Who’s Anna?
About Anna Hillgruber Smith Clark
Anna Smith Clark is the founder of Atomic Octopus Design & Garden, a design-forward landscape studio working across residential, development, and larger-scale site projects.
Her background spans forensic anthropology, fine art, interior design, and graduate studies in documentary film, disciplines that inform a design approach grounded in observation, spatial narrative, and material intelligence. She has worked extensively in the food world and founded an early startup, experiences that sharpened her understanding of systems, logistics, and how people move through and use designed environments.
Early in her career, Anna worked with Paul Wiseman Interior Design, contributing to high-end residential projects and gaining exposure to sophisticated design processes, client collaboration, and refined material palettes. That experience continues to influence her ability to operate fluently across concept, execution, and scale.
More than three decades ago, inspired by Australian author Jackie French’s writing on self-sufficient gardens, Anna began building immersive food landscapes at home in Santa Monica. She created a small, abundant garden for her young daughter — part farm, part playground — with tomatoes, corn, Concord grapes, bananas, row crops, and rabbits. It was a living environment designed for movement, exploration, and use, and it established a lifelong interest in gardens that are both functional and expressive.
Today, Anna designs and builds landscapes that balance ecological performance with strong visual identity. She works across disciplines, building gardens, painting, photographing, and creating three-dimensional works in wire and ceramics, and documents her projects on site as they evolve through design, installation, and growth.
An open-water swimmer and long-time Bay Area resident, Anna brings a physical, elemental sensibility to her work. She is currently in the process of obtaining her California C-27 Landscape Contractor license and collaborates closely with licensed professionals on complex build projects.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Anna works with private clients, builders, and development teams to create landscapes that support beauty, durability, and long-term use.
Ask Anna: Knowledge Sharing
The Ask Anna initiative reflects the studio’s commitment to accessibility and shared learning. Each week, selected garden questions are researched and answered, with responses shared both on the website and via social platforms. Topics range from soil health and plant care to design decisions and problem-solving in real gardens.
Ask Anna is designed as a growing archive — a practical, searchable resource grounded in real experience rather than abstract theory. It reinforces the studio’s role not only as a design practice, but as a knowledge-sharing community hub.
When & How It Works?
Each week we review the questions that come in, then choose one or two to research and answer. The answers are shared in our Instagram Stories for quick tips, and added to the searchable Ask Anna archive here on the site so you (and fellow gardeners) can find them anytime. Yours might be next!
