Roy and Carolyn West’s Garden
Berkeley
Gardening experience: 12 years
Years gardened at this location: 12 years
Size: 5,000 square feet
Showcase feature:An elegant rock garden has been created from a former lawn 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—are many varieties of manzanita, five kinds of buckwheat, and a mountain mahogany of which there are only seven individuals left in the wild (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 of natives, as well as a selection of roses.
Other garden attractions:
- When mature a ring of valley oaks will provide much-needed shade for the back garden.
- 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 at Merritt College, about the opportunities for learning about natives while propagating for CNPS.
Gardening for Wildlife: For a month in summer, the front garden 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.