Kathy Kramer Consulting 1718 Hillcrest Road San Pablo CA 94806 (510) 236-9558 Kathy@KathyKramerConsulting.net www.bringingbackthenatives.net Final Report Sunday May 3, 2009 Why a Native Plant Garden Tour? The spring 2009 was held in order to showcase pesticide-free, water-conserving gardens that reduce solid waste, provide habitat for wildlife, and contain 50% or more native plants. The tour enlists local residents to demonstrate by example that seasoned and novice gardeners can garden with good results without the use of synthetic chemicals, and with minimal supplemental water, while providing food, shelter, and nesting areas for wildlife. Garden hosts show that it is possible to implement sustainable garden practices and still have beautiful places for people to relax in and enjoy. The ultimate goal of the is to motivate attendees to eliminate pesticide use, reduce water use, generate less solid waste, and provide habitat for wildlife in their own gardens. Local California native plants survive naturally with only fall-to-spring rainfall. Once established in the garden setting, these plants need little or no summer water. In addition, California natives are hardy; they do not require the use of pesticides and fertilizers, as many non-natives do. Native plants also need less pruning than many non-natives, such as lawn, ivy, or cotoneaster, thus generating less green waste. Natives also provide the best habitat for birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and other forms of wildlife. A four year long study of water use, green waste generation, maintenance hours, and maintenance labor costs between a traditional garden and a California native plant garden was recently conducted in Santa Monica. (See http://www.smgov.net/epd/news/gardengarden.htm). The results of this study showed that the native garden used seven times less water; generated about half of the green waste; took half of the time to maintain; and cost 50% less to maintain than the traditional garden. Tour gardens contain minimal or no lawn. This is of particular value since the majority of the chemicals purchased by homeowners support lawn care, and the majority of water used by in home gardens is applied to lawns. According to the 2000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service s Division of Environmental Contaminants publication, Homeowner s Guide to Protecting Frogs Lawn and Garden Care, homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops. In addition, half of the water used by the average 1
household is applied to the landscape with most of that water being used to keep turf green. Eighty percent of the gardens included on the tour had no lawn, and the rest had lawns that were reduced in size to 10% - 50% of the gardened area. 2009 The Fifth Annual, which took place on Sunday, May 3, 2009, showcased forty-nine gardens located in twenty cities and unincorporated areas in Alameda and Contra Costa counties (Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Castro Valley, Clayton, Concord, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Hercules, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Moraga, Oakland, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Pleasanton, Richmond, and Walnut Creek). A variety of gardens were featured on the tour. The gardens ranged from Jenny and Scott Fleming s 50 year old collector's garden to a number of gardens that had been recently installed, and from one acre lots to small front gardens in the flats. Tour gardens contained everything from local native plants to the horticulturally available suite of natives from throughout California. There were gardens designed and installed by owners, and also gardens designed and installed by professionals. Several gardens had creeks flowing through them, and some were landscaped on slopes. The majority of the gardens (84%) were landscaped with between 70% to 100% native plants. 12% of the gardens on this year s tour were offered by former registrants who had attended a previous Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and become inspired to transform their own garden. In addition to the private gardens, a variety of public gardens were included on the tour. The public gardens included a butterfly garden on the grounds of an elementary school, U.C. Berkeley s California Native Bee research garden, a library, a native plant botanic garden, a National Historic Site, and the Oakland Museum s Wildflower Show. In additional to the free day on May 3, on which 49 gardens were open for viewing, the Native Plant Sale Extravaganza took lace throughout the week-end of May 2 and 3. Native Plant Sale Extravaganza The Native Plant Sale Extravaganza took place on the week-end of the main tour. On Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, a number of native plant nurseries most not normally open to the public were open from 10:00 5:00. registrants could take advantage of this opportunity to shop for unique or hard-to-find native plants that are not normally available in most nurseries. This year ten nurseries took part in the Extravaganza, and sold more than $13,000 worth of natives over the course of the week-end. Number of registrants, volunteers, and garden visits The tour received overwhelming interest from the public; this year 5,244 people registered for the tour on-line. An additional 600 people visited the same day 2
walk-in registration sites, which were set up in Alameda, Berkeley, Castro Valley, Concord, El Cerrito, Livermore, Martinez, Moraga, Oakland, Pittsburg, and Richmond. With more than 5,800 registrants, this was the most well-attended tour yet. Nearly 14,000 garden visits were made on the day of the tour. The number of visits to each garden varied from a low of 56 visitors at the El Sobrante Library to a high of 709 at the Ledgerwood garden in Walnut Creek. (See the end of this report for a list of the number of visitors counted at each garden). Private gardens generally received higher numbers of visitors than public gardens. More than one hundred and fifty volunteers either worked at gardens for a halfday shift on the day of the tour, or helped with tour preparation and clean-up, contributing more than 800 hours of time to the tour. Garden Talks Nearly 50 garden talks were given throughout the day on a plethora of subjects. Talk topics included how to: control weeds without using herbicides; water efficiently; create a drought-tolerant using natives; select, plant, and care for natives in general, and select natives for specific areas, such as shady locations; maintain a native plant garden; remove a lawn; design a native hillside garden; design and install a native garden yourself; keep honeybees; garden for wildlife in general, and natives bees and butterflies in particular; control erosion; and design a simple, low-maintenance native plant garden, among other topics. The website (www.bringingbackthenatives.net) The website, www.bringingbackthenatives.net, was extremely popular, receiving more than 532,000 page requests were made in 2008. Close to two million page requests have been made since the site s inception. The website contains numerous photographs of each of the gardens that have ever been on the tour (information on previous tours remains accessible on the website), extensive garden descriptions, plant lists for each garden, and some garden-specific bird, butterfly, mammal, reptile, and amphibian lists, as well as resource information on how to garden with California natives. The resource information includes contact information for landscaper designers with gardens on the tour, a list of Easy-to-Grow East Bay Natives, lists of nurseries that carry native plants, lists of reference books, How I got started gardening with native plants essays by several of the host gardeners, and more. In order to attract hosts and volunteers, and to thank them for their time, four Garden Soirees free, private tours of native plant gardens were held in 2009. Garden Soirees offer host gardeners and volunteers the opportunity to see tour gardens that they would otherwise miss. They also create a feeling of camaraderie between hosts and volunteers, and provide a venue for people who are both knowledgeable and passionate about gardening with natives to meet and exchange information. 3
Misc. details Thirty one of the gardens were at least partially wheelchair accessible. Twelve of the gardens were certified by the National Wildlife Federation as Backyard Wildlife Habitat Gardens. Native plant reference books and posters were sold by the California Native Plant Society at three gardens. Carpooling and Gardener s Match The Carpooling area on the website encouraged registrants to sign up to carpool to the main tour. The Gardener s Match component of the website invites people to provide some information about their gardening interests, in hopes of matching them up with neighbors with similar interests. Tour Partnerships The created partnerships with a variety of organizations that share common values that chemical-free and water conserving gardening preserves water quality and quantity, and creates wildlife habitat. The list of major sponsors and supporters of this year s tour includes a federal agency, a flood control district, two county stormwater programs, water-, sanitary-, flood-control districts, five cities and a town, and a private foundation. The list of tour sponsors, who were credited on the fliers, evaluation forms, website, and in the printed garden guide, is provided below. Sponsors of the 2009 tour $15,000 Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Central Contra Costa Sanitary District $10,000 Contra Costa Clean Water Program JiJi Foundation $4,000 Contra Costa Water District $3,500 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service s Coastal Program $2,500 Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program (a consortium of local agencies) $2,000 City of Alameda Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency California Native Plant Society (East Bay Chapter) City of Alameda City of Richmond East Bay Municipal Utility District 4
$1,500 City of El Cerrito $1,000 City of Antioch City of Pittsburg City of Walnut Creek Numerous, smaller donations were received from individuals and private businesses. Host Gardeners The gardens selected to take part in the tour are excellent examples of chemicalfree and water-conserving gardens that provide habitat for wildlife. Hosts were chosen because of their willingness to be on site on the day of the tour to explain first-hand the techniques they use in their gardens, and their enthusiasm for and commitment to educating others about how to garden in environmentally sensitive ways. Host gardener recruitment began in the spring of 2008 for the 2009 tour. Potential candidates completed an application, and applicants who met the criteria received a site visit. Host criteria were as follows: Gardener must reside in Alameda or Contra Costa County Gardener must use organic and/or natural techniques for pest control rather than synthetic pesticides Garden must demonstrate water conservation techniques. Examples include mulches, groundcover plants, drip or soaker hose irrigation, and the use of plants that do not require excessive watering during the dry part of the growing season. Gardener must be a good ambassador for chemical-free, water-conserving gardening: enjoy educating the public; and have the knowledge base to employ natural gardening techniques and share this information with the public. Garden must provide food, shelter and nesting areas for wildlife. Garden must contain 50% or more California native plants. No invasive plants are found in the garden. Host s gardening experience ranged from native plant novices to professional landscape designers. All of the host gardeners were good ambassadors for natural gardening techniques. Host Comments: We had over 500 visitors. We had 0 problems! Kathy's tour is the single most effective project I know of for connecting 5
the curious with the possibilities of native and watersaving plants in our urban landscape. All four of the volunteers were fabulous. Amelia, Marcy, Cheryl, and Tobie really made the day special for my family and the visitors. The greeters met each visitor with a welcoming smile and helpful information to get them started on their tour. The plant assistants were knowledgeable and engaging. The place was abuzz from 10 until 5 with conversation and laughter. A big thank you goes out to Kathy for making this all happen. We met 260 people today. It worked well having knowledgeable and reliable volunteers, a very strong, informative web site, and print booklet to guide people through the day. The organization and planning clearly shines through on the day of the tour. Thank you for all you do to help us share our gardens. The look on people's faces when they see the garden, and the interest they show is so great. Guests to the garden were well schooled from your booklet and website in how the tour operated. We found the visitors to be friendly, courteous and not afraid to ask questions about the plants or the garden transformation process. Tour Survey and Evaluation Two surveys were offered to the tour s nearly 6,000 participants. The first was on the website, and it was available as part of the registration process. Below are some statistics taken from this survey. Registrants familiarity with gardening with native plants was: 37% - a beginner 57% some knowledge 6% - an old hand The 2009 tour attendees were highly motivated to learn new gardening techniques. When asked what they would like to learn from the tour the majority of respondents (74%) wanted to learn how to select native plants. 63% wanted to learn how to conserve water (up from 55% in 2008). More than half (52%) wanted to learn how to garden for wildlife. 31% percent wanted to learn how to reduce pesticide use, 35% wanted to learn how to remove their lawns, and 21% wished to learn about composting. What do you want to learn from the tour? 2009 Responses 2008 Responses How to select native 74% 73% plants How to reduce water use 63% 55% 6
How to garden for 52% 51% wildlife How to reduce or 31% 33% eliminate pesticide use How to replace a lawn 35% 32% with a garden How to compost 21% 19% Evaluations As in past years, in order to encourage participants to submit evaluations a drawing was offered. Those submitting evaluations were entered into a drawing in which they could win one of nine free landscape consultations offered by noted local native plant landscapers. 82% of respondents requested that they be entered in the drawing. There was a return of 548 evaluations. 99% of those filling out the evaluations rated the tour Excellent or Very Good. This year 57% were repeat visitors, and 43% were attending the tour for the first time. Motivation and Behavior Change The registrant evaluations were split up into two groups those who had attended the tour before, and those who had not. The data for Repeat Registrants and First-Time Registrants was tabulated separately. Both of these categories are discussed below. Repeat Registrants 82% of registrants who had attended a previous Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, and who filled out the evaluation form, said they had changed their gardening practices because of their participation in the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour. (305 evaluations were submitted by repeat registrants.) Evaluations of repeat registrants showed that after attending a prior Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: 17% of respondents had incorporated natives into their gardens (thereby reducing herbicide use and conserving water); 14% were encouraging wildlife with plant choices; 12% had grouped plants by water needs and incorporated drought-resistant plants into their gardens; 10% had increased the density of plantings to out-compete weeds (reducing herbicide use and conserving water); 9% had begun mulching; 6% had reduced or eliminated pesticide use; 7% had reduced the size of their lawn; 7% were tolerating some insect damage; 5% had installed efficient irrigation; 5% had amended their soil; 4% were grasscycling; 4% were composting; and 4% had reduced the amount of hardscape in their gardens. Repeat visitors were highly motivated to make changes in their gardens. When asked what they planned to do: 41% planned to increase the density of plantings to out-compete weeds; 32% to group plants of similar water needs; 26% to install efficient irrigation; 28% to reduce the size of their lawn; 23% to encourage wildlife; 25% to incorporate native plants into their gardens; 18% to amend their soil with compost; 18% to mulch; 15% to minimize hardscapes; 15% to compost; 7
13% to tolerate some insect damage to plants; 13% to grasscycle; and 6% to reduce or eliminate pesticide use. How do you manage your garden? (305 responses from repeat registrants) ITEM 1. Reduce/eliminate insecticide/herbicide use. 2. Increase the density of plantings to out-compete weeds. 3. Encourage birds, butterflies, etc. with plant choices, food, shelter, and water. 4. Tolerate some insect damage to plants. 5. Incorporate native plants into our garden. 6. Group plants of similar water needs. 7. Incorporate droughtresistant plants into our garden. 8. Install efficient irrigation (such as drip, timers, soaker hoses). 9. Grasscycle (leave grass clippings on the lawn). 10. Reduce the size of our lawn. 11. Mulch with leaves, grass, wood chips, etc. 12. Amend soil with compost. 13. Minimize hardscapes (patios, decks). 14. Compost yard waste and kitchen scraps at home. Began after the Tour Plan to 6% 6% 10% 41% 14% 23% 7% 13% 17% 25% 12% 32% 12% 25% 5% 26% 4% 13% 7% 28% 9% 18% 5% 18% 4% 15% 4% 15% 8
First-time registrants The tour was highly motivating to first time registrants; nearly half (49%) of firsttime registrants who completed the evaluation responded that they planned to increase the density of plants, thus helping to out-compete weeds and reduce water use. 46% of first time registrants planned to group plants by water needs, and 45% planned to incorporate native plants into their gardens. 40% planned to reduce the size of their lawns. 39% planned to incorporate drought-resistant plants into their gardens; and 35% to install efficient irrigation. 35% planned to encourage wildlife. 27% planned to mulch, and 24% to amend their soils; 22% to compost kitchen scraps and yard waste; 19% planned to tolerate some insect damage; 16% planned to reduce or eliminate pesticide use; and 14% planned to reduce the amount of hardscape in their gardens. How do you manage your garden? (235 responses from first-time registrants) ITEM Plan to 1. Reduce/eliminate 15% insecticide/herbicide use. 2. Increase the density of plantings to out-compete 49% weeds. 3. Encourage birds, butterflies, etc. with plant choices, food, shelter, and 35% water. 4. Tolerate some insect 19% damage to plants. 5. Incorporate native plants 45% into our garden. 6. Group plants of similar 46% water needs. 7. Incorporate droughtresistant plants into our 39% garden. 8. Install efficient irrigation (such as drip, timers, 33% soaker hoses). 9. Grasscycle (leave grass 12% clippings on the lawn). 10. Reduce the size of our 40% lawn. 11. Mulch with leaves, 27% grass, wood chips, etc. 12. Amend soil with 24% compost. 13. Minimize hardscapes 16% 9
(patios, decks). 14. Compost yard waste and kitchen scraps at home. 22% Number of visitors at each garden, and total number of garden visits made # AM visitors # PM visitors Total Visitors BAYSIDE CITIES Alameda Alameda Butterfly Habitat 60 49 109 Ruth Lafler 40 47 87 Oaktown Native Plant Nursery 150 Ploughshares Nursery Albany Leslie Zander 175 207 382 Berkeley California Native Bee Garden 62 171 233 Scott and Jenny Fleming 300 365 665 David Loeb 250 266 516 Regional Parks Botanic Garden 50 50 100 Glen Schneider 128 268 396 Dale and Alison Webber 110 155 265 Roy and Carolyn West 239 266 505 The Watershed Nursery 300 Matthew White and Sara Holzman 188 295 483 Native Here Nursery 180 Castro Valley Mary Cooper 50 167 217 Pat and John Hierro 108 51 159 Jeff and Julie Johnson 139 73 212 Miguel and Deborah Torres 128 Crockett CREEC Native Plant Nursery 35 El Cerrito Rick Franklin and Janice Woo 108 113 221 Michael Graf 173 Keith Hamby 45 58 103 10
El Sobrante Karen Anderson Hayes 55 31 86 El Sobrante Library 32 24 56 Hayward Debbi Brusco 90 57 147 Brenda Senturia and Gary Cooper 102 87 189 Oakland Janette Bachman and Mary Pellerin 54 85 139 Kate Dobbins 100 140 240 Jo McCondochie 67 131 197 Oakland Museum of California 20 Pinole Kim and Jeff Jerge 76 56 132 Richmond Paul Carman and Anita Pereira 158 297 455 Margot Cunningham and Pierre La Plant 179 202 381 Dave Drummond 189 256 445 Joan Underwood 270 INLAND CITIES Clayton Kelly Marshall and Mike Weidner 121 168 289 Concord Roy and Rosadelia Detwiler 144 115 259 Livermore Tim and Chris Boczanowski 104 120 224 Ann and Paul Kasameyer 84 158 242 Anne and Ed Severs 133 123 256 Martinez Mary Lu and Bob Burchard 112 135 247 John Muir National Historic Site 80 64 144 Nancy Salsig 101 164 265 Orinda Moraga Al Kyte 190 221 411 Shary Rosenbaum 140 197 337 11
Barbara Leitner 355 Lois Reynolds and Terry Mead 116 198 314 Pittsburg Frances Dahlquist 85 Pleasant Hill Martha and Greg Alexander 305 Jan Enderle 160 135 295 Pleasanton Ward and Pat Belding 87 119 206 Walnut Creek BJ and Larry Ledgerwood 391 318 709 Meg McShannic and Dave Wallace 315 277 592 5432 6479 13911 When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people. (Chinese proverb) Below are comments from garden tour attendees, either taken from registrant evaluation forms, or received via e-mail. We have changed our gardening practices since attending our first tour a few years ago. Every time we're inspired to do more. I enjoy talking to the garden owners and designers. A great program. The brochure is top-notch, as is the web site. At every garden visited the hosts were friendly and welcoming. I'll attend again. Very well organized and thorough implementation. selection of gardens was excellent. We know how much work organizing a tour of this magnitude is. Kathy cannot receive enough accolades. The volunteers were friendly and informative. It was a delightful day. We enjoyed being able to buy plants on Saturday giving us more time to visit gardens. As always, you did a great job. Always find new ideas, new plants, new layouts / design ideas. Great surprises waiting in some of those back yards! 12
I really appreciated the various gardeners and designers sharing their process and philosophies with us all. I also really like the tour booklet and the plant lists. I save them from year to year and use as reference. Thank you for a very well organized tour and extremely helpful hosts! Loved the booklet with size of gardens and good directions and parking ideas. Very good helpers at each site. This was our first year and we really enjoyed it. We got lots of ideas on how to change our garden to more natives. We are looking forward to seeing more gardens in future Native Gardens Tours. Thanks for all your efforts. Liked having the names of plants staked nearby. LOVE exploring new neighborhoods & people's gardens. Enjoy the talks. THANK YOU for this wonderful opportunity you provide! The whole Bay Area community benefits from this garden tour, and it is so relevant to our challenges for sustainable living. what an amazing guide!! excellent organization, easy to participate, great to meet more people doing this in my area (el cerrito). Appreciate the wide variety of gardens, the talks at some gardens, and the wellorganized booklet. Excellent job organizing it. This was my 3rd year to take the tour and each time I learn new things. Good to have the nurseries available the day before. The brochure is beautifully done - easy to use and attractive. All of the gardeners were friendly and willing to share their knowledge/experience. This is a wonderful tour. Each yard was beautiful. I love the tour, think you're doing important education, plus bringing pleasure and imagination to people. My mind was trending in that direction, but you have moved me along considerably. It was impressive to meet the people coming to look at the gardens, and how much they know already and are open to learn. Thanks for your good work. [from a volunteer] I really appreciate all of the gardeners who opened up their homes for this tour. The website is really helpful and full of information and ideas. It was lovely to be greeted at each garden and made to feel welcome. Very helpful owners/staff members in answering questions. I learned so much about how to install a butterfly garden. You do wonderful work (and a lot of it) putting this together. 13
Always an inspiring and informative tour - we loved it! Enjoyed helping out at a tour site this year, too. [from a volunteer] Loved the tour, even with the rain. I was impressed with how organized the tour was. Homeowners and volunteers were very friendly and helpful. Great program. I always learn a lot. I plan on tearing out a lot of my plants and planting more natives. Thanks a lot for all the great ideas. thought the gardens and the volunteers were amazing. So willing to help. Overall it was a very pleasant way to spend my Sunday and get some good ideas. It motivated me to move on my gardening projects. I know this is a tremendous amount of work, but the tour is fantastic and much appreciated. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! My husband was reluctant to go, but once he stepped into the Ledgerwood's yard, he was sold on going "native" -- also we really enjoyed Michael, Kelly & Mrs. Detwiler spending so much time with everyone. This is an outstanding program! Wonderful assortment of gardens to view. Friendly homeowners/gardeners who pleasantly provided information on many of the plants in their garden, pros and cons of planting with natives, and the pleasantries of gardening. Fantastic!! We're lucky to have such talented, committed people organizing and seeing to ALL the details of this A+ garden tour!! It's great! I always learn so much and get energized to change my own garden to include more natives. Thanks for all your hard work, we really enjoy this open house and learn a lot. The sun came out this year at the end of Sunday in time for the bees to arrive at the pollinator garden-it was fantastic! Thanks to the organizers, volunteers and homeowners. This is a wonderful gift to the community. My favorite event of the year... This tour is always fantastic; volunteers and owners are friendly and informative. Thank you very much for all the work in organizing it! Great hosts; terrific booklet; learned so much. It is wonderful to have this opportunity to get ideas on gardening with native plants. I have learned from the tour each year. 14
I attend every year; it's a highlight of Spring. The booklet is fantastic. Very well organized and a great, important effort to improve the world. Thank you. I had a great time again this year. It has become an annual ritual. It was wonderfully organized, and the booklet and website are extremely welldone and helpful. Great to have the maps and directions, and to have the gardens organized by location. It made it very easy to plan my day. I look forward to the tour next year. The weather was not a problem. We are total novices at trying to convert to drought resistant and native plants. This is a great learning experience for us. We hope to redo our yard. Thank you very much for all the work and your enthusiasm which is very contagious. The web site will be very useful for us. Thank you again. Very organized, well run- brochure is great. Excellent! Inspiring! Great job! I am so appreciative of all the work that has gone into this tour and of bringing the use of native plants to our attention and use in our gardens. I have been trying to do it more over the years and have struggled with how to go about it and this has been a wonderful source. Gardens... beautiful. Lectures... enlightening. Experience... not to be missed. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We have a new house and yard, and after this tour, I now know that I will "go native" wherever possible. Thanks! I have gone on the tour for 3 years and I think this was the best year for me. Maybe it was the gardens I chose, but none were disappointing. The best part was that most of the owners were very present and enthusiastic and truly wanted to share what they had learned. I learned so much this year. I loved being able to ask someone detailed questions about maintenance. I think this garden tour is an educational community experience and I think it really is valuable to the people who live here. I just really like learning from others. I thought the weather was fine - the colors were rich and you know the plants were happy. It was not cold - a blessed May shower. Thank you so much for organizing it. It's a special part of spring for us. Thanks so much for organizing all of it. Huge amount of work. The catalog continues to be excellent. Enjoyed it very much. Hope to attend again next year! Got some nice ideas and inspiration. Well done : ) Thank you very much!!! You did a fabulous job on everything -the publicity, all parts of the printed tour guide, the website is amazing, loved the vendors choice of plants, array of 15
gardens (and the sheer number), the great volunteers. It was all terrific. Can't wait until next year. This was my first experience with native plant gardens. I loved it! It really made me want to rush straight home and start planning. I thought the event was very well planned, especially the book you sent, along with the info on each garden and especially the arrangement of the gardens in appropriate order for going from garden to garden. The owners and the other workers were all helpful and knowledgeable. Wonderful as ever! KUDOS! wonderful! thanks for all the work and logistics. very well organized!!! Nice job, great info ahead of time. I am looking forward to learning more about natives, and adding them to my existing landscape. This is such a wonderful garden tour. It is beautifully organized and executed. Thanks to all. This tour provided real inspiration for changing my own garden. Most enjoyable. Thank you for your efforts. We began making major changes after the tour last year and are so pleased with what we are learning. The booklet is the greatest! Look forward to coming again next year. As always the tour was great. We look forward to this tour every year & have added many more natives to our garden each year. Fabulous tour once again - an event to look forward to each year - shown by the great turn out despite the rain! Superb brochure and website; you make it so easy and accessible for everyone to get the information they need. Congratulations. Amazing, well organized brochure and pre-information! Great job once again!!! Inspiring! Great tour! Thank you, and please continue to provide this wonderful opportunity for all levels of gardeners to view such wonderful work and get inspired. An incredible amount of work to put such a large tour together. Thank you! A great effort and very helpful and knowledgeable volunteers. 16
I've been every year and I've loved it every year. Great job. We plan to attend again & aspire to be a garden on the tour someday. Most enjoyable, I was able to see a wide variety of gardens, learn more about specific natives condusive to Contra Costa County, and see what folks did with the challenges of large, sloped yards. Excellent job!! My daughter joined me on the tour and she also raved about what a lovely time she had. Excellent tour, one of my favorites and very helpful to me in my gardening practices. This is just the best tour going. This is just the best tour going. I had a great time volunteering at Matt White's garden. Matt and Sarah were gracious hosts. Ted from Four Dimensions was also present to answer the hard questions, so my job was easy. I will definitely volunteer again if I am not a host myself. Wonderful tour, great job! This is such a great garden tour. it is inspiring to see all the like-minded community folks, sharing their information/expertise in such a generous way to make the community and world a better place! Docents were fabulous. This is something I really look forward to each year. The booklet is superb. It is beautifully organized and clear and well-written and a total "keeper." Thank you very much! Great opportunity to see native plants and make inquires before incorporating into own yard. Website is fabulous and valuable. Thanks to all the wonderful people who were so welcoming and helpful. It was a really delightful event. I hope to become a regular. Great work! Many thanks to all organizers and participants! You are a wonderful resource for our community. People on tour are all very nice. There is so much to learn that it is hard to know where to begin. 17
The last 3 years on the tour have changed my ideas about cultivation. Everything was extremely well organized. The book and the website were really well done. There was an amazing amount of information available. An incredible job again, Kathy. I don't know how you do it. The guide book is fantastic --- so much valuable info that I will keep it rather than recycle it. Hosts and volunteers were extremely friendly and helpful. incredibly well organized & staffed. Thank you for all of your efforts. Very informative, appreciated owners labeling plants and being available for questions. Kathy, Thanks for all of your work and commitment to this event. I hope the tour was successful, despite the weather. It is a privilege to be involved and benefit from the tour. I always look forward to the tour, but always want more time to tour more gardens. This household spreads the native garden gospel whenever possible and mentions the fun and inspiration of working with native plants. The tour guide's educational component is excellent, and the carpooling link a great feature. Excellent links to education on page 14 and on your website. I liked being able to choose which homes to visit, and that many were in my own area. I LOVE the tour guide with its descriptions of the gardens and list of area nurseries that carry native plants. Very helpful! Love it, love it, love it! I enjoy your Website and will tell my friends about you. The registration booklet is really beautiful and also contains a lot of good information. Booklet and maps were very helpful in finding gardens. Having them grouped together in the booklet was a time saver. Well done. Great Tour. I enjoyed it & the plants were well labeled. It will help me picking out plants for my garden. Enjoyed it immensely - despite the weather. Well organized, beautiful gardens, nice people. This is my 5th year working as a Garden Assistant. I've learned much each year and met many intelligent people dedicated to bringing Natives back to the Bay area. I'm looking forward to next year. [from a volunteer] 18
Looking forward to next year! All gardens offered a variety of native plants to see. It seemed like the owners enjoyed the results of their changed landscaping. It was great that the homeowners were there to discuss their yards. You guys are doing fantastic work. Continue to spread the word. you are doing such a wonderful job. thank you. Great event and web site! I learned a lot. The tour is woderful, gardens, booklet, website, the spirit in which it is done. Thanks for a professionally organized, informative and extensively documented (website, booklet) tour. We had a wonderful time - great diversity of gardens. Really appreciate the well-organized booklet, free access, timely turnaround of registration, abundance of information. Fabulous organization. Thank you for another great year. I find such inspiration in visiting the gardens. The hosts are so nice and welcoming. I really enjoyed all the gardens I visited today. We visited 5 in total, appreciated the varied approaches and the wonderful sweet fragrance from the native plants post rain. We sheet mulched a year and a half ago and in Feb. started moving towards a 95% native garden. We got wonderful ideas and their beauty affirmed to us that we were on the right track in going native. Just loved the feel, fragrance, beauty,etc. I was also impressed by the booklet I rec'd in the mail. It was presented in a way that supported sorting through the wide variety of choices and the directions were very clear and concise. Information was very helpful and supportive for one who wants to learn more about natives. Very motivating, well done tour. The tour program book is great - so well organized and helpful - it is obvious that a lot of work and dedication go into the tour. I look forward to this tour for months - it's a wonderful opportunity to see native plants in garden settings and is as educational as it is inspirational. Thank you! The booklet you send out is great- I love reading the garden descriptions and the maps and directions are very helpful. 19
Kudos to all involved! Very well organized. Well-organized! THE BBTNGT BOOKLET IS SUPERB REFERENCE - THANKS so much! Gardens were pretty - and actually the earlier rain made them look gorgeous. Weather was perfect, not too hot. It was wonderful!!!!!!!! Very good job of organization at the gardens and great catalog! I am very impressed with the organization of the tour. We love the idea of this tour and it was fun to see all the people out looking at the gardens. Many thanks to all the people who put this together. It's obvious that there's much hard work and much accomplished. It was great! I hope I win a consultation, but if not, I will still make my garden more of a native plant habitat. well done all around. the booklet and website are really excellent. Great tour! All the homeowners were knowledgable and helpful. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, answering questions very patiently. I will definitely return to see additional gardens on next year's tour. Thank you!!!! I loved the variety of the gardens. Some are grand, others are humble and everything inbetween. Thanks! Your guidebook is beautiful! I loved the descriptions, the maps and the extra info at the front with gardening suggestions, resources, etc. Your website was fabulous! I looked at photos of gardens as a preview to be sure the garden style was something I wanted to see - and it helped me narrow down my list! Good organization, good geographic variety, useful guidebook Splendid production! The guide booklet is wonderful...useful in many ways beyond the tours. This is a wonderful teaching tool for interested gardeners. Seeing and being inspired is the first step. It is also a great venue for garden designers to show off their work. I think the Bringing Back Natives Garden Tour brings awareness to the public on environmentally friendly yard systems. In the long run, it may help change the ecology to restore some wildlife habitats that humans destroyed over the years. 20
Wonderful gardens, very inspiring. I love the various tours and am convinced that they will help spread the practice of gardening with natives. Keep it up! The catalogue is a valuable tool that I'll save with my garden references; It's beautifully produced. Very well organized! My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everyone was so friendly and the gardens were all lovely to see! Thank you!!! The tour book and website show such a great amount of detail. Excellent. Really appreciate the pictures on website, and references to how to garden, nurseries etc. thanks. I really enjoyed the garden I saw and learned q lot. It was a job very well done and I thank you. It was a superb event, so wonderful to visit these gardens which were obviously the result of much passionate and conscientious effort! Some of the plants were beautiful, I would like to have some of the plants in my front yard and back yardk I thought the front and back yards look readly nice. I enjoyed myself and so did my friends. This is the fourth year I've been on the tour and I never get tired of seeing the native plants in the garden settings instead of nursery cans. Love it. Took 2 friends this year. Suggest to others to bring friends every year. I heard about the tour at a meeting of the Danville and Alamo Garden Club. I logged on to the website to find out more and most very impressed with the amount of information and overall organization. When I saw that volunteers were needed I immediately decided that I wanted to help. The brochure had an incredible amount of information and was very well laid out - I cannot imagine anyone finding fault with it. I loved the way that it was possible to access the lists of plans in any of the gardens. Meg and Dave Wallace had almost 600 people come through their garden today - that is quite incredible but just goes to show how interested people are in native plants. My congratulations on a very successful venture - I can't imagine how much time you have spent on organizing this! Love it. Your staffers on site at gardens were very friendly and accommodating. Signage good. Enjoyed having some natives for sale. Bought a few I'd been having hard time finding in the past. Fabulous selection, great volunteers, LOVE the labels, wish all were in BIG font and laminated. Loved have knowledgeable people in each garden. Great idea - well executed! 21
Website and brochure are excellent. Incredibly well-designed. Marvelous, thank you so much. I will highly recommend the tour to my friends. AWESOME job done by all involved. I especially appreciated the lists of plants to be seen at each home that you provided online. Thank you so much for this incredible treat. We felt so privileged to get to see all these gardens and to learn so much. All gardens were very well labeled, the volunteers and homeowners very helpful. You have made a lot of improvements over the years and I feel you have it perfected. I wouldn't change a thing! Very good job! Thanks for having us. Everyone does a great job of welcoming guests to their properties, it is much appreciated. We really love the tour and want to thank everyone involved for their hard work and beautiful and healthy gardens. All of the people were very friendly and knowledgeable about the plantings. Lots of very useful information. Well organized, informative, and fun, even in the rain! I had a wonderful time. learned a lot. bought some plants. The tour is wonderfully well-organized. I love the tour book, and make notes in it about the gardens I visit. Our entire family loved it, even in the rain! You're doing a great job! I love that you include driving directions and parking tips. The gardens we visited were excellent, plants were available for sale at one, the hosts were gracious, and the talk by landscape designer was good. Great job. Learned much. Was inspirational. Friendly people. Fantastic! I felt it was extremely well coordinated. The landscapers, volunteers, etc. were extremely friendly and helpful. The mailed tour booklet was excellent...very well organized with every bit of information one might need to get to every garden. The added pictures on the website really helped me narrow down what gardens might be best to see because they seemed comparable to ours. Keep up the good work. Definitely plan to attend again. 22
FABULOUS opportunity to learn about Native Plants! Wonderful website & the book you sent out is amazing. Everyone we met was pleasant, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Wonderful event that we will share with others. We are so glad we ventured out in the lousy weather...we were greatly rewarded! Job WELL DONE! Very well organized. Kudos! Very nice brochure, very complete and engaging. The whole tour, the website, the graphic production, the email communications, the gardens and guides were all upbeat, interesting and fun. This was first rate in every respect. I appreciated the information on species including the identifying signs and tags. This added a lot for me. The availability of owners, designers and maintainers to provide additional information and answer questions was really nice. After seeing these gardens, the first of the native gardens I have visited, I am amazed at how much color and the options available with natives. I will definately be incorperating some of the plants I saw today in my garden. I don't think I am ready to give up my roses, but adding the natives can reduce my water use, save money and time and help the envirorment. I am pretty sure I can achieve at least 50% native and still have the roses I love around me. This tour is an annual highlight for me! I loved your tour guide and the wealth of information that was in it! Thanks to all the volunteers. I really appreciate it. Everything was well organized. Loved the plant sale. I'm inspired. Excellent job, well organized. The book was just great, so helpful. Fantastic programs and great web site with exceptional resources for all aspects of gardening. Volunteers, brochure and website are outstanding. People with a passion are doing this - I can tell. BEAUTIFUL brochure and OUTSTANDING website that allow downloading of plant names - no need to improve. This is my 3rd or 4th year - I've lost count - and I really think you've only improved - especially having people on hand who have a passion for the specific garden they are representing. THANK YOU to all who make it possible - such a gem of a tour. I appreciated the good driving directions and descriptions of the gardens. 23
Especially appreciated the detailed booklet mailed to me ahead of time. I was able to plan efficiently, but still not enough time. We appreciate the work that has gone into making it possible for us to see so many lovely gardens. People who were showing gardens were very pleasant and interested in sharing information. It made for a great experience. Numerous people commented on the thoughtful, well-organized garden guide. Kathy and the crew do a terrific job every year. I think the website is OUTSTANDING. Kathy, you do an incredible job of putting together these gardens. We always enjoy the tour and appreciate the astonishing amount of work that goes into it. People who were showing gardens were very pleasant and interested in sharing information. It made for a great experience. The tour is a wonderful idea. It's really lovely to see what others are doing--an inspiration for me given I'm very new to gardening. We moved into our house in Albany last year and inherited a garden. I've learned a lot during the past year, but want to learn so much more. The tour helped me identify plants I've been thinking of planting, but also exposed me to so many others. Great Job! We saw many lovely yards and met great folks. Thanks for the inspiration and all the hard work it takes to put this together! Great tour--volunteers and owners were all wonderful and knowledgeable. I am happy that there were so many people out looking at the native plant gardens! Thank you to everyone who opens their gardens. So much work! Very much appreciated. This is a great service and a wonderful way to acquaint novice gardeners with how attractive natives can be. The book you put out is phenomenal! Everyone in our group commented on how well done it is. Love this tour. Took out my front grass lawn and planted native, drought tolerant plants as a result. It opened a new world. It's inspiring and motivating. 24