Lot size: 700 sq. ft. front garden, and 65 sq. ft. parking strip, 98% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in 2011
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour:
Showcase Feature
Inspired by the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, Joanna and Paul sheetmulched the lawn away, took out the junipers, and replaced them with a potpourri of native plants that are a visual delight to passers-by, and a sanctuary to birds, butterflies and bees.
The thoughtfully-chosen combination of plants in this garden provide color most of the year. They include toyon—also known as Christmas berry—which produces bright red berries in winter (which birds love), and manzanitas, which bear cream-colored to pink urn-shaped flowers in December and January and provide nectar and pollen to hummingbirds and bees when it is in scarce supply.
The sweetly-scented California lilac bursts into flower in February or March; its purple-blue blossoms are set off beautifully by the jewel-like, showy flower clusters of the pink-flowering currant. Later in spring poppies brighten the garden. Buckwheats flower in summer; when their flowers are spent the dried flower head turn chocolate color, providing visual interest to people, and seeds to birds. Native fuchsia brighten the garden with their fire-engine red flowers in summer and fall, beckoning hummingbirds, which sip nectar from their long-tubular flowers.
This charming, low-maintenance and water-conserving garden was designed and installed by Joanna and Paul.
Other Garden Attractions
• Toyon, manzanita, spicebush flowering gooseberry and wild rose create a living privacy screen that also provides shelter and food for birds.
• Native strawberry functions as a ground cover in the parking strip (and, as more than fifty species of butterflies and moths can lay their eggs on this plant, is a great ecological asset).
• No pesticides are used in this—or any!—Tour garden.
Gardening for Wildlife
Amazingly, fifty eight species of birds have been seen in, or above, this diminutive garden. They are attracted to the smorgasbord of insects (which birds need to feed their babies), and to the seeds and berries found in the garden. Commonly-seen avian visitors include white-crowned sparrows, oak titmice, bushtits, and Downy woodpeckers. More unusual birds include barn owls, Killdeer, ruby-crowned kinglet, violet-green swallow, peregrine falcon, and red-breasted nuthatch.
Garden Talks
11:00 and 1:00 “It’s easier—and cheaper—than you think to transform your yard into a beautiful native plant garden. Come find out how we did it, and how you can, too!” by Joanna Reed and Paul Fine
Keystone species in this garden (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants— in this garden include an oak, wild rose, California lilac, manzanitas, native strawberry, and sages.
At least partially wheelchair accessible? Yes
