Lot size: 3,500 sq. ft. front 50% native; 8,600 sq. ft. back 90% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2020
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: 2
Showcase Feature
Note: This garden is on a steep lot and has many steps, some with no rails. It is not a garden for those with balance issues. If you are on crutches, use a walking boot or a cane, or have any trouble balancing, please do not visit this garden.
The cobblers’ children have no shoes, and successful landscape designer Valerie Matzger’s garden was scant on native plants—until she heard Doug Tallamy speak, and learned three things: that three billion North American breeding birds have disappeared since 1970: this population crash is due, among other factors, to habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and predation from cats; and for the sake of our own survival, we all should—indeed, must—include native plants in our own gardens to create habitat; eliminate pesticide use; keep our cats indoors, and take action to reduce our contributions to global warming.
During the pandemic Valerie transformed her garden; her sense of artistry, knowledge of garden design principles, and creative placement of California native plants resulted in the creation of a spectacular, elegant, and natural garden.
Dry-stacked moss rock retaining walls were used to create hillside terraces, flagstone paths wend through the garden, and a series of landings and patios offer the opportunity to pause and admire the landscape.
Out went the lawn and most of the non-native ornamentals, and in came a delightfully diverse array of keystone species—native plants that provide the most value to wildlife—including holly leaf cherry, California lilac, manzanita, sages, buck wheats, goldenrod, wild rose, lupines, native strawberry, and more. (Check out Valerie’s extensive plant list.)
This garden was designed for color throughout the seasons—in spring the electric blue blossoms of the California lilac and a suite of wildflowers attract both winged and walking visitors; in summer the paths are bordered by exuberant drifts of pink rosy buckwheat, yellow goldenrod, purple phacelia, and lavender aster. And in fall red fuchsia, purple verbena ‘De La Mina”, cream-colored buck wheats and their chocolate-colored dry flower heads provide color and interest.
Drop down in one of the many seating areas in this lovely garden and rest a while; you won’t want to leave.
Other Garden Attractions
• Shady areas are lush with delightful combinations of columbine, ferns, coral bells, and redwood sorrel.
• California lilac, native fuchsia, and yerba buena spill over the retaining walls.
• Scattered throughout the garden are a plethora of trees and tall shrubs, including coast live oaks, redwood, elderberry, ninebark, toyon, and twinberry.
Gardening for Wildlife
Forty species of birds have been seen in the garden. They are drawn in by the insects they find on the native plants (Valerie considers chewed leaves a happy find); the seeds they glean from plants that have gone to flower, and the sound of splashing water in the burbling front garden fountain and back garden waterfall and pond. Hermit thrushes, ruby crowned kinglets, cedar waxwings, Western tanagers, and Nuttals woodpeckers flit about; red-tailed and Coopers hawks watch the avian action below with interest. Great horned owls can be heard hooting in the evenings from the tall trees that border the garden. The oak tree is a popular feeding and nesting site.
No feeders are set out in this garden; the native plants provide the food the birds need.
Keystone species in this garden (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants— in this garden include oaks, California lilac, currants, huckleberries, snowberries, manzanitea, wild rose, oceanspray, sages, buck wheats, lupine, aster, native strawberries, and more.
