Lot size: 2,000 sq. ft. front and side gardens, 80% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2011
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Showcase Feature
When Nora and Jay bought their home in 2011 the garden consisted of a lawn and nearly 100 prize-winning roses: also inherited were the garage full of pesticides that were used to maintain them. After taking the chemicals to the household hazardous waste disposal facility and finding homes for 80 of the roses (the remaining roses—kept to honor the former owners—border the house), they sheet mulched, then designed and planted their native garden themselves.
Nora has been interested in ethnobotany since she was a child: edible natives are still her passion, which fortunately, Jay shares. Ask about barberry berries (rated by Nora as “delicious!”), fruit from the pink flowering currant (beloved by neighborhood children)—and the brew Jay makes from mugwort.
A buckeye and a large St. Helena manzanita grow out of (and into!) massed moss rock boulders. A mini soap root forest flourishes near the manzanita: Nora said she ”Loves soaproot: their wavy leaves, the drama of their height, and it’s so romantic that they bloom in the evening.”
Other Garden Attractions
• While supplies last native cuttings and seeds, samples of native edibles to taste, and recipes, will be available.
• No pesticides are used in this—or any!—Tour garden.
• Spiky gooseberry was strategically planted under a window as a theft deterrent.
• The vintage grape stake fence creates a 1950’s look.
• Plants are watered only while they are getting established.
Gardening for Wildlife
Hummingbirds, towhees, finches, mockingbirds and jays frequent the garden. Monarch butterflies lay eggs on the milkweed, viceroy butterflies flutter through, and longhorn and carpenter bees buzz about. Crickets can be heard chirping in the evenings.
Keystone species (watch this talk by Doug Tallamy!)
Keystone species—our own, local ecological powerhouse plants—in this garden include currant, California lilac, manzanita, buckwheat, elderberry, and penstemon.
Garden Talks
1:00 “Edible California native plants” by Nora Trentacoste
At least partially wheelchair accessible? yes
