Goats in the Garden

Last week 12 kids with rain boots and 17 kids with hooves were enjoying a rain free moment together. Instead of our regular garden class at school we were on a farm field trip visiting with some very cute baby goats. Watching how effectively the goats stripped the brush they were being fed prompted my son’s teacher to comment about the role of goats in a garden. What is a harmonious role for goats on a farm or in a backyard garden?  

Tour Picks of the Week: Chickens!

Nadja Adolf and Michael McClary are both engineers and aren’t afraid to get technical. This has come in handy for their intensive backyard food production garden in Newark. For example, they installed an elaborate drip irrigation system with timers and different garden zones.

Right Plant Right Place: Late-Winter Blues…and Pinks and More

Ribes sanguineum glutinosum.
Credit Jude Parkinson-Morgan

Bay-Friendly Qualified Professional Anne Weinberger recently shared these plant musings with the Piedmont Patch. The screaming pink ribes blooming by my front door inspired me to share her post. –Jennifer Ketring

Every year when the Ceanothus (Mountain Lilacs) shout from the roadsides “Look at me—I’m so blue!” my heart goes all aflutter with love for our California natives. Unabashed blues are the most difficult flower shades to find at the nursery, which makes our tough, evergreen Ceanothus a local (and seasonal and sustainable!) treasure.

Tour Pick of the Week: Family Gardening in Alameda

Sabine’s family bought this little “fixer-upper” about a year ago and they love having their own yard to work in after being home renters for many years. It is also a good refuge while Nathan remodels the house. He’s a builder, which provides many opportunities to salvage materials from jobsites for use as hardscaping, such as the bricks used as edging for raised beds. Many different types of salvias are planted to attract humming birds, and the passion vine brings in bees and dragonflies. The boys go fishing in the fish pond which has a solar powered pump and is full of tiny goldfish and aquatic plants.

Jane Rethinks Her Lawn—And So Can You!

We launched our Lose Your Lawn campaign a year ago, and our second spring series of FREE “Rethink Your Lawn” talks starts tomorrow at Alameda County nurseries. If you are already set to replace your old lawn, you can now purchase all the materials you need at local partner nurseries who are offering sheet mulch packages—organic compost, cardboard rolls and recycled mulch all in one neat and tidy bundle. Visit the Lose Your Lawn website for more details. For a bit of inspiration we’d like to share Jane Mueller’s lawn conversion story again.

Bay-Friendly Plant Pick - Lobelia excelsa syn. tupa

Here is Georgia Madden's latest plant pick. She is a Bay-Friendly Qualified Professional whose home garden, and a client's garden will be on this Spring's tour. Tour registration is now open, so sign up today! -Ben Duggan, Alameda County Tour Organizer 

“THINK BIG”
LOBELIA excelsa syn. tupa

2012 Garden Tour Registration Open!

This year’s tour opens gates to over 65 gardens in 4 counties including Alameda, Marin, Napa and Santa Clara. We continue to showcase real local talent and provide a personal look at the private retreats of Bay Area gardeners.
 
The host gardens represent the diverse microclimates and neighborhoods of the Bay Area, from San Jose to San Anselmo. They also demonstrate the many different styles of Bay-Friendly gardens; you will find urban homesteads with orchards, chickens and bees, greywater installations by local experts, and drought tolerant replacements for water thirsty lawns. The host gardeners themselves are a dynamic group that includes permaculturists, native plant enthusiasts, do-it-yourselfers and landscape professionals.