potrero view
Caitlin Cooreman

Caitlin Cooreman

Sculpt Gardens Inc. owner John Steuernagel tests out his custom designed bench at a clients’ work/live warehouse garden in Dogpatch.

February 2012

Hill Resident Designs Unique Garden Spaces

Keith Burbank

Vermont Street residents John and Danielle Steuernagel have a passion for gardens. Their company, Sculpt Gardens, specializes in creating landscapes that emerge as integral additions to a home. The gardens become “like another room in the house,” Danielle said. The couple’s own backyard garden features covered benches that double as a sleeping space.

Sculpt Gardens has historically attracted most of its clients from Noe Valley, but the company is increasingly in demand on Potrero Hill. A current project is located at 18 and Third streets, where a new property owner is transforming a warehouse into a residence. “The gardens become little getaways for homeowners,” Danielle said. “And the gardens are built to last forever,” John said. Besides plants, the gardens feature stone and concrete work, including benches. Many of them have a theme, such as dog- or kid-friendly. One garden Sculpt created features a water bowl formed from basalt rock for the homeowner’s dog.

Each garden requires care only twice a year, with maintenance provided by Sculpt Gardens. The gardens have low water requirements, and the company has the ability to create a zero-water garden. “Typically, the gardens have a strong Japanese influence,” John said, as well as East Coast inspirations. “But what is created depends on what the client is looking for,” Danielle said.

John was raised in New Jersey; Danielle is from Massachusetts. John’s father owned a floral shop and landscape design business in the Garden State. “John decided to go in business for himself, rather than taking over his father’s business, because he didn’t want to work seven days a week as his father did,” Danielle laughed. While site work occurs during the week, John draws plans on the weekends. The couple started Sculpt Gardens in 2003.

Most of Sculpt Garden’s customers learn about the company from word-of-mouth. But Danielle said a Yelp profile has led to some compliments about the business. For example, Gary O. in San Bruno said the garden built for him “looks better each year.” Another homeowner reported that John had the same crew with him each day, which made his family and their dog comfortable, even though the dog is nervous about strangers.

When John’s mother sold his father’s business, John got his pick of the tools, many of which he uses today, such as a truck and a bobcat. The couple wants to grow their business by taking on projects with bigger budgets, which enable clients to choose from a wider range of materials for their garden. But they also want to keep the enterprise small and specialized.

One of Sculpt Garden’s more unique projects was done for Noe Valley residents Theresa Postello and Jerry Kuns, who is blind. John drew the plans for a sensory garden, and had them printed in Braille so Jerry could read them. The garden features a river with a stone bridge that gently rocks over the water as a person walks across it. At one end of the river is a waterfall that drops into a pond, thereby producing an auditory experience. Moving rocks in the river provide additional sound. And creeping mint creates an olfactory experience.

“John’s been doing this since he grew up,” Danielle said. “He is a third generation gardener. His grandfather started a floral shop in New Jersey in the 1940s, and his dad added a successful landscape design and construction business to the flower shop.”

The couple met at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where John earned a degree in landscape design and horticulture at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture. John was employed by Landscapes by Earthcare in Amherst for three years. After moving to California, he worked as a stone mason, and later as a project supervisor for Frank & Grossman in San Francisco. “Then I decided to make the commitment,” he said, “about going into business for myself.”

Sculpt Gardens can be found at www.sculpt-gardens.com.

 

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