Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Participants on the free Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour will learn how to attract butterflies, birds and bees, garden without using pesticides, lower their water bills, design a low-maintenance garden, and select and care for California native plants. Sixty-five showcase gardens will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on Sunday, May 7, 2006. Native plants will be given away at some gardens, and available for purchase at more than a dozen others. More than 60 talks will be offered throughout the day. The schedule is on the website, and contained in the garden guide.

The delightful collection of gardens on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour range from Jenny and Scott Fleming’s 50 year old collector's garden to several that are newly installed, and from five-acre lots to small front gardens in the flats. Garden styles range from restoration gardens containing local native plants to the horticulturally available suite of natives from throughout California, and from gardens designed and installed by owners to those designed and installed by professionals.

A number of these gardens provide excellent bird and butterfly habitat; lists of winged creatures spotted in gardens (and the plants that attract them) can be viewed in the Preview the 2006 Gardens section at http://www.BringingBackTheNatives.net. You can also see photographs of each garden, read extensive garden descriptions, and download plant lists there. Landscape designers familiar with designing with natives can be located on the website, as can additional resources, such as nurseries that sell natives.

What’s special about California native plants? They are adapted to our soil and climate, and are easy to care for. Native plants are naturally drought tolerant. They attract native birds, butterflies, and other forms of wildlife. And, as the gardens on the tour show, California native plants are beautiful; these lovely gardens display a sense of place that is uniquely Californian.

Admission is free; registration is required at http://www.BringingBackTheNatives.net. Volunteers are needed. For more information, email Kathy [at] KathyKramerConsulting.net or call (510) 236-9558 between 9 am and 9 pm.

Two additional free native plant tours will take place in the Bay Area this spring. The fourth annual Going Native Garden Tour will be held in the South Bay on Sunday, April 30, 2006. Registration is required at http://www.GoingNativeGardenTour.org. The Mother’s Day Native Plant Garden Tour will take place in San Francisco on Sunday, May 14, 2006. The contact for the San Francisco tour is jeannehalpern [at] hotmail.com.