Lot size: 1,700 sq. ft. front garden, 90% native

Garden Age: Garden was installed in 2017

Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: 2

Showcase Feature

Susan Friedman, Principal at Susan Friedman Landscape Architecture, loves the sustainable nature of California native plant gardens—how they are alive with birds, bees and butterflies, don’t require the use of pesticides, and need little water. The garden she designed contains a mélange of plants that bloom cheerfully throughout the year.  The show begins in winter, when the manzanita’s pink-to-white urn-shaped flowers draw in native bees and butterflies. In spring, the flowers of the electric purple-blue penstemon mingle with creamy yarrow, orange poppies, and pink clarkias.  Summertime finds the garden enlivened by red native fuchsias and hummingbird sage, purple coyote mint, and the creamy white-to-pink blossoms of the buckwheat.

Other Garden Attractions

• A downspout directs roofwater to the dry streambed. Retaining rainwater on-site gives the trees and other plants greater access to water, replenishes the groundwater supply, and protects San Catanio creek from the sudden, high flows that cause erosion.
• The plants in this garden are hand-watered. Even with a beautiful native front garden and a large backyard, the household uses only 50 gallons of water a day on this one third acre property in the heat of summer.

Gardening for Wildlife

Hummingbirds are attracted by the long, tubular flowers of the madrone, penstemon, and monkeyflower.  A variety of birds, including our state bird, the California quail, glean seeds from the plethora of native plants in this garden. Bees busily gather pollen from the numerous poppies and abundant blossoms on the rosy buckwheat. Lizards bask in the sun and find refuge under plants and in the dry-stacked moss rock retaining wall. Owls hoot overhead at night, and hawks hunt during the day.

Native plants and gardening books for sale!
Native yarrow, poppies, and succulents will be available for sale, as will garden-related books, periodicals, and related publications. Items will be priced to find new homes, and all proceeds will be donated to the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour.

Book Sale
Gardening and landscape-related books and periodicals will be available for sale: proceeds will benefit the Tour. Venmo @BringingBacktheNatives or pay here with your credit card or PayPal account.

Garden Talks

11:00 “How my garden was started and maintained without an irrigation system” by Susan Friedman

 
Video
“Native plant garden design” by Susan Friedman