Gopher Pain

If gophers are attacking your garden, I feel your pain. Once I was setting a gopher trap and accidently cornered one of the rodents at the end of a new tunnel that it was digging. I unknowingly reached in to scoop out some dirt and suddenly something furry with sharp chisel shaped teeth bit me hard. I yanked my hand out, the gopher was still attached to my favorite finger. I shook it off and

2011 Tour Host Garden Pick of the Week

If you like to grow edibles you'll want to check out this week's pick.

It’s possible that every type of edible plant that can be grown in the Bay Area is being cultivated in Ian and Janine’s backyard. 

2011 Tour Host Garden Pick of the Week

This week's pick is a plant collector's paradise, complete with amazing views.

Lisa and Michael purchased the neighboring vacant lot and have developed it into an incredible private botanical garden. A switchback path meanders from the street up through Lisa’s garden and leads to a small meadow on top of Albany Hill with a panoramic Bay view. Other destinations

A Mailbox full of Seed Catalogs

Students harvested flower seeds

Spring is upon us and so are the seed catalogs. Catalogs that fill our mailboxes prompt us to dream of the coming growing season. Inspired by the promises of abundance offered within their pages, we used some of those catalogs during a few rainy day garden classes at the Pacific Community Charter School.

K-1 and 2-3 classes started with an introduction to plant classification. A basket of produce was brought in and the kids organized the produce in different ways. They started by grouping all of the fruit in one pile

Jane Rethinks Her Lawn

"Whenever I used to sit in my yard, I would spot weeds coming up in the lawn or dry spots or places that needed fertilizing, and before long, I was up out of my chair taking corrective action. It seemed to me that the point of all the work should be to actually enjoy the yard, but the yard work never felt caught up”, says Jane Mueller of Fremont. Jane ultimately decided it was time to consider her options—stick with her time suck of a lawn

2011 Tour Host Garden Pick of the Week

This week's pick is in downtown Berkeley and features lots of original garden art made from salvaged materials. 


When Ron and Zee first started working on their backyard it was a, “weed-choked, trash-heaped, almost dangerous dump.” After 30 years of gardening they have created, “a peaceful retreat in the middle of a busy urban setting.” There are separate "rooms" to wander into:  one has shade-tolerant plants, one mostly sunny room is full of flowers and veggies, and another is dedicated to the color red. Ron is a

Chickweed Surprise

At the beginning of the winter term, I wandered into the garden to see what would inspire a lesson plan for the 1st-5th graders. Initially, I was relieved to see that there wasn't any vandalism over the holidays, such as torn up plants. (Our school grounds are used as a Berkeley Public park after

Life is too Short to Waste on a Lawn

In terms of increasing your happiness, replacing your lawn is probably the most promising Bay-Friendly practice. Bringing in tons of wildlife by planting flowering drought-tolerant perennials is just one option; removing your lawn opens up endless possibilities. I've met Bay-Friendly gardeners who put in a vineyard, a 900 gallon koi pond, a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants, and cozy seating areas. It’s seriously time to ask yourself, do you want to live or do you want to mow?

2011 Tour Host Garden Pick of the Week

This week’s pick dealt with rampant invasive species on their creek side lot, restored the native oak understory, and is incorporating edibles and chickens.

Douglas is a landscape designer and he describes his home garden as, “random and chaotic; not at all like a project I’d do for work.” It’s a large lot in an enticing setting above San Lorenzo creek. Three different plant communities are represented:  oak woodland, redwood forest, and coastal sage scrub. Douglas carefully selects plants that will thrive in existing

Good Gates Make Good Neighbors

Putting in a gateway between neighboring yards is one of the many cool ideas I’ve come across while helping organize the Bay-Friendly garden tour. Since these neighbor gateways tend to bring people together they make me want to rewrite the old saying that “strong fences make good neighbors.” Whether it’s used for borrowing a shovel, to access a communal chicken coop, or for sharing a bottle of wine, a gateway to the neighbors is an open opportunity.

Bay area gardeners: like to lose your lawn but need information and a little push? Bay Friendly Landscaping & Gardening can help.

The following is a post from Sunset senior garden writer Sharon Cohoon. Originally posted on Sunset's blog Fresh Dirt on Friday, March 4 and reposted with permission.

If you follow this blog and the magazine regularly, you know we think lawns are generally a waste of water, especially when they're in front yards. Toddlers don't play there. Nor do pets. And most of us aren't exhibitionistic enough to sunbath so publicly. They're not used. They're just the default position. You could be doing any number of things with that space that would be more interesting, not

2011 Tour Host Garden Pick of the Week

This week’s pick features a house with a living roof, a native meadow, and a sculpture garden.

When Rosemary and Ted bought this lot it was unimproved meadowland with amazing views of the oak studded grassland in the nearby Regional Park. They decided to build a house with a living roof to help it blend in with the surroundings and