Lot size: 1/3 acre, 85% 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
NOTE: This garden is accessed via a flight of stairs, and has sloping ground and uneven steps. It should not be visited by those with balance issues.
Around 1908, when their large farmhouse was built, someone planted a half dozen redwoods near the house. Or, perhaps the redwoods grew back after the area had been logged in the 1800s? No matter how they got there, at some point redwoods began to grow on what would later become John and Amy’s lot. Just downhill from the redwoods are four large oaks, two huge incense cedars, and a bay tree. It’s a very shady piece of property.
Fast-forward to 2016, when, inspired by the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, John and Amy began to remove the seas of ivy, periwinkle, and oxalis that had engulfed the garden. Taking his cue from a gracefully curving, beautiful set of stone steps reminiscent of an earlier time, John built a series of complementary, dry-stacked, rock-walled terraces accessed by flagstone paths, and this hard-working couple tackled the project a little at a time by removing the weeds in sections, planting out a designated terrace, and not yielding back territory once it had been cleared of weeds. This has been a huge undertaking, and it’s not done yet; while enjoying seeing the fruits of this hard work, you will also note the areas of ivy and oxalis that are still waiting their turn.
A stroll through this hillside garden rewards one (at various times of the year) with glimpses of beautiful shade-loving plants, including the lovely and rare lily trillium, with its wine-red blossom, the delicate yet cheerful pink-flowering redwood sorrel, the graceful, airy, bell-shaped pink and cream-colored flowers on the coral bells, and more than twenty species of ferns, including maidenhair, five-fingered, coastal, lady, goldback, licorice, bird’s foot, and sword, among others.
This garden was designed and installed by John and Amy, who have learned from trial and error what works, and what has not.
Other Garden Attractions
• Weedy areas are addressed one section at a time, by sheet mulching and hand-pulling. No pesticides are used in this—or any!—Tour garden. (And if weeds could be cleared on this lot without the use of herbicides, it can be done on yours, as well. Just pull them!)
Gardening for Wildlife
An older neighbor told Amy and John that he once saw a mountain lion on their property. Mountain lion sightings on Estudillo Avenue are rare these days, but foxes and a large and adorable family of skunks have been spotted frolicking under the trees. Chickadees, juncos, wrens, Nuttall’s and hairy woodpeckers, Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds, and great horned owls flit through the garden.
Garden Talks
12:30 “How to attract birds to your garden” by Steve Wiley
2:30 “Gardening in the shadows” by John Olson
Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants— in this garden include oaks—the most powerful plant of all—currants, asters, manzanita (Howard McMinn), California lilac (‘Ray Hartman’, and ‘Yankee Point’), lupines, ocean spray, eight kinds of sages (hummingbird, ‘Bee’s Bliss’, ‘Celestial Blue’, Munz’, Hearsts’, Canyon Gray, Clevelandii, and black), five types of buckwheats (California, red, silver, naked), and more.
At least partially wheelchair accessible? No
Green Home Features
Solar panels
In 2019 NorCal Home Systems installed 14 solar panels on John and Amy’s partially-shady roof. Even though their home is on the north side of a slope and surrounded by trees, they are able to produce enough solar power to bring the electric portion of their bill down to almost $0. They plan to convert their gas-powered furnace, stove, and water heater over the next few years to electric, and probably add a few more solar panels as well.
Electric car
John and Amy recently bought an electric car and had a charger installed in the garage. There hasn’t been a noticeable increase in the electric bill so far.
