Showcase Features: Martial Cottle Demonstration Garden is located within Santa Clara County's newest park, Martial Cottle Park The demonstration garden displays multiple garden experiences. The first area is to the right as you enter the gate and is planted with a more formal look in mind. It features a large mound whose plants include Redbuds, various ceanothus, an Island Bush Poppy and a dry creek bed with a large redwood slab as bridge. Pathways of slate stone and gold rock lead from one area to another in this garden. Another area further along the fence is reached by decomposed granite pathways and is planted with larger specimens including St Catherine's Lace, bush lupines, Toyon and a Valley oak. It is meant to mimic a more natural chaparral environment. Large redwood rounds form the pathways in this area. This area will not be irrigated once established and will be naturalized by volunteer plants. The gardens, designed and installed by UCCE Santa Clara County Master Gardeners, include several varieties of ceanothus, manzanita, salvia, buckwheat, native grass, wildflowers and other plants that thrive in hot, dry, inland gardens. Martial Cottle is a relatively new garden and demonstrates good plant spacing for mature plant size.

Other Garden Attractions: Master Gardeners will soon begin offering seasonal hands-on workshops on native plant pruning, long-term native garden care, habitat gardening, drip irrigation, and sheet mulching.

Gardening for Wildlife: The third area on the left as you enter is a Habitat/Pollinator garden that is just being established which also included some California native plants.

☺ Garden Talk: 11 AM to 12:30 AM - "Attracting California Native Bees To Your Garden," presented by Cynthia Butler -- Learn how to create a California Native Bee garden in your own yard. This talk will include Native Bee basics as well as introduce the most common types of Native Bees observed in our area. We will tour our Native and Habitat demonstration gardens to observe the bees that are active at this time of year, as well as the best California Native plants that provide good sources of nectar and pollen throughout the year for these important pollinators.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 3

Garden Size: 8000 sq.ft

Designer: UC Master Gardeners
Installer: UC Master Gardeners

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