Lot size: 600 sq. ft. front and 30 sq. ft. parking strip., 90% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in the fall of 2022
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Showcase Feature
Inspired by the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and ecologist Doug Tallamy, Jacob was ready for the lawn and non-native ornamentals to go. After consulting with landscape designers Michael Hogan and Pete Veilleux, Jacob extended the gutters, dug depressions for the downspouts to drain into, filled the hollows with gravel, sheet mulched—then became a self-confessed CalScape “junkie” spending countless hours assessing various plants’ heights, flower color, bloom time, and longevity (manzanita: 50 years, oak: 100+ years, California lilac: 25 years if it is not watered after it is established).
The garden Jacob designed and installed contains a pleasing selection of evergreen perennials, such as California lilac, manzanita, coffeeberry, buckwheat, and sages that will provide stability and structure throughout the year. Doing his part to bring the oaks back to Oakland, Jacob and his daughter planted acorns collected from a mature oak that was growing around the corner.
In spring the garden is a colorful, exuberant mix of blue California lilac, purple lupine, lavender verbena de la mina, cream-colored yarrow, and orange poppies.
Other Garden Attractions
• In order to delight insects, our avian friends, and two-legged passers-by, this garden was designed to have something in flower throughout the year.
• Concrete was removed to create a parking strip garden.
• Watering is kept to a minimum: the garden was watered (deeply) only four times its first summer (June, July, August, and September).
Gardening for Wildlife
Anna’s hummingbirds, mourning doves, and lesser goldfinches visit the garden. Monarch, acmon blue, gray hairstreak butterflies flutter through. Salamanders snuggle in shady, damp places
Garden Talks
12:00 and 2:00 “A puzzle of plants: designing a front-yard native garden” by Jacob Klein
Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants— in this garden include oak, California lilac, manzanita, buckwheat, and sage.
At least partially wheelchair accessible? Yes
