Bringing Back the Native Garden Tour part 2

So, I only had time to see 3 gardens and drive past one more on the tour. I had the same experience as last year. Some are beautiful gardens using native plants. Others, as my friend put it, seem like a random assortment of native plants. To each their own.

One I really liked was David Loeb's garden in Berkeley, especially the backyard. A creek runs through the back of his property and you could see how all the neighbor's creeksides were masses of ivy and other invasive, noxious plants. This garden actually cleared all that out and had native plants spilling over the banks in the shade of massive oaks. Looks like something I might see hiking.

What I liked about the backyard was it's incredible simplicity and lush greenery. The three main plants (besides the oaks) were a carpet of native strawberries (fregaria vesca), snowberries nd other berries for some height, and, every so often, douglas iris for a different texture and, in this season, beautiful blooms. There were other natives as well to provide diversity, such as ribes sanguineum, sticky monkeyflower, ferns and rushes. A great, beautiful space.

(Pictures unfortunately taken by cell phone)