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: 1140 Cowper St, Palo Alto.

Directions: 1. From Page Mill / Oregon Expressway and Alma Street, take Alma Street North
2. Turn right onto Lincoln Avenue (Right after crossing the Embarcadero Road overpass)
3. Turn right at Cowper. The garden will be on your right.
There is a large parking lot off Lincoln before Cowper. A path that begins in the parking lot goes through the garden.

Showcase Features: Meandering paths and comfortable benches invite visitors
to linger and enjoy this professionally designed large garden, which includes different habitats, sun to shade under oaks.

Other Garden Attractions: Many churches greet visitors with a large expanse of lawn. First Presbyterian is an exception with its large, professionally designed and installed garden.

Mounded planting beds, richly planted with a mix of evergreen and flowering natives, provide interest and draw attention to the church building on its large corner lot. Curving paths invite visitors to enjoy the large variety of native plants, and several benches encourage them to sit and gaze at the beauty or enjoy watching the bees that visit blooming ceanothus in the spring.

The sunny area includes salvias, monkeyflowers, and penstemon, while a shady area near a mature oak includes hummingbird sage and native iris. Some already existing plants blend well with the new natives. Several new oaks were planted in the parking strip and will provide additional habitat, shade, and shelter for the birds that visit the rich plantings.

Gardening for Wildlife: The rich plantings invite pollinators and other critters. Several new oaks were planted in the parking strip and will provide additional habitat, shade, and shelter for the birds
that visit the rich plantings.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 2

Garden Size: 12,952 square feet

Designer: Annaloy Nickum
Installer: Ernesto Ramirez

Click here to download the plant list in PDF format.