Taking the Challenge with Greywater to Garden

Bay-Friendly Qualified Professional Randy DeValle writes about how this weekend's East Bay Sustainability Challenge  ties into Bay-Friendly landscaping.

I am a practicing Landscape Architect and have been for close to 30 years. What keeps me interested in my field? A challenge, a new way of solving a problem, looking for opportunities to create something beautiful. Design is a constant challenge. It is not a 9-5 job.  Design is 24/7. I am constantly mulling options, opportunities, and looking for better solutions. Landscape Architecture affords me this opportunity. 

Re-vegetating the Guadalupe River Trail

Sage sparrow in chaparral habitat

Bay-Friendly Qualified Professional Mike Azevedo describes how the City of San Jose is landscaping with native Chaparral plants to save water and reduce maintenance. These landscapes not only look beautiful, but also provide valuable wildlife habitat.

The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy is embarking on some exciting new re-vegetation projects. One of those projects is the development of a Chaparral Plant Community Zone. Though we have no way of knowing if Chaparral was originally found in or near the area of the project, it is well represented around the City of San Jose, California. While brainstorming what kind of interesting native restoration projects we could pursue along a stretch of the Guadalupe River Trail, Chaparral was mentioned and it suddenly occurred to us that Chaparral is highly drought tolerant and may even have its own weed-fighting capabilities. Could the Chaparral Plant Community be used as a tool to landscape parkland using little water and demanding little maintenance? It was worth a try.

Living Wall at American Steel Studios

Nick Gardner with mini-prototype

How could one single Living Wall possibly have a substantial impact on a watershed through the stormwater reduction, biodiversity enhancement, graffiti abatement, air quality, neighborhood safety and aesthetics in West Oakland?

The answer is, it takes the whole tribe to manage a watershed!

2013 Tour Plant Lists

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2013 Bay-Friendly tours.

Some of the tour host gardeners provided plant lists that you can download using the links below.

Hydromodification and You

Walkway over Underground Cistern

Bay-Friendly Qualified Professional and landscape architect Douglas Rooney recently installed a rain garden at his home in Hayward. On Sunday he will join others who are opening up their gardens on the Bay-Friendly Garden Tour. These gardens demonstrate techniques for keeping water on-site with rainwater catchment systems, terracing, and permeable hardscaping. Here, Douglas offers some background on why you might consider a rain garden and other ways to reduce runoff. 

Hyromodifcation verb : any activity that increases the velocity and volume (flow rate), and often the timing, of runoff.

When we build structures and pave surfaces, we intrinsically alter the relationship of rainfall and the landscape upon which it falls. When rain falls on undeveloped land, about half of it is absorbed into the soil, a very small amount becomes surface runoff, and the remaining portion returns to the atmosphere in the form of evaporation (evapotranspiration) from the soil and plant life.

Locally Grown: Visit Goats, Chickens & More at Tour Gardens

This year's tour hosts are a productive bunch who are growing espaliered fruit trees along their sidewalk, harvesting organic produce from bountiful beds, and even raising goats in their backyard. Kitty Sharkey and Julie Pramuk will both be sharing their edible gardens on the upcoming Bay-Friendly Tours. 

Kitty Sharkey likes to say that “with proper planning, you can pack a lot into a small garden,” and she turns her words into actions at her yard in Oakland. It’s a full-fledged homestead on 4,000 square feet with a vegetable garden, orchard, barnyard, and bee hives. Some of the friendliest farm animals on earth live in the petting zoo that is Kitty’s backyard. When she sits down on the hammock, Nigerian dwarf goats and several varieties of chickens compete for the chance to jump on her lap.

Sneezing Our Way to a Bay-Friendly Yard

Tour host gardener Linda Nunes created a rain garden, developed wildlife habitat, keeps hens and grows edibles in Castro Valley. Here she shares the story about why she decided to replace her lawn with a Bay-Friendly garden. You can visit her garden on Sunday, April 28 during the Bay-Friendly Garden Tour.

It’s high time I tell you the story of the transformation of our yard from lawn to the drought tolerant, native plant, rain catching, food growing paradise it is today. For most of its life, our 1940′s bungalow was surrounded by lawn with a shade tree or two, along with several misplaced plants along the foundation (who knew that little pine shrub would grown into a tree…).