Landscape

Nearly twenty years ago, owner Charles Anderson started GROW design+build in Santa Cruz by creating a 3/4 are organic farm and event space for a country French restaurant in Soquel, CA.  After honing his design skills while earning a Master of Architecture degree at California College of the Arts, Charles turned to landscape design, fabrication and installation.  In the ensuing years, GROW design+build has created unique and thriving ecosystems throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for both residential and commercial clients.  The landscapes we design are modeled on the stunning natural landscapes all around us on the Central California coast.

We have designed and built landscapes ranging in size from a 3 acre organic farm for JOBIE headquarters in Bonny Doon, to a hanging raingutter garden for Local 123 in Berkeley.  From Marin to Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Oakland, we have built thriving landscapes in forested hillsides and beach sand dunes, and every micro-climate in-between.  We have learned that plants love to grow in our home here in the Bay Area.  Our landscapes are designed to provide visual interest year-round by integrating annuals and perennials and a mix of edible and ornamental species.

We source the plant material we use from nurseries from Watsonville to Sonoma and use a broad range of California native and drought tolerant species.  We have experience designing and installing native, no-mow, drought-tolerant lawns, xeriscape succulent gardens, organic kitchen gardens, and grey-water gardens.  We created vertical gardens for Local 123 in Berkeley, L’Atalier Salon and Spa in Santa Cruz, and our photos of dahlias line the walls of Park Smile in the Inner Sunset of San Francisco.

Each landscape starts with a comprehensive drainage plan and includes a low-water drip irrigation system.  The key to each design is understanding each unique micro-climate and integrating irrigation, drainage and plant lists into each landscape from the beginning.

The photos to the right were all taken in the spaces we created, each landscape we create is filled with these vignettes of color, texture and light…