Showcase Features: This garden demonstrates how a native landscape can enliven a standard tract home lot. This garden is 95% native with an emphasis on locally native plants. Of particular interest are locally collected specimens of coffeeberry, chaparral clematis, mugwort, valley oak, and coast live oak. Plantings are labeled. The garden design is tweaked endlessly by the owners.

This year on tour day, Helen Popper, author of "California Native Gardening: A Month-By-Month Guide" will be available to sign books and answer questions 11:00 - 12:00. She will give a 30 minute talk at 11:00. A limited number of books will be for sale at the garden, proceeds to benefit CNPS (checks or cash please). Helen will be at the Foxborough Garden in Mountain View on Sunday, 10:00 - 11:00.

Other Garden Attractions: Bigberry manzanita, golden currant, coyote brush, blue elderberry, black sage, purple sage, hummingbird sage, California wild grape, checkerbloom, yarrow, Douglas iris, pine bluegrass. Annuals include clarkias, poppies, and meadowfoam. Look for native bulbs such as one-leaved onion, Ithuriel's spear, prettyface, California brodiaea, and mariposa lily. Sustainable living features: 3KW photovoltaic panels, two compost bins, breeze-catcher clothesline.

Gardening for Wildlife: 95% native content, many shrubs, wildflowers allowed to go to seed, leaf duff, bird baths, and many years of being chemical-free make this a safe and welcoming environment for critters. Since landscaping with native plants, an increase in the number and diversity of birds and insects has been observed. Among the regular visitors: Anna's hummingbirds, towhees, bushtits, yellow-rumped warblers, mockingbirds, doves, house finches, buckeye butterflies, ladybugs, syrphid flies, yellow jackets, grasshoppers, and crickets.

☺ Garden Talk: Book Talk: California Native Gardening: A Month-By-Month Guide 11 a.m.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 12

Garden Size: 2500 sq ft

Designer: Henry Mink (2001); Jeffrey Caldwell and Tanya Kucak (2002); Agi Kehoe (2006)
Installer: Homeowner

Click here to display the plant list in a printer-friendly format (from year 2011).