Since 2005, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, together with passionate native plant gardeners located throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties, has set the standard for sustainable landscaping in Northern California. The Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour shows that native gardens are beautiful, can be designed on any budget—and conveys the idea that each of us plays a critical role in supporting biodiversity.
The exemplary landscapes on the Tour hope to inform, inspire and motivate you to incorporate native plants into your own gardens.
Since the Tour’s inception more than 200,000 garden visits have been made to native plant gardens showcased on the Tour. This year’s Tour features 42 gardens, which can be seen on the Tour’s website. You can view photos of each of these gardens, read a description of the garden and print out its plant list at View the 2020 Gardens. You will be able to meet the homeowners and view about half of these gardens live online through Sundays in the Gardens.
The gardens on the Tour contain at least 60% native plants, are pesticide-free, water-conserving, and provide habitat for wildlife.
2021 Live Schedule (Subject to change! Check back for updates.)
Sunday, April 25, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
Gardening for Wildlife
10:00 – 10:10 Welcome
10:10 – 11:10 “Nature’s best hope” by renowned ecologist Douglas Tallamy, author of “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope”
Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can—and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope.
11:10 – 11:30 ” Garden as if life depended on it: top Bay Area native plants for wildlife” by Stefanie Pruegel
11:30 – 1200 “Ask the Experts” Q and A with Doug Tallamy and local native plant experts Bob Sorenson, Glen Schneider, Kelly Marshall, and Stefanie Pruegel
12:00 -12:30 Bob Sorenson’s garden, Orinda: “Bringing nature home” by Bob Sorenson
12:30 – 1:00 Nancy Wenninger’s garden, Walnut Creek: “Gardening for birds” by Nancy Wenninger
1:00 -1:30 Jen Hurley and Dan Gaff’s garden, Alameda: “Gardening for Wildlife in a Small Garden” by Jen Hurley and Dan Gaff
1:30 -2:00 Tour of the Native Here Native Plant Nursery, located in Tilden Regional Park
2:00 – 2:30 “Bridgeview Pollinator Garden: our own, local ‘Tiny World,’” Oakland: created by May Chen and narrated by Clytia Curley
2:30 – 3:00 Pat Rudebusch’s garden, Orinda: “Gardening for birds and bees” by Pat Rudebusch
Sunday, May 2, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
Native Plant Garden Design and Plant Selection
10:00 – 10:10 Welcome with Tour Coordinator Kathy Kramer. Details on the day’s schedule
10:10 – 10:40 Nancy Niemeyer’s garden, Clayton: “Practical tips for gardening with California native plants” by Nancy Niemeyer
10:40 – 11:00 Kathy Kramer and Mike May’s garden, San Pablo: “How to use CalScape to select native plants for your own garden” by Ann-Marie Benz, California Native Plant Society
11:00 – 11:30 Kelly Marshall’s garden, Clayton: “How to design a native plant meadow” by Kelly Marshall, Kelly Marshall Garden Design
11:30 – 12:00 Al Kyte’s garden, Moraga: “Designing for beauty” by Al Kyte
12:00 – 12:30 Robin Heyden’s garden, Alameda: “Redesigning a small garden with native plants” by Robin Heyden
12:30 – 1:00 “Part 1: Manzanitas: Beautiful, evergreen, low maintenance and water-conserving” by Pete Veilleux, East Bay Wilds
1:00 – 1:30 Richmond Museum’ of History’s Cultural Garden, Richmond: “Cultural uses of California native plants” by Melinda McCrary, Richmond Museum of History
1:30 – 2:00 Lauren Webster’s garden, Oakland: “A permaculture approach to California native plants and hillside erosion: retaining rainwater on site, creating a wetland and dry creek bed, and plant selection” by Lois Simonds, Gardening by Nature’s Design
2:00 – 2:30 Donna Bodine’s garden, El Cerrito: “Combining natives and edibles” by Donna Bodine, BeeLand Farms
2:30 – 3:00 Susan Billings’ garden, El Cerrito: “From weeds to wildlife: getting started with a native plant garden” by Susan Billings and Sallie Bryan, 4B Garden Design
Sunday, May 16, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
A Potpourri of Inspirational Native Plant Gardens (check back for details)
10:00 – 10:10 Welcome with Tour Coordinator Kathy Kramer. Details on the day’s schedule.
10:10 – 10:40 Al Kyte’s garden, Moraga: “The dry beauty at summer’s end” by Al Kyte
10:40 – 11:00
11:00 – 11:30 Wendy Tokuda’s garden, Oakland
11:30 – 12:00 Eugene Shabelyanau and Danny Galindo’s garden, Castro Valley: “Showcasing the early bloomer: California lilacs and manzanitas, currants, wildflowers” by Eugene Shabelyanau and Danny Galindo
12:00 – 12:30 12:30 – 1:00 “Part 2: Manzanitas: Beautiful, evergreen, low maintenance and water-conserving” by Pete Veilleux, East Bay Wilds
12:30 – 1:00 Edible native plants for the home garden” by Rick Flores, U.C. Santa Cruz Arboretum
1:00 – 1:30 Ed Ellebracht’s garden, Fremont
1:30 – 2:00 Susan and Bill Teefy’s garden, Castro Valley
2:00 – 2:30 Cindy Simons’ garden, Castro Valley
2:30 – 3:00 Jamie Marantz’ garden, Oakland: ” Flatlands makeover: conquering concrete, and creating places for pollinators, people and Paloma (the dog)” by Jamie Marantz
Sunday, May 23, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
A Potpourri of Inspirational Native Plant Gardens (check back for details)
10:00 – 10:10 Welcome with Tour Coordinator Kathy Kramer. Details on the day’s schedule.
10:10 – 10:40 – Al Kyte’s garden, Moraga:”Beauty beyond the bloom” by Al Kyte Confirmed
10:40 – 11:00
11:00 – 11:30 Dan Wanket’s garden, Concord
11:30 – 12:00 Susan Friedman’s garden, San Ramon: “Native plant garden design” by Susan Friedman, Susan Friedman Landscape Architecture
12:00 – 12:30 Melissa Feudi’s garden, El Cerrito
12:30 – 1:00 Carolyn Rashby and Scott Flicker’s garden, Oakland: “Grassy Meadow Oasis: Reducing waste while increasing habitat”
1:00 – 1:30 Mardi Sicular-Mertens’ garden, Berkeley: “Gardening for Wildlife” by Mardi Mertens
1:30 – 2:00 Kat Weiss’ garden, Livermore: “Transitioning from non-native ornamentals to natives” by Kat Weiss of Kat Weiss Landscape Design
2:00 – 2:30 – Carol Hardesty’s garden, Livermore: “Still have that 80’s lawn surrounded by mature non-native plantings? Time to re-envision and sheet mulch to a new native garden” by Kat Weiss
2:30 – 3:00 Bridgeview Pollinator Garden, Oakland: “Life and Death on Milkweed” created by May Chen and narrated by Clytia Curley Confirmed