• Publicity in Your Neighborhood
  Could you contact your neighborhood newspaper; distribute posters to local libraries and businesses; post flyers on bulletin boards?
• Broader-Based Publicity
  Distribute posters, post flyers, etc. to areas or neighborhoods not adopted by residents. Post notices to your web site or email groups, or ask appropriate organizations to publicize our free native plant garden tour. Email posters or articles to friends, personal groups, etc., and ask them to further distribute.
• Last-Minute Help
  People are needed near the time of the event to take maps, handouts, signs, and other materials to the garden hosts. And, as you know, every project has unexpected needs. These are good jobs for people who can get around town with ease, and have the flexibility to volunteer brief time periods on short notice.
• Co-Hosts
  On the day of the tour, we need people willing to help co-host at a garden site. No, you don't need to know anything about plants or gardening. You do need to be friendly and welcoming, to ask people to sign the sign-up sheet, to offer maps or other free handouts, and to facilitate guiding guests to the person/people showing the garden.
• More Public Gardens
  We have learned that it is better to list the public gardens separately from the private gardens because these gardens can also be visited at other times of the year, and because they will generally not be staffed by our volunteers. However, we would like to feature them on a separate map that will be available at the private gardens, as well as year-round on our web site. To that end, any information about additional worthwhile publicly-accessible gardens featuring California native plants would indeed be appreciated.
• Interested? Respond to Susan Floore at sfloore@earthlink.net or 415-285-4692 (email preferred). We will see that the information gets to the appropriate people.

Private Gardens on the 2009 Tour

Veraine Frierson's at 210 Laidley Street Greg Gaar's at 440 Hazelwood Avenue Jeanne Halpern's at 34 Valletta Court Randy Zebell's at 2471 15th Avenue Ted Kipping's at 257 Joost Avenue Warner Graves's at 156 Beulah Street Claudia, Zeke, and Raffy's at 2065 Fulton Street 542 46th Avenue 717 Lakeview Avenue Dylan Hayes' at 3544 19th Steet Baker's Dozen at 733 Baker Street Carol Damm's at 225 Eureka Street Gail Secchia's at 1722 Ortega Street

Lois Tow's at 455 Hazelwood Avenue Rod Rougelot's at 542 46th Avenue Rob Oreglia's at 158 27th Street Sheryl & Craig Nickel's at 464 Hazelwood Avenue Michael A. Gonzalez's at 309 28th Street Anna Schopp's at 635 9th Avenue #2 Jennifer & Clayton Parker's at 812 Teresita Boulevard Mary Swope's at 727 Lakeview Avenue Featured Public Gardens: Alemany Farm at 700 Alemany Boulevard Candlestick Pt. SRA's at 1150 Carroll Avenue 12th and Pacheco Public Garden

Images from 210 Laidley:
  
  
click to enlarge

210 Laidley Street (210 Laidley Street between Miguel & Fairmount - 94131)
Hosts: TBA
#26 bus (Fairmount), walk one block up steep hill.
The first thing you see is the waterfall, then the ferns and mosses, iris, yarrow - and the amusing minisculptures. As one of the early native plant gardens in San Francisco, begun twenty years ago and gradually enhanced with a few charming non-natives as well, this site offers an extraordinary collection. Huge ceanothus and fremontodendron tumble over the fence from the adjacent right-of way, and as you follow the stone path to the upper level, the red elderberry, pink flowering currant and bunch grasses surprise you. From the top deck, you enjoy bay and downtown views - and plenty of sky.

440 Hazelwood (@ Los Palmos Drive - 94127)
Host: TBA
#43 bus (Valdez); #36 bus (From Forest Hill Station to Mt. Davidson).
Greg Gaar converted this large garden from lawn to a very colorful and attractive garden of San Francisco natives in just under a year and has now grown into a feast for the eyes. For more information on this ambitious undertaking, visit Greg at the HANC Recycling Center. In addition to the 15-step public stairway into the back garden, there is a more accessible walkway to the left with gradual stepping stones.

Images from 34 Valetta:
   
photos by Michele Schaal
   
click to enlarge

34 Valletta Court (near Malta and O'Shaughnessy - 94131) - Host: Jeanne Halpern, Hanna Regev, David Schooley
#44 bus (Malta), walk one block up Malta and turn right.
This magical cliff garden grew from an ugly thicket of ice plant, jade and broom in 2000 to the grassy meadow, rock garden, native scrub screen and hanging gardens you see today. April blooms include ceonothus, checkerbloom, iris, monkey plant (yellow, white, scarlet), penstemon, poppy, primrose, purple nightshade, sage and snapdragon. Along the dirt trails, some quite steep, stand buckeye, coffeeberry, coyote bush, huckleberry, Islais cherry, lupine, silk tassel, and toyon. All and all, a delight for the senses.

2471 15th Ave. (at Ulloa - 94116) - Host: TBA
K and M streetcar (West Portal), walk up hill on Ulloa to 15th Ave.; L streetcar (15th & Ulloa); #28 bus (19th and Taraval), then walk 4 blocks east on Taraval and one block south on 15th.
Featured in Bay Nature magazine (Jan.-Mar.2005), Randy's low-maintenance gardening techniques foster sand-loving natives selected to enhance the garden for birds, butterflies, bees and bugs. You'll find at least ninety native species here - some not seen in other gardens on the tour, such as stinging nettle (for butterfly eggs), wax myrtle, sneeze weed and mustard - plus ocean spray, three varieties of fern, grasses, dogwood and a miniforest of other trees - not to mention the new bird corner and vegetable garden. This is a place where you'll want to take your time and enjoy.

Images from 257 Joost:
    
click to enlarge

257 Joost Avenue (between Congo & Baden - 94131) Host: TBA
23 bus, Monterey (@ Congo, walk one block up hill, turn right)
Your challenge here is to find at least one hundred varieties of native plants woven into this sensuous, eclectic garden of flowers, shrubs, trees, mosses, lichen, water plants, and succulents galore. Ponds and irregular stone paths make this garden hazardous for children, pets and those with balance problems, but a delight for others who enjoy natives and non-natives harmoniously living together. Notice also, the city minipark across Joost Ave. that features handsome natives - and, unfortunately, many weeds.

Images from 156 Beulah:
     
   
click to enlarge

156 Beulah Street (at Stanyan) Host: Warner Graves
This garden features a variety of California natives beginning at the entrance with ferns, spicebush, rushes, and other shade and moisture loving plants. Crossing a dry stream bed, you'll enter a meadow with native bunchgrasses and wildflowers. Bordering the meadow are several types of manzanita, ceanothus, and other native or decorative shrubs. Most of the structural features of the garden are made from recycled bricks, logs and local rocks taken from construction sites here in SF. This colorful garden delights year round, belying the fact that the majority of the plants are less than four years old.

Images from 2065 Fulton:
   
   
click to enlarge

2065 Fulton Street
Come enjoy the wild hillside of Lone Mountain. Ten years ago, the tenants fired the gardener and allowed acorns planted by bluejays to grow. They added many dozens of native plants, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Some fluorished, others came and went. It's a large yard with both meadow and hillside. Child-friendly, too. A great example of what happens when nature is allowed to return to the garden. Hosted by Claudia, Zeke, and Raffy.

Images from 542 46th Avenue
   

542 46th Avenue (at Anza)
An historic house in the Outer Richmond originally built by Adolf Sutro for his gardener. This double lot is home to coastal sage scrub and woodland plant communities, as well as a few non-native species. The garden was initially installed by the homeowner in 2001 with plants mostly from Yerba Buena Nursery. Wild Natives was hired in 2006 to clean up the weedy disarray the garden had fallen into and redesign areas that were not working. Ongoing maintenance has been challenged by gopher, skunk, raccoon, sand, fence, and weed issues. This year's garden highlights are the reestablished meadow, newly blooming wildflowers, and a 15' Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman'. The owner of Wild Natives, Julie Swift, will be on site to answer any questions and a plant list will be available with a limited number of copies for visitors to take home.

717 Lakeview Avenue
 

click to enlarge

717 Lakeview Avenue (between Faxon & Capitol)
Hill top, former grassland. Natives mixed through out the garden, 40% native. Habitat garden. Level garden with great views of San Bruno Mt. Sustainable Bay-Friendly landscape maintenance service provided by San Francisco Landscapes. Food production as well.

Images from 3544 19th Street:
     
click to enlarge

3544 19th Street (between Guerrero and Valencia)
With tumble-brick herb spirals, a frog pond, propagation table, and over 30 species of native plants, this garden shows that amazing things can happen in small spaces. Built on the edge of the historic and (long filled) Lake Dolores, the garden has a high water table and contains remnant rushes from the lake. The gardens centerpiece is the pond, whose riparian and wetland native plants provide cover for a dozen chorus (tree) frogs. Gardener: Dylan Hayes

733 Baker Street Host: Baker's Dozen
This wild-looking, young garden owes its existence to the dramatic death of an old rubber tree. The tree, which towered close to the height of our 4-story house, fell in 2005, destroying the existing garden (as well as a fence and a hot tub) but opened the backyard up to a surplus of sunshine. Now organic pathways and biodiverse flowerbeds surround a productive vegetable garden. Our natives take a prominent role around and between the dead roots of the rubber tree where they thrive and attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds throughout the year. Among our most vibrant, healthy additions are the aster, yarrow, grindelia, lizard tail, hummingbird sage, ceanothus, fringe cups, phacelia, elderberry, pink flowering currant, strawberry, yerba buena, sticky monkey flower, buckwheat, california sagebrush, california poppy, and cow parsnip.

225 Eureka Street
 
click to enlarge

225 Eureka Street Host: Carol Damm
Come see a well-designed, 1 year-old garden of natives installed last spring. 225 Erueka was brand new for last year's tour, so drop by to see how a year's worth of growing-in can improve a young native plant garden. This front yard garden features a flagstone walkway, some containers, and mounded planting areas. The plants are primarily chaparral and coastal bluff. They were chosen for their size, color, year-round bloom, and appropriateness to the weather in the Eureka Valley neighborhood.

1722 Ortega Street

click to enlarge

1722 Ortega Street Host: Gail Secchia
After years of struggling with the challenges of a sandy, Sunset garden, Gail now has a garden that is a mixture of what works. The garden takes little water, looks good, and supports wildlife. She has a pond with fish, much bird life, and Chorus Frogs, which were legally supplied from San Bruno Mountain pollywogs. Her garden is wildlife certified, with all the ingredients necessary: water, hiding places, no pesticides, many native plants and drip irrigation.

Gail maintained the Biblical and Fragrance Gardens in the Strybing Arboretum for ten years, and was later recognized with a Conservation Award for her zoological horticultural design work at the San Francisco Zoo.

455 Hazelwood

click to enlarge

455 Hazelwood Host: TBA
455 Hazelwood is a second year, North facing coastal chapparal garden. It hosts many shady natives such as columbine, currant, and huckleberry, as well as sun loving natives such as buckwheat, hummingbird sage, and manzanita . Once a water thirsty lawn, owners Lois & Bruce Tow wanted a drought tolerant garden while providing safe haven for many beneficial insects and birds. This garden also features retaining walls made from re-used SF cobblestone.

464 Hazelwood

click to enlarge

464 Hazelwood Host: TBA
464 Hazelwood is second year, south facing coastal chapparal garden that hosts many sun loving natives including Mimulus, Ceanothus, and Dendromecon Owners Craig and Sheryl Nicol wanted to reduce the size of their lawn and use plants that can resist drought as well as produce flowers throughout the year.

Images from 158 27th Street
   
   
click to enlarge

158 27th Street Host: TBA
This small backyard garden surrounds a grassy play area. To attract bees, butterflies and birds the original mostly non-native plants have been supplemented and replaced over the last nine years with native plants which now number over 50 species. Annual wildflowers are used to add spring color though at any time of the year some native plants are in bloom. Most recently a cement parking island in the front has been replaced entirely with plants native to San Francisco, including three endemic species, and centered around Franciscan or SF Manzanita which is currently listed as extinct in the wild.

700 Alemany Blvd
  
click to enlarge

700 Alemany Boulevard Host: Alemany Farm Volunteers
Alemany farm is a 4-acre community and volunteer run farm in San Francisco. Here you will find examples of a variety of native plants, and see how native plants can be used for landscaping as well as in cooperation with farming and home gardens. Come and discover this special place, where you can be directly involved in creating a tremendous educational resource using native plants within the city to demonstrate riparian, wetland, scrub, and grassland habitats, as well as for native bees, honeybees, and home landscaping. For directions, photos, and more information on the farm, visit - http://www.alemanyfarm.org/.

1150 Carroll Avenue
  
  
click to enlarge

1150 Carroll Avenue Hosts: Patrick Rump & Margo Bors
This impressive garden is located next to the Ranger Station at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (SRA). Because it is part of a complex including a nursery, small greenhouse and community garden boxes, it is not always open to the public and is therefore being included on the annual plant tour with private gardens. This sizable all native garden, situated in front of a beautiful mural, was planted three years ago. It contains a large variety of natives which attract much wildlife, especially birds.

In addition to the garden, visitors can see the nursery, which grows thousands of native plants used in restoration efforts in the park. Patrick, the nursery manager, will be on hand to answer questions. To encourage going native, a free native plant will be given to the first 20 visitors. Take 3rd St. to Carroll Ave. Go east on Carroll to last building on left before park open-space starts.

308 28th Street
 
click to enlarge

309 28th Street Hosts: TBA
Japanese garden aesthetics served as the basis for many elements in this California Native garden space. Embracing outdoor living, the garden not only serves as a meditative, restful sanctuary, but also is furnished to entertain large groups of friends and family. Water places a crucial role in the enjoyment of this urban sanctuary from the hot tub area to a basalt multi-column fountain that sits in one of the two natural spring-fed ponds. A stone bridge crosses a dry-river bed that connects the ponds that are believed to have once served as the watering holes for the horses of the San Francisco station of the Pony Express. The visitor is embraced in a space surrounded by the smallest Caliornia iris to two Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum' that spiral upwards to the fragrance of plants like Salvia spathacea, Calycanthus occidentalis and Umbellaria californica.
Plant List: Philadelphus microphyllus     Arctostaphylos manzanita     Styrax officianalis     Lupinus polyphyllus    
Rhamnus californica 'Ed Holm'     Juncus effuses pacificus     Juncus patens     Carex spissa     Iris 'Native Warrior'     Polystichum munitum    
Blechnum spicant     Festuca idahoensis 'Warren Peak'     Darmera peltata     Cupressus lawsoniana 'Barry's Silver'     Arctostaphylos bakeri 'Louis Edmunds'    
Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum'

635 9th Ave Hosts: Anna Schopp
This Richmond District garden displays a love of native shrubs and perennials as found in Bay Area Parks. The plants enclose and protect this backyard and provide habitat for myriad birds and insects.
The competition includes Heteromeles, Ceanothus, Coast Silk Tassel, Rhododendron, Red-stemmed Dogwood, Black Twinberry, Sages, Buckwheat, Tree Lupine, Seaside Daisy, and California Poppies that thrive in the sandy-soil endemic to this neighborhood. Drought-tolerant ornamentals such as rosemary, lavender, and geranium add their flower color, leaf textures and herbal scents to the garden. The naturalized Douglas iris have hybridized to make new colors and forms. Beach strawberry is a well-established ground cover. The resident Anna’s Hummingbird sips from the flowers of Channel Islands Mallow and furiously fends off intruders. This is a paradise for birds who regularly visit the garden to glean for insects, hunt for grubs and worms, and forage for buds and seeds.

812 Teresita Boulevard

click to enlarge

812 Teresita Boulevard Hosts: TBA
This garden is located in the beautiful Sunnyside neighborhood on San Francisco. Originally, the front yard consisted of a steeply sloped embankment covered by a weedy patch of what was once a crabgrass lawn. When reimagined, the landscape became terraced planting areas retained by stucco covered walls. The planting design includes California natives set in a Japanese aesthetic.

727 Lakeview Avenue Hosts: Audrey Newell
This garden site includes a charming, somewhat shady, romantic front entrance and an informal, colorful, and sunny refuge that spills from the back of this intimate shingled cottage. Since owner Mary Swope is committed to keeping her water use to the bare minimum, plants you see here have taken root from the get go with very little supplemental establishment watering. Mary's is a garden where no needy plants are invited to stay.

Although each are unique, they have much in common. In addition to thriving with little water, there is no use of fertilizers with the exception of Mary's delicious compost, both are naturally healthy and nearly weed and pest free without the use of soaps, oils, etc., provide habitats, and successfully blend natives and non-natives. Come enjoy the rich variety of shapes and sizes of plants and foliage, giving these gardens depth, interest, and providing privacy as well as "windows" to exterior views. Other features include year round foliage and flower color, "Agatha" the pond less fountain, and the TWO newly installed grey water systems.

Private Gardens on the 2008 Tour

Veraine Frierson's at 210 Laidley
Christopher Campbell's at 59 Hazelwood Ave
Greg Gaar's at 440 Hazelwood
Jeanne Halpern's at 34 Valletta Court
Randy Zebell's at 2471 15th Ave
Ted Kipping's at 257 Joost Ave
Warner Graves's at 156 Beulah Street
Claudia, Zeke, and Raffy's at 2065 Fulton Street
542 46th Avenue
749 8th Avenue
1943 10th Avenue
717 Lakeview Avenue
Dylan Hayes' at 3544 19th Steet
Greg Gregerson's at 328 Hyde Street #7
Durwards and Ben's at 733 Baker Street
Carol Damm's at 225 Eureka Street
12th and Pacheco Public Garden

210 Laidley Street (210 Laidley Street between Miguel & Fairmount - 94131)
Hosts: TBA
#26 bus (Fairmount), walk one block up steep hill.
The first thing you see is the waterfall, then the ferns and mosses, iris, yarrow - and the amusing minisculptures. As one of the early native plant gardens in San Francisco, begun twenty years ago and gradually enhanced with a few charming non-natives as well, this site offers an extraordinary collection. Huge ceanothus and fremontodendron tumble over the fence from the adjacent right-of way, and as you follow the stone path to the upper level, the red elderberry, pink flowering currant and bunch grasses surprise you. From the top deck, you enjoy bay and downtown views - and plenty of sky.

59 Hazelwood (@ Flood Ave. - 94112)
Host: TBA
#43 bus (Valdez); 1/4-mile walk from K streetcar on Ocean
Christopher's garden features a raised hardscape bed made from recycled concrete, oak logs left for insects and salamanders, and a bevy of bunchgrasses and wildflowers, carefully arranged for their aesthetic and structural diversity. Though now undergoing construction impact, the garden is well worth a visit.

59 Hazelwood Street:
 

440 Hazelwood (@ Los Palmos Drive - 94127)
Host: TBA
#43 bus (Valdez); #36 bus (From Forest Hill Station to Mt. Davidson).
Greg Gaar converted this large garden from lawn to a very colorful and attractive garden of San Francisco natives in just under a year and has now grown into a feast for the eyes. For more information on this ambitious undertaking, visit Greg at the HANC Recycling Center. In addition to the 15-step public stairway into the back garden, there is a more accessible walkway to the left with gradual stepping stones.

34 Valletta Court (near Malta and O'Shaughnessy - 94131) - Host: Jeanne Halpern, Hanna Regev, David Schooley
#44 bus (Malta), walk one block up Malta and turn right.
This magical cliff garden grew from an ugly thicket of ice plant, jade and broom in 2000 to the grassy meadow, rock garden, native scrub screen and hanging gardens you see today. April blooms include ceonothus, checkerbloom, iris, monkey plant (yellow, white, scarlet), penstemon, poppy, primrose, purple nightshade, sage and snapdragon. Along the dirt trails, some quite steep, stand buckeye, coffeeberry, coyote bush, huckleberry, Islais cherry, lupine, silk tassel, and toyon. All and all, a delight for the senses.

2471 15th Ave. (at Ulloa - 94116) - Host: TBA
K and M streetcar (West Portal), walk up hill on Ulloa to 15th Ave.; L streetcar (15th & Ulloa); #28 bus (19th and Taraval), then walk 4 blocks east on Taraval and one block south on 15th.
Featured in Bay Nature magazine (Jan.-Mar.2005), Randy's low-maintenance gardening techniques foster sand-loving natives selected to enhance the garden for birds, butterflies, bees and bugs. You'll find at least ninety native species here - some not seen in other gardens on the tour, such as stinging nettle (for butterfly eggs), wax myrtle, sneeze weed and mustard - plus ocean spray, three varieties of fern, grasses, dogwood and a miniforest of other trees - not to mention the new bird corner and vegetable garden. This is a place where you'll want to take your time and enjoy.

257 Joost Avenue (between Congo & Baden - 94131) Host: TBA
23 bus, Monterey (@ Congo, walk one block up hill, turn right)
Your challenge here is to find at least one hundred varieties of native plants woven into this sensuous, eclectic garden of flowers, shrubs, trees, mosses, lichen, water plants, and succulents galore. Ponds and irregular stone paths make this garden hazardous for children, pets and those with balance problems, but a delight for others who enjoy natives and non-natives harmoniously living together. Notice also, the city minipark across Joost Ave. that features handsome natives - and, unfortunately, many weeds.

156 Beulah Street (at Stanyan) Host: Warner Graves
This garden features a variety of California natives beginning at the entrance with ferns, spicebush, rushes, and other shade and moisture loving plants. Crossing a dry stream bed, you'll enter a meadow with native bunchgrasses and wildflowers. Bordering the meadow are several types of manzanita, ceanothus, and other native or decorative shrubs. Most of the structural features of the garden are made from recycled bricks, logs and local rocks taken from construction sites here in SF. This colorful garden delights year round, belying the fact that the majority of the plants are less than four years old.

2065 Fulton Street
Come enjoy the wild hillside of Lone Mountain. Ten years ago, the tenants fired the gardener and allowed acorns planted by bluejays to grow. They added many dozens of native plants, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Some fluorished, others came and went. It's a large yard with both meadow and hillside. Child-friendly, too. A great example of what happens when nature is allowed to return to the garden. Hosted by Claudia, Zeke, and Raffy.

542 46th Avenue (at Anza)
An historic house in the Outer Richmond originally built by Adolf Sutro for his gardener. This double lot is home to coastal sage scrub and woodland plant communities, as well as a few non-native species. The garden was initially installed by the homeowner in 2001 with plants mostly from Yerba Buena Nursery. Wild Natives was hired in 2006 to clean up the weedy disarray the garden had fallen into and redesign areas that were not working. Ongoing maintenance has been challenged by gopher, skunk, raccoon, sand, fence, and weed issues. This year's garden highlights are the reestablished meadow, newly blooming wildflowers, and a 15' Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman'. The owner of Wild Natives, Julie Swift, will be on site to answer any questions and a plant list will be available with a limited number of copies for visitors to take home.

749 8th Avenue (at Fulton)
This garden is a rare find: It's an ehrharta- and oxalis-free dune garden.Plantings of Lupinus chamissonis, manzanita, ceanthous, sagewort, red fescue, seaside daisy, dune knot weed, and beach evening primrose. Significant open sand (another rarity), allows for great recruitment with lots of native plant seedlings coming up everywhere!.

1943 10th Avenue (at Ortega)
Sloped garden on former sand dune system of Turtle Hill. No longer a functional dune system there is now a mix of garden ready natives, some native to SF. 50% native. Sustainable Bay-Friendly landscape maintenance service provided by San Francisco Landscapes. Steep stairs, may not be good for people with mobility issues.

717 Lakeview Avenue (between Faxon & Capitol)
Hill top, former grassland. Natives mixed through out the garden, %40 native. Habitat garden. Level garden with great views of San Bruno Mt. Sustainable Bay-Friendly landscape maintenance service provided by San Francisco Landscapes. Food production as well.

3544 19th Street (between Guerrero and Valencia)
With tumble-brick herb spirals, a frog pond, propagation table, and over 30 species of native plants, this garden shows that amazing things can happen in small spaces. Built on the edge of the historic and (long filled) Lake Dolores, the garden has a high water table and contains remnant rushes from the lake. The gardens centerpiece is the pond, whose riparian and wetland native plants provide cover for a dozen chorus (tree) frogs. Gardener: Dylan Hayes

328 Hyde Street #7 Host: Gary Gregerson
An oasis in the Tenderloin, this garden is crammed with giant buckwheat, gumplant, flowering mint, aster, goldenrod, blue-eyed grass, potentilla, phacelia, lizard tail, coastal sagebrush, red elderberry, bunchgrasses and more. This garden is a great example of how to provide a sanctuary for birds, pollinators, and other animals in a relatively small space.

733 Baker Street Host: Durward and Ben
This wild-looking, young garden owes its existence to the dramatic death of an old rubber tree. The tree, which towered close to the height of our 4-story house, fell in 2005, destroying the existing garden (as well as a fence and a hot tub) but opened the backyard up to a surplus of sunshine. Now organic pathways and biodiverse flowerbeds surround a productive vegetable garden. Our natives take a prominent role around and between the dead roots of the rubber tree where they thrive and attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds throughout the year. Among our most vibrant, healthy additions are the aster, yarrow, grindelia, lizard tail, hummingbird sage, ceanothus, fringe cups, phacelia, elderberry, pink flowering currant, strawberry, yerba buena, sticky monkey flower, buckwheat, california sagebrush, california poppy, and cow parsnip.

225 Eureka Street Host: Carol Damm
Come see a well-designed, brand new garden of natives installed just one month ago. This front yard features a flagstone walkway, some containers, and mounded planting areas. The plants are primarily chaparral and coastal bluff. They were chosen for their size, color, year-round bloom, and appropriateness to the weather in the Eureka Valley neighborhood. The design includes the use of annuals to fill the spaces as the larger plants grow in.

• Free and self-paced
• No registration required
• Visit anytime 10AM-2PM

• View map to staffed private gardens »
• View map to public gardens »
• View printable map to private gardens »