Juliet Lamont and Phil Price’s Garden
Berkeley
Gardening experience: Since Juliet was a child (Mom was a great gardener, so we helped)
Years gardened at this location: 7 years
Size: 1/3 acre
Showcase feature: This tranquil wildlife garden was planted with local, drought-tolerant, low maintenance natives. Plants that can’t stand not being watered through the summer, or being browsed by deer, are compost. The garden, with sections designed and installed both by the homeowners and by Michael Thilgen of Four Dimensions Landscape Company, was created specifically for wildlife. The front garden was planted for butterflies, songbirds, and hummingbirds, and the oak woodland in the back was planted to provide food, shelter, and nesting areas for the rest of the wildlife kingdom. The gardeners are hoping to continue their creek restoration efforts on neighboring properties, to remove the concrete channels and rip-rap that exist on these properties, and to make the stream channel more fish-friendly, with step-pools for fish passage. After seeing the changes the gardeners have made, many of their neighbors have asked how they can improve creek conditions, and put in native plants. Juliet and Phil love the fact that their garden is a refuge for wildlife, but also that they can use it to educate others about creeks, watersheds, and habitat.
Other garden attractions:
- Returning steelhead trout to Codornices Creek, which flows through the backyard, is a goal.
- Leaf litter from the mature oaks is left on the ground as mulch.
- Insects are welcomed with open arms — ask these gardeners about the kinds of “good” bugs they have successfully attracted to their garden.
- Ivy-and Erharta grass were pulled out and replaced by natives.
- Certified as a "Backyard Wildlife Habitat" by the National Wildlife Federation in 2000.
Gardening for Wildlife: A fabulous variety of creatures frequent this wildlife-friendly garden. Wildlife are attracted to the plants with native fruits and berries, such as the huckleberries, strawberries, and soon, elderberries, the nestboxes, water in the birdbath and creek, and the shelter provided by the diverse canopy of trees and accompanying understory plants.
Nest boxes and birdhouses are of several different sizes (to attract different species of birds), and made out of all-natural materials, such as wood and woven grasses. Smaller-sized birdboxes are provided for chickadees and finches, and larger ones for larger birds. Special nest protection devices have been placed on the birdhouse holes to keep raccoons, squirrels, and jays from raiding the nests. This year the gardeners noticed a huge increase in the number of nests in their garden, and also next door. They have found towhee nests on low shrubs, robin's nests above the creek, and as-yet unidentified nests made of mud and grasses attached to tree trunks. Birds seen in the garden include Cooper’s, red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks, great blue herons, vireos, gnatcatchers, bushtits, mourning doves, titmice, juncos, Nuttal’s woodpeckers, ruby and golden-crowned kinglets, black phoebes, brown creepers, Townsend’s warblers, chestnut-backed chicadees, gold-, purple-, American-, lesser-, and Western finches, and large flocks of cedar waxwings.
The gardeners put up a bathouse two years ago on the west side of the house, underneath the roof eaves. It seems they may have finally attracted some residents! Juliet and Phil have noticed bats flying very regularly around that side of the house in the evening hours, swooping up towards those eaves. They haven't yet set up an observation evening to see if they go right into the bathouse, but even if they are not residing in it, they are delighted to have several "regulars" visiting our garden.
In spring deer give birth to their fawns and bed down in the garden, and the family are welcome guests. New visitors are a seven-point buck, along with his "harem," that recently moved into the garden.
An enclosed sunny porch allow the cats to enjoy the view and fresh air, while protecting the birds. A “cat-walk” provides the opportunity for these indoor cats to visit the next-door-neighbor; it also protects wildlife.