Beatrice and Bjorn Hori’s garden ♿️ #11

Albany

Lot size: 1,100 sq. ft. front garden, 75% native

Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2017

Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour:

Showcase Feature
The kids had grown up and no longer played on the lawn (“which had never looked particularly good,” observed Bjorn), a large, diseased tree had recently been removed, and the garden clearly needed a do-over. Fortunately, Beatrice and Bjorn found long-time Tour attendee and landscape designer Miri Malmquist of Beauty and the Feast Landscaping, who sheet mulched the lawn and designed and installed this low-maintenance, water-conserving garden. Three types of California lilac (the upright indigo-flowered ‘Julia Phelps’, the more compact deep-blue flowering ‘Concha,’ and the groundcover ‘San Simeon’), two kinds of manzanita (the tallish ’Densiflora Sentinel’ and the low-growing ‘Uva-ursi’), and the hardy foothill sedge provide structure and greenery throughout the year.

Other Garden Attractions
• Flagstone paths wend through the garden. La Paz pebbles line the walkway. Moss rock boulders add visual interest.
• In the spring of 2021 the parking strip was sheet-mulched and planted; come see what you could do with yours!
• Raised planting mounds provide the drainage most natives need.
• No herbicides are use in this—or any!—Tour garden. Weeds are pulled by hand.

Gardening for Wildlife
In December and January native bees and hummingbirds are attracted to the delicate, urn-shaped blossoms of the manzanita. Between January and March the beautiful pink clusters of flowers on the pink flowering currant attract insects and birds. From February through May the spectacular California lilacs and western redbud attract native bees, butterflies, bushtits, finches, and more.

Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants—in this garden include California lilacs, manzanitas, redbud, and pink-flowering currant.

Garden Talks
12:00 “How to select California native plants for your garden” by Miri Malmquist