Lot size: 200 sq. ft. front, 80 sq. ft, side, and 1,100 sq. ft. back garden, 95% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2022
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Entry to this gated community
You’ll need to stop at the gatehouse entrance. Tell the security guard that you are going to Cyn Coulouthros’ house, and provide the address.
Showcase Feature
This artistic and inviting garden was designed and installed by Cyn Coulthros, owner of YesPlease.Garden. The lush front garden, with its gentle mounds that enhance drainage, contains a charming mix of manzanita, coffeeberry, California lilac, ferns, coast live oak, toyon and silk tassel, whose varying textures, colors, and heights mingle and repeat in pleasing patterns.
On the way to the back garden you’ll pass through that ubiquitous landscape feature—the utility zone! Hollyleaf cherry, coffeeberry, mahonia, and California lilac ‘Ray Hartman’ enliven this section of the yard.
In the back garden a dry-stacked moss rock retaining wall holds back the slope, which encompasses a dry stream bed that angles across the space.
California lilac, manzanitas, and yarrow have been planted around the mature western redbud on the left side of the slope. On the right are prostrate coyote brush, coyote mint, and an interweaving of white and blue sages. Citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit, and mandarin)—favorites in the family cuisine— are nestled on the hillside.
The side garden has been densely planted with two coast live oaks, many California lilacs, and sugarbushes in order to help cool the house. This hidden garden has developed into a shaded respite, scented with honeysuckle, coyote mint, and sages, and a cozy seating area for two.
If you love manzanitas and California lilacs this garden, containing nine types of manzanita (‘Emerald Carpet’, ‘John Dourly’, ‘Pacific Mist’, ‘St. Helena’, ‘Sentinel’, ‘Wayside’, ‘Pt. Reyes Bearberry’, ‘Carmel Sur’, ‘Little Sur’) and seven kinds of California lilac (‘Ray Hartman’, ‘Centennial’, Frosty Blue’, Buckbrush’, Pt. Reyes Creeper’, ‘Valley Violet’, and ‘Point Sierra Maritime’) is for you!
Other Garden Attractions
• Cyn loves rocks, and you’ll see a lot of boulders, cobblestones, pebbles, and flagstone in this garden. They protect the roots of new and established plants, provide shelter and sunning spaces for wildlife, add structure and volume, and create paths and a natural feel. In this garden moss rock and Calistoga boulders are blended with Noiya River pebbles, Lodi and lava rock, salt-n-pepper granite, slate, and ginger and California gold granite .
Gardening for Wildlife
Quail shelter under the ‘Howard McMinn’ manzanitas that line the back fence. Hummingbirds adore the monkeyflower and penstemon: owls hoot overhead. Boulders provide basking places for lizards. Leaf litter is left for the offspring of butterflies and moths to over-winter in. In order to provide water for wildlife the birdbath nestled in the front fern garden is kept filled and clean.
Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants—in this garden include coast live oak, holly leaf cherry, California lilac, manzanita, lupine, coyote brush, buckwheat, coffeeberry, honeysuckle, sage, elderberry, and penstemon.
Garden Talks
12:00 “What a homeowner can generally do themselves, and what a landscape designer should probably do: This talk will include a discussion of creating the plan, grading, designing and installing irrigation, sourcing and spotting the plants, and planting” by Cyn Coulouthros
At least partially wheelchair accessible? Yes.
