Lot size: Lot size: 15,000 sq. ft., 100% native
Garden Age: 15,000 sq. ft., 100% native
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: 2
Showcase Feature
Dimond Park features an extensive native plant garden containing more than fifty species of native plants, and an amazing creek restoration project. Some of the plants found in the demonstration garden are “the stars of the California flora as seen through the eyes of the nursery trade.” Others are species native to the Sausal Creek Watershed. The garden was designed by Michael Thilgen of Four Dimensions Landscape Company.
Other Garden Attractions
• Recently 180 feet of Sausal Creek was daylighted, and a total of 745 feet of creek restored, using native plants taken from cuttings and seeds of remnant plant populations found in the Sausal Creek watershed.
• An upstream 2001 restoration project offers the opportunity to see a mature restored creek.
• Public restrooms are available.
Gardening for Wildlife
Dimond Park is a “bird magnet” because it is near water, and it provides shelter, nesting areas, seeds, and bugs for food. More than fifty species of birds have been seen in Dimond Park include woodpeckers, violet-green swallows, warbling vireos, Bewick’s wrens, ruby crowned kinglets, western tanagers, and migrant warblers. Red-shouldered and Cooper’s hawks prowl for rodents, while green herons hunt for trout.
Garden Talks
Bring a picnic and blanket and settle down for the lunchtime talk “Gardening and birds” at 12:00 by Patricia Bacchetti.
Guided tours of the recently daylighted creek in Dimond Park will be offered at 12:30 and 3:00
1:00 “How to design a local native plant garden” by Michael Thilgen
Dimond Park’s Native Plant Demonstration Garden
3860 Hanly Road, Oakland
Directions
From I-580 heading north or south exit at Park Blvd. Turn east onto Park Blvd., continue for approx. 1 mile, then turn right onto El Centro Avenue.
From either direction on Hwy. 13 exit at Park Blvd. From the north, turn right onto Park Blvd. then left onto El Centro Ave. From the south, turn left onto Mountain Blvd., then left onto Park Blvd., then left onto El Centro Ave.
Once on El Centro Ave., go approximately .3 miles until you see the Dimond Recreation Center sign on the right, then turn right and follow the driveway as it wraps around to the parking lot above the park. The garden entrance is where you made the turn into the Dimond Recreation Center.
