Lot size: 2,000 + sq. ft. back garden
Garden Age: This garden was installed in February of 2022
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
NOTE: This garden, which is on a steep slope, is reached after climbing 66 garden steps to the base of the garden, and another 16 steps to the top. There are no rails. This is not a garden for anyone with balance issues.
Showcase Feature
Until recently, the top of Denise and Caleb’s lot was a “no-man’s land” encased in ivy and Himalayan blackberry. They brought in a herd of goats to deal with the leafy material, and a couple of strong guys dug the plants out by the roots. Another method of removing ivy from a slope is to create a rolling mat of ivy, then sit on your bottom and kick it downhill. As the mat rolls, it rips the roots out of the ground—you’ll find a description of this method here.
The local native plant garden that transformed the space was designed by Glen Schneider, who started and manages the Berkeley hills Skyline Gardens Restoration project. Almost all of the plants in Denise and Caleb’s garden are native to their zip code (thanks, CalScape!) and most are native to Oakland and Berkeley. This garden, evocative of the lost landscapes of three hundred years ago, contains a woodland, in the shady part of the garden, and a meadow in the open and sunny area at the top of the lot.
The woodland plants, sheltered under the shade of a large coast live oak, include California hazelnut, snowberry, coffeeberry, honeysuckle, flowering currant, California wood fern, Douglas iris, several native grasses, and more.
A variety of plants flourish in the sun-splashed meadow. Drifts of the beautiful native bunchgrass California fescue, with its blue-green foliage and calming appearance, complement the purple of the lupine blossoms, massed yellow goldenrod flowers, the tubular orange monkeyflower, pink checker mallows, and the delicate white clusters of flowers on soaproot, yarrow, and yampah (the native host plant of the anise swallowtail butterfly).
In spring wildflowers burst forth, and the garden brightens with pink clarkia, orange California poppies, yellow and white tidy tips, and baby blue eyes.
The planting was done by Glen, Caleb, and Denise in the winter of 2022; the garden was watered that first summer and spring, but has been on its own since then. No irrigation was installed, as this will be a “rainfall only” landscape. Glen notes, “These plants have lived here for thousands of years, and they know how to handle that.”
Other Garden Attractions
• Designer Glen Schneider will be on hand all day to answer questions about local native plants, gardening for wildlife, and more.
• A series of terraces are home to an orchard containing apple, pear, plum, fig, and olive trees, among others.
Gardening for Wildlife
Bewick’s wrens forage through the garden for beetles, wasps, grasshoppers, and other tasty creatures. The wren’s nestlings wait eagerly for caterpillars, found primarily on keystone species, to be brought to them in their small, cup-shaped nest. Ornithologist Robert Ridgway noted, Bewick’s wrens“…pour forth one of the sweetest songs that ever was heard.” Plant local natives in your garden, and you might be able to see them in your own backyard as well.
The garden is also frequented by California and spotted towhees, chickadees, juncos, goldfinches, Steller and scrub jays, and hummingbirds. These birds are drawn to this garden by the insects found on the local native plants, the mature oak and elderberry trees, and the water in the bird bath—with its solar powered fountain, which helps keep the water fresh.
Native bees adore the lavender flowers of the phacelia.
Garden Talks
11:00 “Great local native plants for your garden” by Glen Schneider
1:00 “How we transformed our garden from a “nothing place” into a “something place”: weed removal, plant selection and placement, planting, and watering a local native plant garden” by Denise Bergez
3:00 “Great local native plants for your garden” by Glen Schneider
Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants—in this garden include coast live oak and elderberry (both native to the site), currant, lupine, aster, goldenrod, sage coffeeberry, buckwheat, and native strawberry.
Green Home Features
Solar panels help keep the family’s PG&E bill down.
Local Native Plant Selection Resource List
Natural Gardening – Best Local Native Plants for Bayside Gardens
– by Plant Community
