Kipp McMichael’s “kick-ass” succulent garden in Berkeley

I first met Kipp McMichael in May 2024 when he led a calochortus field trip for the California Horticultural Society. A web developer by profession and a naturalist at heart, his knowledge of these native bulbs with exquisite (and ephemeral) flowers is encyclopedic, However, as I have since found out, his expertise goes much further. His streetside crevice garden in Berkeley is a wonderland of succulents combined with cycads, California natives, and all manner of geophytes beyond calochortus.

Kipp’s succulent crevice garden along busy Ashby Avenue in Berkeley (March 2025)

Note: When I say “Kipp’s garden,” I’m referring to the succulent garden accessible from the street. This is not a large space, but there’s more to see here than in some gardens five times larger. Behind the house is a completely different kind of garden; I’ll show you a few photos in a separate post.

March 2025

Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach of Denver Botanic Gardens and a world-renowned expert in rock gardening, alpine plants, and arid-climate gardening, has visited Kipp’s “kick-ass” garden on several occasions. “When I punched Kipp’s address into my GPS,” Panayoti writes on his widely read blog Prairiebreak, “I was amused that [...] the APP proclaimed ‘Succulent yard’ with a five star rating. I’d give it six stars myself!”

Photo I took in March 2025

But it’s not just the plants that make Kipp’s garden so remarkable. It’s the infrastructure and the design. Many people grow succulents on mounds, but what Kipp has created is the mound to end all mounds. It’s not just a pile of soil with a few rocks thrown on top, but a complex multi-level landscape that is home to a dizzying array of plants.

Building the original mound (photo © Kipp McMichael, from his presentation for the SF Public Library)

Building the original mound (photo © Kipp McMichael, from his presentation for the SF Public Library)

When Kipp bought the house in 2010, the front yard was a level expanse of shrubs and perennials. He immediately removed the existing vegetation and brought in ten tons of rock and soil to build what he calls “Mt. Ashby,” named after the busy street in front of the house. A major overhaul in 2022 (his “Covid project”) added two feet of height to Mt. Ashby, creating more room for even more plants. Kipp also annexed the neglected sidewalk strip next door.

Kipp’s garden is featured in the book Designing the Lush Dry Garden by Cricket Riley, Alice Kitajima, and Kier Holmes, with photography by Caitlin Atkinson (see my review here)

“My garden is a product of limited space and wanting one of everything,” Kipp is quoted as saying in Designing the Lush Dry Garden. All of the beds in the front garden are mounds of varying height, which allows him to “plant more plants in less space, and many plants such as succulents look particularly nice staged in the nooks and crannies of a rocky slope.”

Panayoti Kelaidis, no stranger to this style of gardening himself, has called Kipp’s garden a “crazy cool crevice masterpiece.”

I had a chance to see Kipp’s garden for myself when Loree Bohl, the creator of the wildly popular blog danger garden, visited me in March. However, I didn’t get enough good images at the time so I never blogged about it. Loree, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem — her photo-heavy post covers Kipp’s garden pretty seamlessly.

As luck would have it, another opportunity to see Kipp’s garden presented itself this past Saturday when I was in the East Bay with my friend Kyle. Kipp was out of town, but he told me we were welcome to look around. As luck would have it, his husband Patrick drove up when we were there, and we had a nice chat.

The tree on the right is a lemon-scented gum (Corymbia citriodora), selected by Kipp’s husband Patrick. Its leaves are high in citronellal, and thanks to a good rain shower earlier on Saturday morning, the air was heavy with their fragrance.

The cable railing fence is a perfect solution to separate Mount Ashby from the sidewalk. It doesn’t block the view, but it keeps the plants safe from people and pets.

The main mound is a good 5 ft. tall. For comparison, Kyle is 6’2".

The cable railing keeps people and pets out without blocking the view

When you look at the photos below, pay attention not just to the plants, but also to the rocks. There are thousands of plants — and just as many individual rocks. In fact, the closer you look, the more you’ll come to appreciate how mind-boggling it all is. In fact, I’ve never seen a garden so densely planted and so kaleidoscopic.

Aside from the freshly fallen leaves from the corymbia tree, there were virtually no weeds. That’s no mean feat!

I could try to ID the plants in these photos, but what would be the point. Doing that would only detract from what is a joyous feast for the eyes.

Aloe barberae as tall as the house

As I was walking around, I was thinking there’s no way I can photograph all the plants in these beds so I won’t even try. And yet I took way more pictures than I realized at the time. You can skim them for a quick look-see, but if you have the time, really study them. The placing of the rocks and plants — how, where, and how far apart — is masterful. I can only imagine how much time it must have taken.

Kyle pointed out (and promptly demonstrated) how important it is in a garden this dense to have a safe path into and through the bed for weeding and maintenance.

I hadn’t really noticed at first, but there are stepping stones for just that purpose:

Mount Ashby (on the right in the next photo) is the largest and tallest mound. There’s also a smaller mound next to the front stairs, separated from the house by a retaining wall.

Notice the colors on the stairs to the front door!

Let’s focus on the bed on the left

View of the smaller mound looking towards the driveway

While not as tall as Mount Ashby, the smaller mound has an impressive slope

The rock and plant placement is just as impressive

Each vignette is worth studying

Proof I really was there (photo by Kyle Johnson)

But look, there’s more: a narrow strip between the garage and the walk up to the front door...

...a bed separating Kipp’s property from the neighbor’s...

...and the strip in front of the neighbor’s sidewalk fence. In terms of square footage, the cultivated spaces aren’t all that expansive, but there are so many plants to look at that it feels like you’re in a much larger garden.

I’m a big fan of Google Street View, and I especially appreciate being able to view photos from past years. Here are some Google Street View images from the last 15 years that vividly illustrate the evolution of Kipp’s front garden:

July 2009: the year before Kipp bought the house

May 2011: the first iteration of a succulent garden

January 2018: there’s been a lot of growth, and the house has been painted

August 2022: with Kipp’s Covid project completed, Mount Ashby (right) is noticeably taller

March 2025: pretty much what it looks like now

Kipp is an engaging speaker and has given a number of presentations over the years. Here are some that are available on YouTube:

• Calochortus of California (CNPS — Yerba Buena Chapter, 6/18/2025)
• Calochortus of California (California Horticultural Society, 3/29/2024)
• Succulent gardening (San Francisco Public Library, 6/5/2021)

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.