Terremoto: A project that delicately oscillates between garden-making and ecological restoration. To begin, we source seeds from just down the bluff, and once germinated, move them to a makeshift greenhouse on site. Bit by bit, we infringe on the domain of the invasive, tenacious grasses populating the land. In the areas we don’t plant, we intervene with purposeful restraint. A walkway hovers over a sensitive wetland, its zig-zagging geometry an ode to Japanese boardwalks, whose steps and angles vow to confuse any demons that might attempt to reach the door. Hulking bluestone slabs form steps down to the stone patio below the cantilevered portion of the house, the soil above held back by a dry-stacked stone wall.
Collaboration is paramount in every part of the project. Our client is committed to reintroducing native plants while leaving room for some fruit trees, and the team at Watershed Nursery has a seed bank from next door that we can pull from to grow what we need. We spend days laying out hundreds of tiny seedlings to be planted: Viola adunca, Stachys rigida, Lasthenia californica. Our landscape contractor has intimate knowledge of growing locally native plants and the intuition and initiative to navigate site drainage, maneuvering massive stone slabs along steep slopes, and crafting statuesque timber benches from felled trees with only a sketch as guidance. The architecture floats above, its monolithic form contrasting in the most lovely way with our soft locally native palette. We ask water to move around this new imposition, meeting the friction of boulders and rushes before settling into the sandy strata below. The graphic quality of built elements makes clear the human hand in all of it, while the earthwork and planting conspire to negate the same.
Landscape architecture: Terremoto
Architecture office involved: Alchemy Architects
Photo credits: Rio Asch Phoenix
Other credits: Landscape Construction by Akita Landscape
Project location: Fort Ross, California
Published on September 25, 2026
