2025 Online Tour Agenda
It’s our Twenty First Anniversary!
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and Green Home Features Showcase
A tour of fifty Alameda and Contra Costa county native plant gardens and twenty green homes
Four days of inspiration-both online and inperson.
Two days of online garden tours and talks.
Two days of in-person garden tours and green home visits.
Free.
Please join us for any or all of these events, which will be held on the following dates:
Free to attend – but not free to run!
If you appreciate this online tour, the opportunity to see beautiful native plant gardens and green homes during the in-person Tour – and the other programs we run! – please join your fellow native plant fans in providing the funds needed to keep these events going. You can:
• Donate with your credit card or PayPal here
• Venmo @BringingBackTheNatives, or
• Mail a check to:
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
1718 Hillcrest Road
San Pablo CA 94806
Overview of the online 2025 Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
Doug Tallamy will kick off this event by describing what you can do in your own garden to restore nature. Kathy Kramer will provide a retrospective on the Tour’s first 20 years. In a series of garden visits passionate garden owners and the talented designers of the Bay Area’s most beautiful and inspiring landscapes will take us on private tours of their gardens. Come learn how you can attract birds and garden for pollinators, plant milkweed for monarchs, garden for color and interest throughout the year, electrify your home, and more.
Keynote by Doug Tallamy!
Renowned ecologist and best-selling author Doug Tallamy will open this event on Saturday, April 6, at 10:00.
2025 Live Schedule (Subject to change; check back for updates. Talk times may vary slightly during this live event.)
Saturday, April 6, 10:00 am–3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
10:00-10:15 Welcome, Kathy Kramer, Tour Coordinator
10:15-11:30 “Answers to FAQ about how to transform yards into ecologically valuable gardens” by renowned ecologist Doug Tallamy, author of “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope”
In this talk Doug tackles the questions commonly asked at his popular lectures and shares compelling and actionable answers that will help gardeners and homeowners take the next step in their ecological journey.
1) Shrink the lawn (here is a video on how to sheet mulch)
2) Remove invasive species (Mexican feather grass, for example)
3) Plant keystone species
4) Be generous with your plantings (plant trees at the same density they would be in a forest)
5) Reduce your nighttime light pollution
6) Network with your neighbors (be a role model)
7) Install a small water feature: the sound of gurgling water is irresistible to birds
8) Protect your caterpillars! As most caterpillars spend the winter on leaf litter or in the ground as pupa, leave the leaves
9) Don’t use pesticides or fertilizers – and buy organic produce
10) Educate and help your neighbors to start their own HomeGrown National Park
11:30-12:00 “How my husband and I transformed our yard from an ecological wasteland into a beautiful, native plant garden—and the wildlife we have seen in it” by Kathy Kramer” by Kathy Kramer, San Pablo garden
12:00:12:30 “Gardening on the wild side, for wildlife’s sake” by Anita Pereira,: visit this Richmond garden on Saturday, May 3, 2025
12:30-1:00 “The Skyline Gardens Restoration Project: From weeds to wildflowers!” by Glen Schneider (fill out this volunteer form if you would like to help restore this area to greatness!)
1:00-1:30 “From a 1950s garden to a contemporary garden of California native plants with a flagstone path leading to a pinwheel tiling patterned patio” by Lois Simonds of Gardening With Nature’s Design, video by Ellyse Morgan and Tam Starita. Visit this Berkeley garden on Saturday, May 3
1:30-2:00 “Easing the biodiversity crisis one garden at a time: here’s how one renter did it” by Deborah Underwood, San Francisco garden
2:00-2:30 “Pruning native plants” by Leslie Buck: video by Ellyse Morgan
Leslie Buck will demonstrate basic pruning techniques and cuts that look so natural you can’t tell your native plants have been pruned.
2:30-3:00 “AB-1572: The ‘non-functional turf’ irrigation ban, and how it will fundamentally reshape the California landscape” by Rebecca Pollon
End
Sunday, April 7, 10:00 am-2:30 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
10:00-10:15 Welcome, Kathy Kramer, Tour Coordinator
10:50-11:30 “Harden your home for fire safety” by Chief Colin Arnold, Berkeley Fire Department
11:30-12:00 “Fire-resistant native plants” by Jennifer Dirking
12:00-12:30 “Lawn Conversion to a sitting area surrounded by a rich tapestry of California keystone plants” by Lois Simonds: video by Ellyse Morgan and Tam Starita, Walnut Creek garden
Why do birds fly into glass?
Because the outside of glass reflects the environment around it, birds do not recognize it as a barrier. The birds see the reflected environment, such as trees and sky, and collide with the glass assuming it is a clear flight path. Any window, large or small can be a killer. CollidEscape is applied to the outside of a window so as to disrupt the reflection off the outside surface that birds perceive as a continuation of their environment.
Birds are frequently killed in these collisions or are stunned, only to die of internal injuries later.
12:30-1:45 “Gardening for bees: Choosing the plants that local, native bees need” Susan Karasoff
1:45-2:15 “”Making windows safe for birds: why it’s important and how to apply Feather Friendly markers (a demonstration)” by Erin Deihm” by Erin Diehm
Why do birds fly into glass?
Because the outside of glass reflects the environment around it, birds do not recognize the glass as a barrier. The birds see the reflected environment, such as trees and sky, and collide with the glass as they assume it is a clear flight path. Any window, large or small, can be a killer. Markers or screens applied to the outside of windows disrupt the reflection off the outside surface that birds perceive as a continuation of their environment.
Birds are frequently killed in these collisions or, initially stunned, die of internal injuries later.
2:30 end
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Two Ways to View the Program (and a Third, to Learn More)
1) Join via Zoom
We are using the webinar function of Zoom to host the events. You will need to download the free Zoom software to your device to be able to join the event using Zoom. For a seamless experience, we recommend that you download Zoom in advance.
Having trouble? Zoom has amazing support to help you learn how to use it, quite quickly. Here is a great help page, where you can choose getting started either from a desktop (e.g. home computer), or mobile device, and follow the instructions for downloading the software and sign-up.
Here is another very helpful section of the website to troubleshoot and learn more about Zoom:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
2) Join via YouTube
To view the events on YouTube, all you need is your web browser.
3) See garden photos, read garden descriptions and print plant lists of Tour gardens
Leading up to the tour and during the live events, check out the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour’s View the Gardens page to see beautiful photographs of each garden, read garden descriptions, and view the plant lists for each of the Tour gardens. (Both the gardens featured on the virtual tours and another twenty gardens are available on the Tour’s website.)
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More on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour!
Since 2005, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, together with passionate native plant gardeners located throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties, has set the standard for sustainable landscaping in Northern California. The Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour shows that native gardens are beautiful, can be designed on any budget—and conveys the idea that each of us plays a critical role in supporting biodiversity.
The exemplary landscapes on the Tour hope to inform, inspire and motivate you to incorporate native plants into your own gardens.
Since the Tour’s inception more than 200,000 garden visits have been made to native plant gardens showcased on the Tour. This year’s Tour features 60 gardens, which can be seen on the Tour’s website. You can view photos of each of these gardens, read a description of the garden and print out its plant list at View the Gardens. This year 20 of these homeowners are sharing their green home features; ask these hosts about their solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, induction ranges, insulation, and more!
The gardens on the Tour contain at least 70% native plants, are pesticide-free, water-conserving, and provide habitat for wildlife.
Do You Have a Garden to Offer to the Tour?
If you have a garden to offer, the application is here, and now is the time to submit it. Garden visits will begin in late spring, and they will end in June.
Thank you
We are grateful for the community of people that make this event possible. A very special thank you to the garden hosts and designers for opening their wonderful gardens to the public, and to our volunteers for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with visitors.
We are deeply grateful for the support of our sponsors—including local businesses, government agencies, and non-profits and individuals.