Carol Moore's Garden
Danville
Gardening experience: Native garden is 6 months old
Garden size: 1,500 square foot front garden only is on the Tour, 85% native
Showcase feature: Sun-loving native plants—such as sages, currants, and coyote bush—line the entrance to this long driveway and will create a privacy screen when mature. Further down the drive is a deeply shaded woodland; a line of large redwoods defined the plant palette. The understory is a sedge meadow punctuated with ferns, irises, and redwood sorrel, with a variety of hard-to-find shade-loving plants, including inside-out flower, vanilla leaf, Indian rhubarb, and leopard lilies. Carol attended the 2006 Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, and through it found Alrie Middlebrook of Middlebrook Gardens, who designed and installed the garden.
Other garden attractions:
- The original art in this garden is a colorful mosaic fountain pot with images of coastal redwood, dogwood flowers, five-fingered ferns, and horse tail. The image was drawn by Alrie Middlebrook and executed in mosaic by Christina Yaconelli.
- The struggling lawn was eliminated and replaced with the sedge meadow, which will need to be “mowed” (clipped) once or twice a year.
Gardening for wildlife: This garden is very new, and Carol is keeping an eye out for wildlife use. The more than 70 species of native plants in this garden will provide a more diverse habitat for wildlife than the former lawn did.
