Hillside Native Plant Garden

The owners of this beautiful and shaded Marin hillside property came to me with the request of an English Garden. They wanted to achieve a loose informal style while securing habitat for pollinators and birds. The main difficulty of this site was the hillside erosion which had depleted the topsoil of organic matter while exposing the clay. Another issue was the number of Bay Laurels shading the site and suffocating the majestic Coast Live Oaks, potentially exposing them to phytophthora ramorum also known as sudden oak death. 

After doing a shadow study, I suggested removing 2-3 Bay trees, to open the hillside up to more light. The proposed planting plan was specifically designed with California native plants from ecologically compatible coastal scrub and chaparral plant communities. Structural plants such as Ceanothus, Toyon, and Coffeeberry were planned on the property borders to provide cover, pollen, and copious amounts of seeds and berries for a four season habitat garden. They also solved a number of privacy issues with neighbor windows. Most of the plants planned for this site are drought-proof, provide erosion control and a sustained look year round with little maintenance.