Virtual Tour Menu View Photos View Movie: Rear Garden
Showcase Features: The homeowners' love of the outdoors and hiking, their concern about carbon footprint and a desire for a garden that brings the natural environment close up and at the same time saves resources led to a complete makeover (including the removal of 4 large trees and an old citrus) beginning in the summer of 2012 of the front and back yards and an atrium. The winding path through the small front yard takes you through the first of the three gardens and shows the native plants that reflect the homeowners' love affair with California. The front garden features a Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii), a large California flannel bush (Fremontodendron californicum), and a new Austin Griffiths manzanita, which will eventually fill the void left by the removal of a Ray Hartman ceanothus. Two Holly leaf cherries (Prunus ilicifolia), grown as small trees, are in the parking strip. There are also over two dozen other species of native plants in the small space. A bench invites you to sit and enjoy the beauty, while the garden's proximity to the sidewalk allows neighbors to enjoy it, too, and see what beauty a native garden can bring. Continue on through the atrium to the backyard and be amazed at the number and diversity of native plants there as well. The atrium, with toyon, iris, heuchera, coyote mint, ferns, wood rose, and deer grass in pots and in the ground, now features a large Catalina Island cherry (Prunus ilicifolia var. lyonii), which has grown to fill the space left after a large Ray Hartman Ceanothus died from oak root fungus. The owners built the round patio out of recycled bricks and stones found around the property. A small fountain activates the space, which has been a favorite lunch spot for the owners.

Other Garden Attractions: The rear garden is focused on creating a natural feel. Loving the native California landscape, the owners planted a Valley Oak (Quercus lobata), which over time will change the plantings, now mostly sun-loving. The California Bay tree in a rear corner of the garden was a volunteer pruned to stay small under some of the previous landscaping but now stands about 40' tall. Many different kinds of ceanothus mix with toyon and other shrubs to enclose the garden of mixed grasses, sages, small shrubs and flowering plants. There is a small fountain and water bath along with feeders which attract mostly passerine birds (and the Coopers and Sharp-shined Hawks that look longingly at them).

Gardening for Wildlife: This garden uses no chemicals, almost no water. It contains nearly 100 different species of plants.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 11

Garden Size: 3,600 sq ft

Designer: Homeowners, with help from Middlebrook Gardens
Installer: Homeowners

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