiously in the breeze.


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