Meet our founder: Mathew McGrath
With a background in fine arts, Berkeley based artist Mathew McGrath's path to garden design and horticulture came via a keen interest in nature and abstract art. As a volunteer at the San Francisco Botanical gardens, he discovered the diverse range of plant material available to Bay area gardeners. After several fruitful apprenticeships with area garden designers, Mr. McGrath struck out on his own as Farallon Gardens in 2003. "I like to consider myself an artist working with plants. Designing and cultivating living works of art, always in motion yet standing still like kinetic living paintings." Mathew has traveled extensively to far corners of the globe to witness and study plants in habitat as well as cultivated landscapes. Mr. McGrath continues to create abstract art in the form of found object assemblage and collage. His work can be seen here.
David Neumaier
David joined our team in early 2021 as a dedicated maintenance gardener and has now advanced to lead the maintenance team, specializing in essential areas such as irrigation and lighting while also contributing significantly to project design and implementation. Hailing from the great state of Ohio, David developed an interest in plants at a very young age. With true zonal denial David grew tropicals such as bananas, palms and bamboo only to dig them up every winter and store them in his basement until warmer weather returned. David is not only a skilled horticulturist but also an emerging garden designer with a creative vision. We are truly pleased to have him as an integral part of the Farallon team and have complete confidence in his attentive care for our gardens.