Glen Schneider’s Garden
Berkeley
Gardening experience: 36 years
Years gardened at this location: 8 years with local natives
Size: 5,200 square feet
Showcase feature: Glen, a landscaper, designed and installed this local native plant garden. The more than 75 species of local native woodland and grassland plants in the garden grown from seeds and cuttings gathered in local wildlands, mostly in the strawberry creek watershed, in which Glen lives.
Each plant has a history; a buckeye seed was gathered at the forks of strawberry creek, and pink flowering currant seeds were collected while out hiking in Strawberry Canyon with his daughter. The total cost of converting this garden from an English Cottage garden to a native haven for wildlife was about $150 (but lots of labor, Glen notes). The native plants receive rainfall only; the get no summer water. The driveway has been removed and turned into a vegetable garden.
Other garden attractions:
- The toyon was grown from a seed collected from a huge toyon growing near Founder's Rock on the UC Campus.
- There are few snail and slug problems here, because Glen doesn't water in this extremely low water-use garden.
- The back yard was filled with non-native Himalyan blackberry prior to its transformation.
- The soil was not amended; natives love this heavy clay soil. Compost and occasional pigeon manure are used on the vegetables as fertilizer.
- “The garden has transformed the way we live; we eat most of our meals outside.”
Gardening for Wildlife: 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, and Glen recently watched a swallowtail butterfly tie its chrysalis to a yampah. Crickets trill night songs, and drill their eggs into the stems of wild roses. Forty-four species of birds have been sighted in the garden, as have two species of salamander, the arboreal ensentina and the slender salamander. Twelve species of butterflies visit this garden.