While this garden is open all year round, visiting it during the tour day provides an opportunity to ask the docents about any particularly interesting plants or features.

Address: 4901 Lick Mill Blvd, Santa Clara (click the address to show it on a map).

Directions: From Hwy 101 take Montague Expwy east. Turn left on Lick Mill Blvd and look for the garden on the right just just after Hope Drive.

Showcase Features: Ulistac Natural area is 40 acres of open space that showcases seven distinctive natural habitats, including grassland, coastal scrub, oak savannah, riparian woodland, sycamore woodland, oak woodland, and wetlands.

Other Garden Attractions: You may wish to limit your visit on tour day to the butterfly and hummingbird garden, in which you can see many mature native species including saltbush, Cedros Island verbena, coffeeberry, golden currant, holly-leaf cherry, gumplant, California buckeye, toyon, blue elderberry, flannelbush, chaparral currant, St. Catherine's lace, Cleveland sage, purple sage, and several varieties of ceanothus, penstemons and lupines. Lick Mill Park, across the street, offers restroom and picnic facilities, making Ulistac Natural Area a good spot for a bag lunch and restroom stop to break up your tour day.

Ulistac Natural area is a city of Santa Clara municipal park. The ongoing restoration project in the park is spearheaded by the Ulistac Natural Area Restoration & Education Project (UNAREP). Numerous volunteers including individuals, community clubs, nonprofit agencies, foundations, and local corporations contribute time and money to the restoration of Ulistac Natural Area. Funding for the present restoration effort has been received from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, SCVWD and with guidance from James Teixeira Director of the Santa Clara City Parks and Recreation Department.

Gardening for Wildlife: Among the wildlife to be found are checkerspot butterflies, bumblebees, jackrabbits, Baltimore oriole, Anna's hummingbird, black phoebe, white crowned sparrow, and golden crown sparrow.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 14

Garden Size: 40 acres

Designer: Chris & Jeanne Salander and Dennis Dowling
Installer: Volunteers

Click here to download the plant list in PDF format (from year 2009).