Lot size: 1,300 sq. ft. front garden, 95% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2016
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Showcase Feature
The Days love to bike; they also wanted to save water, and create a fun play space for their children. Their dreamy solution was to have the lawn sheet mulched away by the thirty hard workers who had signed up for a “How to remove your lawn (and get paid for it, too!)” workshop. Later, they installed a bike track in place of the turf, and planted the berms with water-conserving native plants. Charmingly, the center of the track in the front garden is both a raingarden—catching and storing rainwater from the roof so it can replenish the aquifer—and also a greywater system, which captures water from the shower, and keeps the native bog plants, such as seep monkeyflower and California gray rush, happy. The planting design was done by Marion Yoxall Adams; the bike track and two greywater systems were designed by the Day’s, and all of the work was done by Ryan, Heather, friends, and family.
Other Garden Attractions
• The bike track—complete with a combination of jumps, ramps, banked turns, straightaways, rollers and berms—circles the house, extending around the back garden, as well as through the front.
• The garden is not watered at all in the summer.
• A lawn removal rebate from Zone 7 was provided.
Gardening for Wildlife
Bees, butterflies, and birds are attracted to the seeds, pollen, and nectar plants in this garden.
Garden Talks
11:00 “Join us for a walk through our greywater and laundry-to-landscape systems” by Ryan and Heather Day
Art in the Garden
Calling all children! Come do leaf and flower rubbings, find native plants in the garden, and then color in the native plant coloring sheets that will be on hand.
Native Plants for Sale
Native plants from Core Conservation Growers will be available for sale throughout the day.
