Lot size: 2,500 sq. ft. back and side gardens, 75% native

Garden Age: Native garden was installed in stages, beginning in 1999

Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: 3

Showcase Feature

Inspired by the first Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, Joe has been transitioning his garden to local natives, in stages, ever since. In the luscious back garden, gracefully curving garden beds border a low maintenance, water-conserving native sod meadow. (Check out the creative use of local native grasses: California and red fescues, bentgrass, purple needlegrass, blue wild rye, and big squirrel tail grass, as well as foothill sedge, and California grey and wood rushes). Wander past the bubbling fountain, sloped grassland and chaparral plantings, and the woodland area where felled birch trunks, pock-marked by woodpeckers, provide habitat for mushrooms and wildlife..

Other Garden Attractions

• Joe built the tumbled Mariposa slate stairs that lead up to the iron slate patio; enjoy the magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge that can be seen from the top of the garden.
• Walk the short block to Mandalay and Marguerite to see the beautiful native garden at Hillcrest Elementary School. In spring this 1,000 sq. ft. garden, designed by Luke Hass, is ablaze with purple sages, asters, and seaside daisies; bright with red Island snapdragons and bee plants; and dotted with cheerful sulphur and creamy naked buckwheats.

Gardening for Wildlife

Phacelia and other bee-attracting plants spring up, unbidden, delighting the bees. Experimental bee nest blocks made by Joe provide nesting areas for native bees. Newts call the garden home.

Garden Talks

11:00 and 1:00 “Replace your traditional lawn with a low-water use, sustainable, low-to-no-mow native sod. Come and hear about three kinds of turf replacement—bentgrass, Delta grassland, or ‘Native Mow-Free’—by staff from the Delta Bluegrass Company

12:00 and 2:00 “How to transition from a non-native garden to a native plant garden” by Joe Maffei

Plants for Sale

Native plants will be sold by Oaktown Native Plant Nursery

Native grasses comparison sheet

Plant list