Heidi Goldstein and Richard Thomason’s Garden
Berkeley
Gardening experience: Two years at this location
Garden size: 325 sq. ft. front and 350 sq. ft. back garden, 99% native
Showcase feature: What was once a tangle of non-native vegetation, including acacia trees, palms, English ivy, Bermuda, and pampas grass, is now a pleasing sloped garden bursting with California native plants. Manzanita, coffeeberry, and California lilac provide year-round color and interest, anchoring a diversity of plantings—including a cornucopia of spring wildflowers. Two mature live oaks shade the rear garden, which contains an understory of monkeyflower, Douglas iris, flowering currant, California hazlenut, and California fescue.
Other garden attractions:
- The arrangement of manzanitas and coffeeberries in the front garden echo an uphill trek through the surrounding hillside.
- Eight inches of mulch helps to suppress weeds; the ones that do get through are easy to pull.
- A low wall made of Three Rivers stone graces the front garden.
- Situated beneath the oaks in the rear garden is a rustic shed that provides shelter and play space for Richard and Heidi’s children.
Gardening for wildlife: The mixture of grasses, bulbs, perennials, and annuals attract a growing and varied number of insects and wildlife. This relatively new garden is already home to a number of butterflies, insects, and flying creatures. Beneficial hoverflies and native bees are welcome visitors, butterflies adore the buckwheats, shimmering hummingbirds sip nectar from the fuschia and monkeyflower, and bushtits have their way with aphids.
