June Chambers’ Garden
Clayton
Gardening experience: Garden transformation began five years ago
Garden size: 11,000 square feet
Showcase feature: June has converted her intensive labor and water-consuming English cottage garden into a mostly-local natives haven for wildlife. Now she loves to return from a hike on Mt. Diablo and see the plants blooming on the mountain flowering in her own garden. A cottage-garden-like mix of colorful natives and non-natives brighten the front garden. In the back, an attractive bench placed near the waterfall, stream, and pond invite one to linger and enjoy the wide diversity of colorful natives massed in this terraced hillside garden.
Other garden attractions:
- Plants are grouped by water needs. Most of the natives receive little or no summer water. Fruit trees, blueberries, and vegetables are clustered in the sunniest side of the back garden.
- June was inspired by a class she took in Walnut Creek from LifeGarden (www.lifegarden.org).
- Don’t miss the “before” photos, and photos taken of plants in bloom on Mr. Diablo, many of which can be seen in the garden.
Gardening for wildlife: Bird houses, feeders, and baths, the sound of water falling, brushpiles, and berry bushes attract quail (which nest in the brushpile), woodpeckers, orioles, goldfinches, Anna’s and Allan’s hummingbirds, white crowned sparrows, and cedar waxwings. Three kinds of bees are seen in this garden, and lizards run everywhere.
Garden Talks: 11:00 and 2:00 “How to Plant and Water Natives”