Second Nature Company Profile

s president and founder of Second Nature Environments, Matt Wilson has creativity and design sense in quantities that ought to require a license. No project is too daunting, too technically challenging for this magician. Matt was always inspired, but more importantly for anyone engaging Second Nature, after so many spectacular projects, Matt has the skill and know-how for all kinds of inventive, unique designs. This sets him apart from most landscape designers and contractors, who may be able to imagine, but have little in-the-field-experience to make it reality. If you have big dreams for your property, don't mess around; call Second Nature. They can make your wildest dreams come true.

Better Than the Real Thing
Second Nature specializes in several areas of landscaping, but a large portion of their projects include rocks. Rocks come in all shapes, sizes, colors and have a wide variety of utility. When creatively applied, they can create breathtaking scenes in a backyard, garden, or pool setting. We've all seen the gorgeous rock that enlivens an outdoor setting or vacation resort environment, but what many people do not realize is that those boulders and stones, sometimes even what appear to be trees, are often concrete. Concrete features can be entirely convincing facades, looking, feeling, and acting exactly like actual rock.

The benefits of using concrete rock in place of real rock are many. At the risk of over-simplifying things, it must be pointed out that real rock is heavy. A single rock, just big enough to sit upon, can weigh more than a thousand pounds! Placing it in your yard could require a flatbed truck to haul it, a crane to move it, and a day's worth of effort to place it. In contrast, fabricated rock is easily created on site, does not require the use of heavy equipment, and is frankly more versatile than the real thing. Also, whenever a real rock or boulder is used, it must be harvested from a setting that presumably would be better off with said boulder, than without. See the stunning pictures of Second Nature's miraculous faux rock work on this Dashboard, or on their Web site (see address under the Capabilities Scorecard button).

What Matt Wilson and Second Nature do better than anyone else is bring grandeur and excitement to properties across the Bay Area, competently and beautifully. Matt has the two essential ingredients to make grand and exciting things happen for you. He's a contractor that discovered, after he'd paid his dues in the trade, that he is also an artist. The order in which these two elements came into play is critical to his success with Second Nature, Matt feels. After all, it's no good to have lofty goals if attaining them is impossible or will create endless permitting and inspection nightmares.

Planning is Everything
Second Nature has a relatively intense program of preparation and introduction for prospective clients. Matt Wilson carefully explains his specialties; particularly complete landscape architectural plans (including 3-D one- and-one-half-inch scale models, where appropriate), and design and construction of artificial rock features.

Critically, Second Nature obtains structural engineering plans, based on Matt's comprehensive design, before beginning the permit application process. The order in which these things are produced is important; often permits are obtained before structural engineering is obtained, necessitating new permits, new plans, or delays. Moreover, it's important to Matt that he talk with his clients to determine what's in their heads. He has a 4-page questionnaire that is specifically designed to be thought provoking for the client, and informative for Second Nature. A customer's lifestyle, motivations, temperament and expectations are taken very seriously and factor into Matt's creative process.

Whatever you've always dreamed of having in your outdoor living environment, Matt Wilson can make it happen; it's like second nature to him.


---Genevieve Albers
Staff Writer
The Prime Buyer's Report