Pop’s Gardens’ founder and chief designer Michael Musika graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1999 with a degree in literature. He wished to see what it would be like to be a musician in a big city after growing up in rural Maryland. So he moved to San Francisco. He had a landscaping business prior to college cutting lawns, mulching, pruning, powerwashing, and painting decks and houses. So upon moving to San Francisco, since nobody was banging down his doors on account of his literature degree, he accepted work with local landscaper Terry Mulrooney. Mulrooney taught Musika Japanese pruning + planting techniques which he called “sculpting with a time factor.” Meanwhile Musika pursued a music career at night which was tiring to do while doing manual labor during the day. So he got work teaching in the San Francisco Public school system, first as a substitute, and later through a series of grants as a writing teacher, and computer lab teacher, in addition to working in various academic chess, and music related after school programs, and summer camps. By 2015 life events and spinning wheels dictated a change of scenery and upon receiving advice from his mentor, he spent the next three years traveling, spending time in Maine, Oregon, Michigan, Mexico, and Norway. He returned to San Francisco in 2018, and picked up new skills and tools in carpentry. Imbued with a new sense of curiosity and confidence, he decided to start a business with the intention of being able to serve the community, whilst continuing to create music and art in a more energetically sustainable model than the one that preceded his sojourn.
