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: 1536 Capitancillos Dr, San Jose.

Directions: From Hwy 85, go south on Camden to Coleman. Turn left on Coleman, and left again on Redmond, then right on Oak Canyon Drive. Oak Canyon Drive becomes Oak Canyon Place. Continue to the cul-de-sac and turn about. The garden borders the meadow for 0.6 miles.

Showcase Features: This garden is a labor of love by one of the residents of the neighborhood, supported by other neighbors who live along the way. It contains an impressive collection of chapparal shrubs and plants, interspersed between a variety of young oaks planted by the residents in cooperation with Our City Forest. It blends beautifully with the Guadalupe Creek riparian zone, which is adjacent to the garden.

Other Garden Attractions: Backed by huge granite boulders and the meadow beyond, the shrubs and trees stand out nicely, yet seem to be part of the natural landscape. The plants are hand-watered until established, by Patrick Pizzo, who designed and installed this impressive garden. Lovely established specimens include a variety of ceanothus and manzanitas, sugar bush, spicebush, bush anenome, mountain mahogany, island bush snapdragon, coast silktassel, lemonade berry, sages, coyote brush, coyote mint, buckwheats, monkeyflowers, silver bush lupine, and much more.

Gardening for Wildlife: This garden provides food and shelter for wildlife from the Guadalupe Watershed and Guadalupe Creek, adjacent.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 9

Garden Size: 0.6 mile parking strip

Designer: Patrick Pizzo
Installer: Patrick Pizzo

Click here to download the plant list in PDF format (from year 2008).