Wave Garden, Point Richmond, CA

In the spring of 2013 I heard about a mysterious garden overlooking San Francisco Bay that features stunning concrete work and the most amazing array of plants. Called the Wave Garden, it isn’t a public garden, yet it’s open to the public. I never got around to visiting at the time but the Wave Garden had been on my mind since then.

This past Monday was President’s Day here in the U.S., one of the few public holidays we have. Nudged by a post on Loree Bohl’s fantastic site Danger Garden, I decided to take this opportunity and finally make the 1-hour drive to Point Richmond.

The owners of the Wave Garden, Jeanne and Vern Doellstedt, bought the property adjacent to their home to prevent it from being developed (and presumably from blocking their view of San Pablo Bay, the northern extension of San Francisco Bay). They decided to turn it into a collaborative space combining concrete walls and paths, metal gates and fences, and lush yet drought-tolerant plantings that provide visual interest and color year round. To top it all off, they elected to open the garden up to the public to enjoy. The result is utterly stunning and unique, as you will see in this post.

This is what the Wave Garden looks like in Google Earth:

A word on how to get there: The Wave Garden is located in Point Richmond. Coming from Sacramento on I-80, we made the mistake of following my GPS, which took us on a needlessly circuitous route. My suggestion is to stay on I-80 to El Cerrito and take the Carlson Blvd exit. Then follow the directions of your GPS to Grandview Court in Point Richmond. The Wave Garden doesn’t have a street address per se, but the entrance (see next photo) is located at the end of Grandview Court.

The entrance to the Wave Garden is fairly inconspicuous as you approach it…

…but once you see the gate and metalwork, you know this is a special place

 

The metal and concrete work combine harmoniously with the plants growing with wild abandon

Furcraea foetida ‘Mediapicta’ and Aeonium undulatum

  

Cabbage trees (Cussonia paniculata, I want one now!)

Flowering aeoniums

I love the way the fence ends

Aeonium escobarii with my traveling companion for scale

Cotyledon barbeyi?

Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Leucadendron ‘Jester’ and Cotyleton orbiculata

Close-up of Leucadendron ‘Jester’ aka ‘Safari Sunrise’. I planted a small specimen in our front yard last year.

Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Have I said that I love the textured concrete walls and walks? They meander here and there, giving the impression that the garden is larger than it actually is.

Leucadendron ‘Jester’; stunning view of San Pablo Bay and the Richmond Bridge

Huge clump of aeoniums, many of which were in bloom

Leucadendron argenteum

Echeveria elegans

I love the organic shapes of the concrete steps

Leucadendron ‘’Golden Tulip’

Leucospermum cordifolium hybrid

Leucospermum ‘Spider’

Leucospermum ‘Spider’

Seating area offering a great view of the Richmond Bridge

Ceanothus sp. and Leucadendron salignum

Ceanothus sp. and Leucadendron salignum

Leucadendron salignum

Aeoniums spilling over a wall

Aeoniums and Leucadendron salignum

The creative geniuses behind the Wave Garden are Victor Amador who did the concrete work (800 lineal feet of textured walls and paths), Robert Sharpe who provided the metal gates and fences, and Kellee Adams of dig-it landscape design who came up with the plant palette. Their combined efforts have resulted in something truly special.

(If you want to see a photo of what the Wave Garden looked like before the plants went in, click here.)

I’m obsessed with the Wave Garden and can’t wait to go back. And thanks to the vision and generosity of the Doellstedts, I can—as can anybody else.

RELATED POSTS:

In July 2013 the Wave Garden was one of the destinations on the Garden Bloggers Fling tour. Here are a few posts by fellow bloggers:

• Danger Garden
• Digging
• Garden in a City
• Piece of Eden
• The Outlaw Gardener
• Rhone Street Gardens (according to this post, the owners of the Wave Garden wanted it to be wheel-chair accessible because their son is in a wheelchair)