Spring 2004 Native Garden Tours

by Leah Messinger

Farther north, the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society will hold its annual two-day wildflower expo of native Santa Clara and San Mateo County plants. The April 24-25 event will feature cuttings of more than 400 native species, seed and book sales, and well-informed plant biologists ready to answer your gardening questions. For more information on the event, visit www.cnps-scv.org or call (650)941-1068.

You'll have several opportunities to see how local gardeners are turning to native plants for their own yards. The busy Santa Clara Native Plant Society will host its annual South Bay/Peninsula Going Native Garden Tour on April 18 in an effort to inspire other Bay Area residents to grow their own native plants. Across the Bay on May 2, various agencies, including the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the US Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program, will sponsor the Alameda County Bay Friendly Garden Tour. Volunteer guides at each garden will explain how planting with natives can create natural wildlife habitat and drastically reduce the need for pesticides. Register for these events at www.goingnativegardentour.com (Santa Clara) and www.stopwaste.org (Alameda).

A Bay Area landscape and building design firm has also turned its focus to local native plants. Middlebrook Gardens in San Jose will host Eating California, a Sustainable Landscape Faire on Saturday, June 19. This event will be the first fundraiser for Middlebrook's newly established nonprofit California Native Garden Foundation. The fair will highlight native and locally appropriate edible plants and will include lectures, demonstrations, and tours that further the foundation's mission to raise awareness about native plants and to increase their availability. The fee for lectures (held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.) is $5; afternoon admission is free. For more information, call (408)292-9993.