Growing Natives Garden Tour 2024

City of San Carlos Native Plant Garden (11 photos)

Garden #5, San Carlos

GNGT docents available only on Sat, Apr 13, 2024.

 

While this garden is open all year round, visiting it during the tour day provides an opportunity to ask the docents about any particularly interesting plants or features.

Address: 600 Elm Street, San Carlos (click the address to show it on a map).

Directions: From Hwy 101, take exit 411 for Holly St, and head southwest on Holly St for about 0.6 mile, then turn left onto Elm Street. The garden is behind the San Carlos City Hall; if you park on Elm Street, you will need to walk around the building; you can use the pathway by the dog park, or walk southeast and go towards the San Carlos Library. Parking may be also available on Cherry St (perpendicular to Elm St) or Chestnut St (parallel to Elm St). One of the entrances to the CA native plants area is on Chestnut St.

Showcase Features: The garden has over 100 species of low-water native plants. It is designed for supporting the local wildlife: birds, butterflies, pollinators and others. There are several different plant types represented: shrubs, perennials, bulbs, bunch grasses, and groundcovers, with varying degrees of sunlight: sun, dry shade, and dappled shade.
There are many beautiful specimens of manzanitas, including Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Howard McMinn' and Arctostaphylos manzanita x densiflora 'Austin Griffiths', and of ceanothus varieties Ceanothus papillosus x 'Julia Phelps', Ceanothus papillosus x impressus 'Concha' and others. In the warmest portion of the garden several sun loving plants are showcased: pale orange-flowered desert mallow, white sage, Cleveland sage, naked-stemmed buckwheat, yarrow, monkeyflower, Matilija poppy and Menzies' wallflower.
There is a large oval area featuring a variety of different species of native bunch grasses and other plants that complement these graceful grasses. Another interesting area showcases plants that will thrive in the shade, including different ground covers of woodland strawberry, yerba buena, blue-eyed grass and golden-eyed grass.
Annual wildflower seeds were sown last fall in several large drifts throughout the sunny areas of the garden. With the good rain season, the gardeners are hopeful that the annuals will grow and add to the vibrant colors in the garden.

Other Garden Attractions: There are several large sign boards explaining how the garden plants attract the native wildlife. Next to the native plant garden is a large herb garden patio that attendees can visit too.

The garden has its own web page San Carlos Native Plant Habitat Garden with additional information.


Gardening for Wildlife: The whole garden area was designed with wildlife in mind. That includes the plants pollinators and hummingbirds you can read about above. There is a section that focuses on plants that attract hummingbirds, and another section to attract a diversity of pollinators.
There is a long area along the edge of the garden that features host plants like coffeeberry, toyon and mallow-the gardeners are happy to see some of the leaves "damaged" with chew marks or holes, because they know that caterpillars and other larvae have found their host plants! Who knows, they may end up being the butterflies and moths you see in the garden, or could end up being baby bird food?
The garden has many areas where visitors can sit and relax. As the day warm up, bees, butterflies, and birds may be seen roaming throughout the garden. Imagine sitting on the benches underneath the large coast live oak tree in the center of the garden, next to the walkway leading to City Hall, and watching an anise swallowtail butterfly alight on the coyote mint and hummingbirds stop over at the hummingbird sage! This is a garden for all.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 5

Garden Size: 8,000 sq ft

Designer: Master Gardeners-San Mateo/San Francisco Counties
Installer: Master Gardeners-San Mateo/San Francisco Counties

Click here to display the plant list in a printer-friendly format.

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