Jesse Merjil’s Garden
Richmond
Gardening experience: Garden was planted in March of 2006.
Garden size: 650 sq. ft. front and side garden, 90% native
Showcase feature: Jesse, who lives down the street from Rick Goodwin (whose garden is also on the Tour), asked Rick to design and install a native plant garden for his corner lot. The result is a mulched path bordered by red fescue and blue-eyed grass, and surrounded by a sea of rosy pink buckwheat and a vibrant assortment of lupine, farewell-to-spring, poppies, lupine, and fuchsia. The Berkeley sedge, manzanita, and California lilac will stay green throughout the year.
Other garden attractions:
- A Native American garden is planted in a shady nook on Carl Street.
- Another neighbor, enthnobotanist extraordinaire Dave Drummond, reports that the alumroot leaves were eaten, and the root reduced swelling.
- The fibers of the Douglas iris were made into rope.
- Yerba buena was used to make a tea, which reduced fevers, and the crushed leaves were used to make a warm poultice which reduced the pain of a toothache.
- The currant, huckleberries, and clarkia seeds were consumed.
Gardening for wildlife: Pollinators love this garden! Butterflies and a plethora of native bees flit and buzz happily here. Skinks and Pacific chorus frogs flourish in this pesticide-free garden. Coopers hawks fly overhead, searching for a meal.
