Updated interior plus outdoor sanctuary equals turnkey Almaden Valley Home
Greenery growing up and down creates a living wall
This beautiful 2,700 square foot home includes five bedrooms and three bathrooms, including that desirable main-level guest room and nearby bathroom. The spacious flagstone patio and adjacent Trex deck both offer multiple outdoor dining and lounging spaces and an ultra-private retreat. Step down to a vast synthetic lawn, enjoy the rose garden or follow a meandering river rock and illuminated pathway among the lush garden beds. An expansive side yard offers additional room for a play structure, raised vegetable garden beds, or a secret tranquility garden. This Almaden Valley neighborhood is conveniently located with easy access to freeways, shopping, restaurants, cafes, and local parks, including the Quicksilver County Park and its miles of hiking trails. Top Almaden Valley Schools: Williams, Bret Harte, Leland. Price: $2,195,000. Where: 1195 Nikette Way, San Jose. Website: More photos at www.tswan.com. Buyers may schedule appointments directly by contacting the listing agent. Listing Agent: Compass. Therese Swan, 408-656-8240 DRE:01355719. tswan@tswan.com. Therese is consistently among the Top 100 agents in the SF Bay Area. She has also been nationally ranked in The Wall Street Journal.
One of the most popular exhibits at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art isn’t a Matisse or Warhol. It’s a living wall, a 4,400-square-foot vertical plant installation that brings a soothing forest of greenery into the museum’s urban landscape.
Its creator is David Brenner, a pioneer in the living wall movement in the United States. The San Jose native doesn’t necessarily consider himself an artist. But with a degree in horticulture sciences from Cal Poly, he’s won praise for “painting” the walls of office buildings, museums and private homes with artful plants.
To create living walls, Brenner’s Habitat Horticulture company uses a lightweight backdrop of recycled water bottles to hold plants in place, an irrigation system that keeps them nourished and designs that consider micro climate, foliage color, leaf texture, flowering times and plant interaction. Yearning for a living wall of your own? Brenner’s mini-vertical gardens — Gromeos — come ready to hang.
Q
How did you become interested in gardening?
A
My grandparents would go to Italy every summer. I was left watering their garden in Willow Glen, and the plants had this therapeutic effect on me. When I went to Cal Poly and had to choose a major, I thought, I like plants! When I got past the heavy science, I realized I loved to create spaces with plants. I was interested in all the different colors and shapes and textures — the wackier the better.
Q
How do you create a living wall?
A
A living wall grows in a medium that can be free-standing or attached to a wall. We use Growtex, a medium we developed. We use a peatlike mixture, provide the nutrients and the water. The highest wall we’ve done is about 100 feet. The sky is the limit.
Q
Vertical gardens don’t need much land. In urban areas, that must be a plus...
A
Absolutely. But another advantage is that, when the garden is elevated, we have this different connection with the plants. If you have a fern frond in a living wall, it’s like a friend you get to know. It enters your space in a different way and demands the attention I think it deserves.
Q
You also studied psychology at Cal Poly. Are gardens therapeutic?
A
Some studies show that just seeing greenery helps lower blood pressure and heart rate. (Other studies) look at how they make you more creative, your cognitive performance increases, and you can actually function better.
Q
When you get a living wall commission, is it a long process?
A
It can be, yeah. We work primarily with architects and a whole design team to understand how the system is going to be integrated into the building. How can the pipes get to it? Are we going to recirculate the water? What about the maintenance? Then you get to the fun part, which is designing the plant palette.
Q
Are there certain kinds of plants that work best in living walls?
A
There’s definitely a handful of plants on the bullet-proof list: certain philodendrons, goldfish plants, Austral Gem ferns, parlour palms. For most projects, 90 percent of the palette (is) limited to species I’ve used before with much success. With 10 percent, I experiment with new species that give each wall a unique look and feel.
Q
What’s your top tip for people who want to create their own?
A
It’s the same thing for any garden: You have to look at the environmental conditions. Light is the biggest consideration.
Q
How are your Gromeos selling?
A
We can’t build them fast enough! We had the idea to launch them before the pandemic, but once it hit, we thought, “People need them now.” I have this feeling that after this pandemic, people are going to embrace life in all forms, and plants are a big part of that.