For gardens.. wild is more appealing than landscaped, at least in my view. I kinda love pathways that hid a bit of mystery from overhang branches to unruly plants.. kind of like Monet's garden. I enjoyed your photos thank you.
It's a shame about those ancient and unique builds that were torn for developers. Am sure that won't be the last. One thing we can appreciate here in Europe, listed builds are difficult to tear down. Even old trees need permission to be cut down. Perhaps that's why there are new towns and old towns in some cities.

One thing I noticed though in SF, because of smaller land, buildings in main cities tend to go up. In Ohio, there's so much space that buildings tend to go wide, excluding Cleveland of course. That's the main city I've only seen anyway.