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: 4 Tait Avenue, Los Gatos.

Directions: From Hwy 17, take the Hwy 9 exit and proceed west on Hwy 9. Turn left at the first light, University Ave. Follow University Ave to the T and turn right on W Main St. Proceed several blocks on W Main St and find the garden to the right at the corner of W Main St and Tait Ave.

Showcase Features: This small native garden replaces a resource-intensive lawn with a nature-friendly alternative that enhances the architecture of the building, while also furthering its artistic mission.

Other Garden Attractions: A dry creek theme dominates this professionally-designed garden. Large flagstones mounted vertically along the dry creek serve an artistic purpose while also masking utility elements of the building. The garden is heavily mulched with a large California gold gravel that serves as the canvas on which the native plants flourish. Two ceanothus near the front entrance will be focal points when they mature, along with a Louis Edmunds manzanita. Other shrubs include a Channel Island tree poppy, pink-flowering currant, bush sunflower, Cedros Island verbena, and toyon. The remainder of the installation is filled from a palette containing several species of California fuchsia, buckwheats, sages, and penstemons, along with showy milkweed, coyote mint, deer grass, giant wild rye, and Idaho fescue.

Gardening for Wildlife: All the plants in this garden will provide food and/or shelter for wildlife. A water feature (not on the tour) provides water.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 2

Garden Size: 1200 sq ft

Designer: Alrie Middlebrook, Middlebrook Gardens
Installer: Volunteers from the California Native Garden Foundation

Click here to download the plant list in PDF format (from year 2009).