Many residents of the Richmond and Sunset districts have essentially the same backyard: a patch of brown grass and stunted shrubs on top of soil that’s almost pure beach sand. But this can be a great place for good-looking gardens, if you do it right. The Ocean Beach Bulletin’s new gardening team, Far Out Flora, are here to show you way to horticultural heaven.

We (Matti and Megan) live near Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park in our favorite neighborhood, the Outer Sunset – or as we sometimes call it, Surferberbia. We think plants are awesome and love to do interesting things with them. Succulents, bromeliads, carnivores and other unusual plants are our favorites. Both of us graduated from UW-Madison with art degrees. Matti works for an art gallery and Megan works for a home staging company. When we are not at work, we are running FarOutFlora.com. We’re originally from the great state of Wisconsin. Before transplanting to San Francisco we lived in Madison off of Willy Street. When we aren’t searching out gardens, we’re at the beach with Max our crazy border collie. He keeps us in shape going walking all over up and down the coast.

Sometimes you have to get out of the car to walk around to spot some cool gardens. Last time we were on a stroll, we headed to the Mollusk Surf Shop over on Irving and 46th Avenue. It appeared that they spruced up their containers with some sweet succulents and other funky plants.

A planter in the entranceway to Mollusk Surf Shop

Firstly, these guys all appeared to have low water needs. Probably a good choice for containers that face south. Let’s point out a couple plants. On the left side above, you can see a purple-leaved tree and a palm-like tree to the right of it. My guess for the purple one is a Cordyline australis cultivar, maybe “Purple Tower.” The other is not a palm tree, but a Cycad species. The last plant I wanna point out is the reddish-pink one popping out of the front container in the middle. That is Euphorbia tirucalli “Firesticks.” Usually this plant only comes in a green form, but there are a bunch of reddish tones that are hitting the market.

We took a few other pictures of Mollusk’s front entrance while we explored.

Love the use of color on these boards making up the containers. It appears to be a mixture of reclaimed lumber, and driftwood.

Here is another shot of the wood used. Ahh, that bench looks inviting.

You can read more by Far Out Flora at their website and can follow them on twitter. They will be contributing regularly to the Ocean Beach Bulletin.