El Cerrito couple pull grass, go native
If you're daunted by the prospect of replacing your turf, let Donna Bodine's 1,000-square-foot front yard in El Cerrito be your incentive.
The garden, on the Bringing Back the Natives tour Sunday (May 5), is a choice selection of native plants, artfully arranged and accented by rocks Bodine and her hydrogeologist husband, Jim Durkin, collected on hikes.
Solarization (using the sun's heat to kill weeds) was out because the temperature increase can do in the soil organisms.
For material, she turned to Annie's Annuals and Perennials and the Watershed Nursery in nearby Richmond and Yerba Buena Nursery in San Mateo County.
Bee attractorsAlong with flowering shrubs, Pacific Coast hybrid irises like 'Canyon Snow' and annuals, Bodine chose plants that attract bees: bee plant (of course), monardella, buckwheats, gilia.
The curb strip, once overrun with weeds, is now covered with annuals (white and yellow meadow foam, two native poppy species) and native grasses.
"The main way my approach has changed over time is that the garden has less of a tidy look and more habitat value," Bodine reflected.