Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Select Tour #1 [ FULL ]

Meet the Designers: Rick Alatorre, Al Kyte, and Kelly Marshall
Saturday, April 12, 2008; 9:30 – 3:00
Orinda, Moraga, and Concord gardens
Fee: $30.

This Select Tour features gardens created by three different designers; you’ll enjoy hearing about their different approaches and perspectives to creating attractive, low maintenance, water-conserving gardens.

You’ll meet at Al Kyte’s garden in Moraga. This lovely, low-maintenance garden provides great habitat for people and wildlife alike. In the front garden a sun-dappled bower of vine maples create an inviting garden entrance, welcoming visitors who wish to wander among the half-dozen species of manzanitas that keep the front garden green throughout the year. In the back garden, a twenty-five-foot long stream, with off-set pools, a meander, and a bird beach, spills into a pond. Established native plants (more than 80 species of natives are found in this garden) receive no summer water. Al will discuss how Japanese design concepts shaped the design of this garden. You’ll learn about gardening for wildlife, also. Bird houses and baths, suet and seed bird feeders, the bird beach adjacent to the stream, and the sound of falling water has attracted over thirty species of birds, including tanagers, which hadn't been seen before water began splashing its way over the rocks and toward the pond. Thoughtfully placed brush piles attract western fence and alligator lizards. Sharp-tailed snakes reside in the garden, and gopher snakes pass through.

A ten-minute drive will take you to Lois Reynolds’and Terry Mead’s garden in Orinda, where designer Rick Alatorre, of Alatorre Garden Design, will lead a tour. The side and back gardens, once “cement, dirt, weeds, and a hodge-podge of exotics” where Lois and Terry “hardly ever went” have been transformed into a tranquil haven adorned with Lois’ handmade mosiac tiles, her father’s lithograph press (now used as garden art), and a pair of beautiful wrought iron plant-motif gates. A series of berms that mimic the surrounding rolling hillsides and raised island beds are planted with drought-resistant natives from the chaparral and woodland plant communities. Mexican Feather Stone was used to create the patio, which is planted with sea thrift and eye-brow grass. Shrubs of varying heights and bowls of water scattered throughout the garden provide food, shelter, and nesting areas for birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. Plants are allowed to go to seed, which the birds love—more than 30 species of birds, including great horned owls, Cooper’s and red-shouldered hawks, California quail, Nuttall’s woodpeckers, black-headed grosbeaks, and white-tailed kites, have been seen in, or above, this garden. Pacific tree frogs, salamanders, lizards, and garter and sharp-tailed snakes call the garden home.

The last stop, Roy and Rosadelia Detwiler’s garden in Concord, was designed by Kelly Marshall, of Kelly Marshall Garden Design. After enjoying your brown bag lunch in the Detwiler’s beautiful and serene back garden, Kelly will take you on a tour. When the Detwilers, inspired by the gardens on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, decided to make changes to their garden they hired Kelly. Kelly, undaunted by the existing tired Japanese garden and struggling lawn (don’t miss the “before” photos!), unleashed her considerable creative powers. The resulting vibrant, unrepressed garden not only brims with color, but it also features two ponds (one with a waterfall) and a bog, which feed into each other through an artful series of channels cut through the flagstone paths separating them. Numerous seating areas are strategically scattered about; settle into one of them—you’ll want to linger in this lovely, tranquil haven. Every inch of this compact, sunny garden is used to best advantage; note how the curves and subtle changes in elevation create the illusion of more space. This garden was designed to attract butterflies; plants that support both the caterpillar and winged stages of the butterfly lifecycle were chosen. When the pond was installed Pacific chorus frogs found it on their own; look for the tadpoles in the pond. Finches, wrens, doves, and hummingbirds frequent the garden. The bog attracts flocks of robins, which frolic happily in the shallow water. Hawks, drawn by all of the bird action below, keep a watchful eye on this garden.

Select Tour #2 [ FULL ]

Meet the Do-It-Yourselfers: Kevin Callahan, Cheryl Chi and Brandon Young, Christine Meuris, and Christine Erskine
Sunday, April 13, 2008; 9:30 – 3:30
San Leandro, Oakland, and Berkeley gardens
Fee: $30.

On this tour of four small gardens you’ll hear about the lessons learned by do-it-your-selfers. Go ahead, ask about: how lawns were removed and plants chosen; which reference books were most useful; irrigation; the costs of materials, and where they were bought; how these homeowners proceeded with the design and installation; garden maintenance; and about the ups and downs of installing a native garden on your own. (Please note that at three of the four gardens on this Select Tour you will be seeing either the front or back garden; but not both.)

Kevin Callahan’s vibrant native plant garden in San Leandro was designed and installed by Kevin. The front was planted in January of 2003, and the back was planted later. Kevin’s goals were to eliminate the use of pesticides, conserve water, have color in the garden, and provide habitat for wildlife. He is justifiably proud of having converted the garden from an “ecological desert to a garden that provides wildlife habitat.” The front garden, formerly over-run by crab-grass and “pom-pom poodly bushes” now contains gracefully curving beds that give the garden a natural look. Ask Kevin how he removed the lawn, laid out the design for the garden, and selected the plants. (This garden contains 95% natives.) A pleasing array of local natives, and also natives from throughout California, were chosen. There is zero lawn in front (it was pulled up), and reduced lawn in the back. Hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, newts, jays, mockingbirds, and beneficial insects frequent this drought-tolerant garden, which is planted with great wildlife plants such as oaks, coffeeberry, toyon, manzanita, ribes, buckwheats, milkweed, coneflowers, native grasses, and more.

After the 3 minute drive to Cheryl Chi and Brandon Young’s (also in San Leandro) you’ll tour their 600 square foot front garden, which was installed in September of 2006. Inspired by the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, Cheryl and Brandon visited other gardens that Rick Alatorre, of Alatorre Garden Design, had created, then hired Rick to design their garden, and to purchase their plants. Cheryl and Brandon, hardy do-it-your-selfers that they are, did the rest—removing the rocks and junipers in their existing so-70’s front garden, laying down cardboard covered by mulch (to discourage weeds), bringing in soil to make low berms, setting the Three Rivers flagstone in sand, and planting the garden themselves. This small, simple garden is drought-tolerant, low maintenance, 99% native, and was fairly inexpensive. (If a lot of work to install!) The purples of the penstamen, seaside daisy, sage, and native flax contrast nicely with the yellow tar plant, orange monkeyflowers and columbines, and the pinks of the currrent and rosy buckwheat. California lilac and manzanita provide structure and greenery throughout the year. Neighbors love this garden!

It is a 15 minute drive to Christine Erskine’s garden in Oakland; when the whole group has arrived you’ll walk 5 minutes to Dimond Park and have your brown bag lunch there. (Be sure to pack a lunch, as there won’t be time to pick one up on the way.) After finishing lunch the group will return to Christine’s house and tour her front garden. This small, charming garden, designed and installed by Christine, was created from a former tangle of blackberry, ivy, box hedges and camellias. Millions of green waste bins later these plants have been replaced by low terraces planted with natives and herbs, and separated by recycled cement, sandstone, schist, and cobblestones. See what can be accomplished in a series of small spaces! In October of 2006 Christine and her husband tore out their lawn and replaced it with a native bunchgrass meadow, which contains more than thirty species of California natives, including grasses, rushes, coneflower, coral bells, sage, and wildflowers. Since removing the weeds and switching to natives Christine has seen “more life in the garden.” Lady bug larvae climb happily about, gold finches drop by, and butterflies are frequent visitors. Carpenter bees, honey bees, yellow-faced bumble bees, and some hovering flies that pollinate the smaller flowers are frequently seen. Cooper’s hawks roost on the tall trees nearby. Food for wildlife is provided by nectar plants, shelter provided by the diversity of plants and plant heights, and water in the bird bath and adjacent creek. In the rainy months, the ensatina salamander can be seen. Avian visitors include black phoebes, chestnut-backed chickadees, titmice, cedar waxwings, hummingbirds, and goldfinches.

The final 15 minute drive will bring you to Christine Meuris’ garden in Berkeley, which was planted in 2003. The design for this intimate, charming, and child-friendly 900 square foot back garden was inspired by the majestic buckeye that set the theme for this shady oasis. The airy gazebo, with its intriguing and attractive salvaged windows, welcoming hammock (nestled in a corner and surrounded by waving bunchgrasses and flowering currant), and child’s swing attest to the use this garden receives. The existing cement path was broken out and re-used to make raised beds that improved poor drainage. (Additional cement was collected from construction projects.) The reduced lawn allows more space for graceful paths that lead one through the garden. The glossy green leaves of the creeping California wild lilac make a beautiful ground-cover. Ceanothus “Ray Hartman” and elderberry create a living screen between the garden and adjacent park. The garden is mulched to reduce weeds; those that get through are pulled by hand. Swallowtail and painted lady butterflies, hummingbirds, finches, juncos, towees, and woodpeckers are attracted to the native grape and elderberries, the flowers on the buckeye, and the groundcovers, shrubs, and trees of varying heights.

Select Tour #3 [ PAST ]

Meet the Designer: Pete Veilleux, of East Bay Wilds
Saturday, April 26, 2008; 9:30 – 3:00
Oakland and Berkeley
Fee: $30.

Pete Veilluex, of East Bay Wilds, will lead this tour of two Oakland gardens he designed, and a Berkeley garden designed by David Bigham, which Pete maintains.

The Tour will begin at Zina Mirsky’s garden in the Oakland hills. Located in a small development surrounded on three sides by Chabot Regional Park, the garden was a typical 1960s landscape of camellia with a lot of concrete. At that time the yard was oddly divided into an upper yard and a lower yard; the latter being a virtual no-mans-land, as there was no access to over one-third of the property.

The redesigned landscape facilitates easy access to all of the property; a very large deck and a large concrete patio were removed, as was a section of the steep bank, in order to provide easy access to the lower yard. Wood from the former deck was re-used to build a smaller, much more user-friendly deck for the jacuzzi—which was relocated. All of the concrete from the patio was re-used as stepping stones; they now make a comfortable path which circles through the previously inaccessible lower section of the garden. Large, thick sandstone slabs were used for patios and numerous pathways through the upper sections of the garden.

Brought into Zina’s garden are many plant species which are naturally found in neighboring Chabot Regional Park, such as madrones, California bay laurel, coffeeberries, deerweed, Phacelias, California hazelnut, ninebark, coastal wood ferns, coast silktassle, and California honeysuckle. Also incorporated are a range of beautiful species appropriate for the location, but from different regions of California, such as flannelbush, bush anemone, and even a vine maple. The front door has a small cut-out bed where a buckeye with an under story of local sedges and shade wildflowers was planted. The buckeye is growing quickly and will eventually help to create an inviting entrance the home. Several comfortable seating areas (note the drift-lumber benches) were placed throughout the garden. The mature, non-native trees which were left were under planted with an assortment of local native woodland species. Many native grasses, re-seeding annuals, drought-tolerant shade plants, and shorter chapparal species will help to maintain the limited view of the surrounding parklands. Other trees and shrubs were planted in order to provide privacy screens and to frame the limited views. The plants incorporated into this garden attract wildlife, which the owner enjoys tracking. You can see images of this landscape here. And some before, during and after photos here.

From Zina’s you’ll drive about 15 minutes to Diane Fagan’s garden.

Select Tour #4 [ PAST ]

Gourmet Bike Tour of Two Spectacular Gardens
Sunday, April 27, 2008; 9:30 – 3:30
Walnut Creek and Lafayette gardens. 11 mile round trip bike ride. One moderate hill.
PLEASE NOTE: Bring your bike and water; helmets required. (Non-bicyclists can drive between the gardens.)
Fee: $50.

Jeff Jerge, owner of The Pedaler in El Sobrante—whose own garden in Pinole will be open on the Sunday, May 4, Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour—will lead this bike tour of two spectacular Walnut Creek and Lafayette gardens.

We’ll meet at Judy Adler’s in Walnut Creek and enjoy coffee, tea, juice, and pastries before touring this half-acre garden, which embodies the principles of LifeGarden, a nonprofit cofounded by Judy created to promote sustainable land use and ecology education. Judy’s garden, part farm, part wildlife habitat, and part serene resting place, is an Eden of California natives, Mediterranean plants, fruit trees, and herbs. While approaching the house, note the manzanita hedge bordering the driveway; once in the garden you’ll appreciate the collection of natives near the pond. More than 350 species of plants are included in this garden, though there was not a plant on the site when the house was built. Bring your composting questions and ask Judy, an avid composter, how she does it. Native plants invite wildlife into the garden, where they pollinate more than 30 species of fruit trees and accompanying herbs, berries and nuts. On the wildlife front, the manzanita hedge provides shelter for a flock of quail. Woodpeckers, flickers, yellow-rumped warblers, bush tits, Bewick’s wrens, and black-headed phoebes are some of the winged inhabitants Judy has seen. Brush piles are created here and there to provide shelter for wildlife, and, later, excellent mulch.

After tearing yourselves away from Judy’s garden you’ll set off on a 5.5 mile bike ride to Gail Giffen’s garden in Lafayette. This should take about 45 minutes each way; 11 miles round trip. About half of the ride will be on a multi-use bike path; the other half will be on city streets. One stretch will bring the group down busy Geary, but once we’re past that the ride will be quite pleasant. There is one moderate hill on the return ride. Helmets are required; bring water.

After enjoying a Mexican lunch (cooked by Gail’s husband, Chris! vegetarian and omnivore options available), you’ll tour the garden with designer Michael Thilgen, of Four Dimensions Landscape Company. Gail’s garden, designed and built by Michael and the team at Four Dimensions, in collaboration with building architect Reed Robbins, began as a barren piece of land. Today, this expansive garden abounds with secret spaces, hosts well known artist's work, and is home to a flock of chickens who function as living art, wandering freely throughout the site. Gail’s garden demonstrates how architecture and nature can work in harmony together. Near the house, Mediterranean plants dominate in arrangements designed on a formal grid. Around the perimeters of the property large oaks shade an under story of native plants, and provide a transition from the formality of the core garden to a place of the wild. Expect the unexpected! A giraffe greets visitors near the gardens’ entrance; a mother and child grasshopper pair nestle in the oval-shaped lawn; the large copper cauldron pond is surrounded by native sedges and an accompanying assortment of finely crafted insects. Expect nudity, too! Throughout the garden are lovely sculptures of people kissing, bent over a stream of flowing water, reclining on the lawn, and resting on the diving board, in this world away from the bustle of urban life. This garden has been featured in Fine Gardening Magazine, Today’s Home Magazine, and the Front Yard Idea Book. Numerous bird feeders and the delightful sound of falling water, heard throughout the garden courtesy of the three fountains, attracts birds and soothes people.

Select Tour #5 [ PAST ]

Meet the Designer: Glen Schneider—The Joys of Gardening with Local Native Plants
Sunday, April 27, 2008; 10:00 – 3:30
Berkeley
Fee: $30.

This tour features three Berkeley gardens planted with local native plants—the ecological approach—lovely in their own right, and also the basis for great wildlife diversity. The gardens on this Select Tour were chosen to represent a range of sizes and styles—from more cultivated and occasionally watered to wilder and not watered at all in the dry season—but all with essentially the same mix of local native plants. One is a charming English-style cottage style garden in the hills; another is quite large and natural, with a creek and over half an acre of mixed woodland; the third is a typical city lot in Berkeley, which has been completely restored to native woodland and grassland. Landscape gardener Glen Schneider designed all three gardens.

You’ll meet at Betty Schneider’s garden, which is in the English cottage garden style, at 10:00. Converted from a conventional garden that contained huge Monterey pines, camellias and rhododendrons, now it is a local native plant garden featuring a grove of buckeyes with wild roses, flowering currants, and a meadow of native iris, wild strawberry, and other native perennials. Some of the larger foundation shrubs, such as Pittosporum and camellias remain from the previous garden, but underneath there have appeared Trillium, buttercups, lace plant, sword ferns and other woodland treasures. This garden is regularly groomed and gets occasional summer watering.

Special garden features include a sunny native slope with an elderberry and a mix of sun-loving native perennials and annual wildflowers, and lovely stonework, including pathways, gates, a fountain, and many rock walls.

Many butterflies, including the yellow-and-black parsley swallowtail, are attracted to Betty’s garden, which contains the butterfly’s larval food plant Yampah.

Next, you’ll move on to Ilse Eden’s garden, a large, half-acre swath of live oak and buckeye woodland that encloses a section of upper El Cerrito Creek, where you will have your brown bag lunches. In this stunning natural setting, the approach has been to restore—reintroducing the under story palette of local native shrubs and perennials that once would have naturally grown here. This has involved conversion from the conventional, high water lawn and shrubbery garden. Under the present regime garden water has been eliminated; this garden runs only on rainfall. There are woodland, meadowland, and creek side sections of the garden. The woodland features wild currants, lace plant, and California fescue. The meadowlands feature several bunchgrasses, perennials, and annuals, including a fabulous display of poppies.

Special garden features include huge, natural rock outcroppings, flanked by sticky monkey bush which attracts nectaring hummingbirds, and a 1,000 square foot former lawn area that has been replaced by a zen-style pebble-bark mulch with clumps of grey rush for accent.

Abundant birdlife, including black phoebes, Hutton’s vireos, warblers, chickadees, and thrushes frequent this garden.

The last stop is Glen’s home garden, planted on a typical flatlands-sized lot of 5,200 square feet. The approach is restoration and the style is wild and natural. After ten years, this garden now has the look and feel of the hills and woods beyond town. It contains more than 75 species of local native woodland and grassland plants grown from seeds and cuttings gathered from wildlands within two or three miles of home. In the shade and dappled light, woodland plants have been introduced. In the sunny parts, native bunchgrass prairie has been reestablished, with many perennial and annual wildflowers. Plants are allowed to grow over and into each other. They seed about and find where they are most happy. The total out-of-pocket cost of converting this garden from an English cottage garden to a native haven for wildlife was about $150. The native plants receive rainfall only; they are not watered in summer. The driveway has been removed and turned into a productive and attractive vegetable garden.

Native wildlife, especially the flying creatures, have returned in droves. Berries, seeds, nuts, nectar, pollen, nesting areas, and shelter for wildlife are amply provided, and there is no dead-heading in this wildlife- and insect-friendly garden! Native bees spend the night under dried yarrow flowers; Glen has watched a swallowtail caterpillar fasten its chrysalis to a Yampah stalk. Forty-four species of birds, twelve species of butterflies, and over two hundred species of insects and spiders have been found in the garden. Crickets chirp cheerily in the evenings—give them the habitat and they will return.

Select Tour #6

Meet the Designer: Alrie Middlebrook, of Middlebrook Gardens
Saturday, May 3, 2008; 10:00 – 3:00
Palo Alto gardens
Fee: $30.

This tour will be lead by Alrie Middlebrook, of Middlebrook Gardens, who designed and oversaw the installation of the gardens. All of the gardens are within one block of each other.

The Essenmacher’s garden has been planted with plants from the oak woodland, grassland, and chaparral plant communities. In the chaparral area are several species of native mallows, including tree and Indian mallows, as well as one exotic Lavatera 'Barnsley.' Two types of meadows, red fescue, and a Carex pansa (dune sedge) meadow, create visual interest. In late summer the showy annual, elegant tarweed (Madia elegans) fills the garden with the heady fragrance of pineapples. A seasonal creek, which encircles the front garden, and a solar fountain, which adds the refreshing sound of falling water, attract wildlife. Original mosaic artwork compliments the natural setting. A variety of edibles—both the standards and also natives—are grown in raised beds. Concrete from the site was reused to create stepping stones and planter beds. This garden, designed for the needs of an active family with inquisitive young children, contains a playhouse and replicated turf made from recycled plastics. Gardens are a learning lab, growing and changing all the time; the Essenmacher family embraces this concept and share the ups and downs of gardening with their children. As an example, after some trouble with slug predation on lupines in the meadow the Essenmacher family set up passive traps. Much to her delight, their four year old daughter has collected over 100 slugs! Happily for expanding native habitat, the Essemacher’s are neighbors with the Kudlacik's, who also have a native garden (mostly in the back). Where the two properties meet native grasses, irises, and Ribes blend the two gardens.

The Cohn’s garden, 85% native, is comprised of plants from the grassland, chaparral, riparian, redwood, and oak woodland plant communities. Native plants include several selections of creeping sage, as well as vine maples, flowering dogwoods, dwarf redwoods, Huecheras, barberry, bleeding hearts, red-twigged dogwood, bunch grasses and penstemons. Don’t miss the blue elderberry—it has grown over twelve feet in three years! A seasonal creek and fountain attract birds, pollinators, and many beneficial insects to the garden. The native bunch grass meadows found in this garden are an exquisite complement to the hardscape features, which include large boulders set in a wandering rock wall. The back garden includes several raised beds made from ledgestone; these beds contain both native and more familiar garden edibles. A small grass patch remains in the backyard by the play structure, and a mini-orchard encompasses the rear perimeter of the back garden. Additional notable features of this garden include a climbing wall, a zip line, and children's playhouse made with recycled lumber, windows, and doors.

The Lee garden, a large corner lot formerly covered in lawn, has been completely redesigned. A series of undulating mounds are now planted with a wide variety of California lilac, including tree forms (Ceanothus arboreus); large sprawling forms (Arroyo de la Cruz, Joyce Coulter, and Snowball); and ground cover forms, such as Ceanothus glorisosus and C. maritima. This vibrant collection of Ceanothus provides blooms (and keeps the beneficial insects happy!) from late winter into spring. In the shadow of the house are riparian and mixed evergreen woodland species such as dogwood, vine maple, ninebark, Heucheras, iris, leopard lily, false Solomon's seal, and golden- and flowering currant. The architectural style of the house is California ranch; to complement it, a polyvinyl western-style ranch fence borders the garden.

The back yard contains an outdoor kitchen, a bunch grass and wildflower meadow, and a replicated grass area. Many chaparral species, including Fremontedendron, buckwheats, penstemon, bush poppy, and yarrow, are mounded near pathways. Oak woodland plants, wild grape, and desert willow screen the fence and provide privacy and shade. The garden contains a variety of small flowering trees, including tree wisteria and flowering cherries, as well as, tall flowering native shrubs like California lilac, willow, dogwood, and flannel bush.

Select Tour #7 [ FULL ]

Walking Tour of Three Berkeley gardens
Sunday, May 18, 2008; 9:30 – 3:00
Three Berkeley gardens; slightly less than a total of 3 miles of walking
Fee: $30.

Meet at David Loeb’s shady creekside garden in Berkeley at 9:30, where you’ll tour this lovely landscape with the designer, Michael Thilgen, of Four Dimensions Landscape Company. In the back garden dappled sunlight filters through large oak and bay trees, which thrive due to the presence of Blackberry Creek, which flows through the back part of the garden. After years of frustration trying to maintain an inherited English garden, central lawn, and rose bushes, David decided to give attractive, low maintenance native plants a try. The new garden, which was designed by Michael and the team at Four Dimensions, takes the native riparian oak woodland as its template and starting point, relying on local native woodland shrubs and herbaceous plants for the shaded areas of the garden and native bunch grasses and meadow flowers for the central sunny area. The happy owner now calls the garden "glorious" throughout the year. 99% local native plants bring the flavor of the natural world into this garden. The creek banks were stabilized with riparian native plants: the upper areas recall an oak woodland understory.

The California lilac groundcover in the front garden is a favorite of bees. The original four blue-eyed grass have multiplied and the native bunch grasses have propsered. In the back garden the sound of the creek flowing by attracts wildlife and soothes people. Hazelnuts, berries (snow-, huckle-, straw-, and elder-), currants, and the diversity of local native plants attract birds. Chickadees, titmice, bushtits, Townsend’s warblers, flycatchers, hermit thrushes, and black phoebes now visit the garden. House wrens began nesting in the oak under story after the garden was transformed.

A stone’s throw across the creek from David’s is Delia and John Taylor’s garden. The lack of a bridge between the two properties means that a ten minute stroll around the block and to the other side of the creek will bring you to John and Delia’s home. About 11:00 you’ll arrive at their sunny, expansive, creekside garden. After spending about an hour touring this lovely garden, you can settle down on the lawn and enjoy your brown bag lunch in this park-like setting.

This tranquil garden was primarily designed and installed by Delia and John, but most recently Jean Robertson and her crew worked on the front garden and the creekside plantings, and rebuilt the natural stone walls in the creek bed. Planted in stages over the past 25 years, this beautiful garden features a lawn and rope swing for (now grown) children, and numerous native plants in a garden once filled with ivy, impatiens, cotoneaster and pyracantha. Mature native trees include oak, bay, maple, walnut and red willow. A footbridge provides access across Blackberry Creek and to the back of the garden.

“My goal is to have as many natives as possible in my garden. Natives are perfectly suited to this site and climate, and they’re great for attracting wildlife,” remarks Delia. Pesticide-free for many years, the lawn is fertilized with compost, and weeded by hand. The worm mansion was built by Delia’s son.

Delia loves going hiking, and she loves to return from a walk and see the same native plants she had recognized in the hills thriving in her own garden. While at John and Delia’s be sure and pick up materials on the California Native Plant Society (http://www.ebcnps.org/ LINK). Delia has been a Board member of CNPS for many years, and is currently Vice-President. (Consider bringing your checkbook and joining this worthy non-profit!)

Delia’s Dad was an entomologist, so there is no insect fear in this household; at various times there has been a honeybee hive in the Bay tree, and for a while a nest of yellow jackets called this garden home. (The yellow jackets have moved on now.) Chicadees have nested in the birdhouse, and numerous other birds, including titmice, bush tits, woodpeckers, thrushes, flickers, cedar waxwings, and warblers visit this lovely, peaceful garden.

About 1:00 the group will stroll just over a mile (this should take about half an hour) to Roy and Carolyn West’s garden in Berkeley. In the front, an elegant rock garden has been created from a former lawn that was once sliced by red cement walkways and adorned with four junipers pruned into balls. Included in this collector's garden, which was designed by David Bigham, and is currently maintained by Pete Veilleux of East Bay Wilds, are many varieties of manzanita, five kinds of buckwheat, and a pair of mountain mahogany trees of which there are only seven individuals left in the wild. (These plants were grown from cuttings collected in a garden.) The back garden, designed "to allow a child to run amuck in it," contains a beautiful lawn (no herbicides used here!) surrounded by a wide border containing a variety natives, and a selection of roses.

When mature a ring of valley oaks will provide much-needed shade for the back garden. The lawn receives organic mulch once a year. Prior to its redesign the back garden consisted of weeds, camellias, a cement slab, and an awkward slope. Ask Roy, for many years a stalwart volunteer at the California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) plant nursery, about the opportunities for learning about natives while propagating for CNPS. Roy is also a tireless advocate for Calflora (http://www.calflora.org/ LINK) a non-profit with a magnificent database of information on wild plants in California. (Be sure and check out the new “What Grows Here” feature at http://www.calflora.org/app/wgh?page=entry.

For a month in summer the front garden’s soaproot meadow is glorious, with clouds of orchid-like flowers covered with delighted bumblebees. Several species of salamanders are at home in the garden, as are numerous species of butterflies and bees.

At 2:30 the group will leave Roy and Carolyn’s, and walk back to their cars.

Select Tour #8

Fraction of a Century Biking Tour: Gardening Under Oaks
Sunday, May 25, 2008; 9:30 – 3:00
Oakland gardens; 7 mile total bike ride.
PLEASE NOTE: Bring your bike and water; helmets required. (Non-bicyclists can drive between the gardens.)
Fee: $30.

Jeff Jerge, owner of The Pedaler in El Sobrante—whose own garden in Pinole will be open on the Sunday, May 4, Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour—will lead this bike tour of two spectacular oak woodland gardens located, appropriately, in Oakland.

You’ll meet at Sue Duckles’ and Cherie Donahue’s gardens at 9:30. (Cherie bought their childhood home, and some years later Sue purchased the house next door.) The marvelous restoration project these sisters have embarked on required removing the ivy that had invaded their parents’ original native garden, enshrouded the slope, and was strangling the majestic oaks and redwoods. Now local natives such as huckleberry, ginger, iris, and false solomon’s seal are reappearing on their own.

Ask about Sue’s unique ivy-removal technique of sitting on the ground and kicking the ivy downhill in a large rolling mat. When they were children growing up in this house in the ‘50’s, Sue and Cherie regarded their majestic oak and redwood shaded back garden as a beautiful wilderness; due to their inspirational efforts it is a paradise once again. The lovely back garden can be enjoyed from a flat area; if venturing down the slope wear good walking shoes, and watch for uneven steps and low oak limbs.

Sue and Cherie report that they can’t keep wildlife out —“If you plant it, they will come!” Among the list of birds they have seen are Stellar’s jays, Western scrub jays, red tailed hawks, mourning doves, great horned owls, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, tanagers, finches, wrens and robins. Deer freely browse this wildlife-friendly garden; raccoon, skunks and opossum are also frequent visitors.

About 11:00 the group will set off for Carol Baird and Alan Harper’s 5 acre property; upon arriving you’ll enjoy your brown bag lunch on the patio. After lunch Lynn Talkovsky, who maintains the garden, and has lovingly restored the woodland, will take the group around the garden. You’ll tour the nearly intact majestic oak and bay woodland that graces this lovely property—this is a rare opportunity to see such a diverse under story of native plants, including ferns, mints, and grasses interspersed with carpets of Solomon’s seal and Yerba buena. If you have been wondering what to plant under oaks, this garden is a must-see! Wear sturdy shoes so you will be comfortable taking the narrow path up the slope through this marvelous native woodland.

The driveway was specifically designed so that only one small tree was lost. Enjoy the spectacular view of Chabot Park, Rocky Ridge in Las Trampas Park, and beyond. Shelterbelt Builders manages the area near the house for fire control.

In May, variable checkerspot, swallowtail and other butterflies are frequently seen, as are alligator and western fence lizards and a variety of native bees. More rarely seen are slender salamanders, ring-necked and gopher snakes and western rattlers. Commonly seen birds include Anna’s hummingbird, Hutton’s vireos, and orange-crowned warblers, but western tanagers, and even a piliated woodpecker have been spotted. Birders, bring your binoculars!