Background

Julie, much like her passion, is a California native - born and raised in the Bay Area. After graduating from San Jose State with a degree in Art, she went on to complete her A.A. in Ornamental Horticulture from Foothill College in 2005. Throughout her studies she worked at Yerba Buena Nursery, Middlebrook Gardens and other Bay Area plant-related businesses, where she developed her passion for native plants. 

With a move to San Francisco in 2005 she started concentrating full-time on designing, installing and maintaining residential and estate gardens and growing organic vegetables in urban and suburban settings. She has since developed a love of floral arrangement and has created designs for a number of clients and a variety of events.

 Outside of working in and studying horticulture, Sue is also a teacher of Ayengar yoga, bringing her knowledge to the garden in the form of ergonomics and self-care principals. She also enjoyed a long career in search engine technology, before getting her start in gardening with the irrigation challenges of the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Sue is an active member of many horticultural organizations and committees, and is also our plant disease, pathogen and pest expert, enjoying sleuthing for organic remedies online. 

Aviva grew up on an island in Washington state where she spent much of her time in the trees and learning about nature. She first moved to the Bay Area in 2016 for an urban farming program in Berkeley where gardening started to become a real interest for her. Since then she has worked in tons of residential gardens around the Bay Area and familiarized herself with the local plants. Outside of gardening she loves to pick up hobbies like knitting, quilting, cooking and making a nice cuppa tea!

Originally from North Carolina, Brenna started her gardening career farming organic vegetables, and eventually managing nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. She is passionate about creating sustainable, ecologically integrated garden spaces that mimic the native landscape. When not in the garden, Brenna can be found foraging mushrooms or hanging out with the sheep at Hidden Villa Farm, where she lives with her partner and cat, Mouse.

Ian is a San Francisco Native, and his interest in gardening started while growing up in his grandparent’s house in the Excelsior district. Living close to McLaren park and having so many green-spaces around helped to grow his love for plants and animals early on. 

After gaining some background in digital media, Ian focused his studies on horticulture and graduated from CCSF’s Environmental Horticulture program with associates degrees in Landscape Horticulture and Greenhouse Operation. Ian has worked over 5 years in professional horticulture and caring for plants is one of his biggest passions. Other longtime passions include playing Bass Guitar and dabbling in audio production. 

Gabriella lives close to Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park, a native San Franciscan, and a first-generation Italian American. She is an avid gardener, as well as a museum professional while concurrently pursuing a degree in Horticulture and Landscape Design at CCSF. 

Her background is in the arts, and she lived in Emilia Romagna as an Arts Educator for nearly a decade as well working at Italian museums. Her undergraduate degree is in Art History and Visual Culture from UCSC and a master’s in museum studies from JFKU. She has local experience working in Bay Area museums like the Asian Art Museum, SFMOMA, and the Children’s Creative Museum. In addition, she is currently the Director of Artists in the Schools at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station. 

Gabriella actively volunteers at the SF Japanese Tea Garden and the SF Botanical Garden where is she also a member.

Ron grew up in Southern California, but has lived in the Bay Area for more than 25 years. Recently, he left a job in the Travel industry working as an IT support specialist to pursue a new career in landscape design and maintenance. Travel continues to be a passion of his, and he has taken trips around the world to visit amusement parks and to ride unique and exciting roller coasters - another passion. He swims with the Tsunami Synchronized swim team, and often does volunteer gardening at Tunnel Top Park. He is currently enrolled at City College of San Francisco working on a degree in Environmental Horticulture. As a member of the California Native Plant Society, Ron is committed to incorporating native plants into his garden designs whenever possible. Native plants attract native pollinators, and our urban landscapes benefit from having both.

Our collection of Bay Area natives is added to by Bob, who also has farmers on both sides of his family. Graduating from Oregon State University, Bob then studied Horticulture and Landscape Design at Foothill College. He has worked at the Redwood City Nursery and also runs his own landscape design business. Bob loves being outside in beautiful gardens after working inside jobs in corporate America. Bob is also an accomplished tenor and musician, performing around the Bay Area.

The non-gardener of our group, Ali is in charge of all the 'back-end' work including client communications, invoicing, project management, scheduling, and all things web related. He's probably the first person you'll talk to when you contact us and is the best resource for getting you talking to the right person for your inquiry.

Ali has a degree in Electrical Engineering and spent two decades doing the 'start-up thing' before settling down to raise a family and help organize our group of gardeners.

He enjoys reading, cooking, board and card games and the opera.