Santa Clara Habitat Gardens

Rich with color, texture, and plant-palette diversity, frequented by butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, songbirds, and more, Santa Clara Habitat Gardens enliven the senses and nourish the soul. They're artisanal and ecological by design, including many native plants, recycled redwood stairway treads and stepping "stones" of repurposed concrete. Created as "Gardens of Delight for People & Pollinators" by Alisa Rose Seidlitz of Loving Gardens Designs, the three separate areas were planted over time, with gentle changes happening each year. The front garden, at about 14 years old, offers a variety of planting vignettes capturing one's attention on the way to the front door, and down the curving path to the back garden. The wide, tiered back garden, in its fourth season, with swaths of full sun and several seating areas, welcomes everyone to relax and breathe in the beauty. Sweet aroma abounds. While the front and back gardens have some irrigation, there's an overall water-wise/low-water focus, with some parts needing no supplemental or only spot watering. The unfenced driveway side garden is the most recently planted, and has no irrigation at all. It requires only minimal, very occasional watering. With something in bloom year-round, it's untouched by deer, although they have been seen romping through without stopping! Santa Clara Habitat Gardens sit on the territory of Huichin, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo Ohlone, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. Garden Extras: 1:30 p.m. "Delightfully Delectable!" Did you know that many familiar flowers can feed people as well as pollinators? Expanding on last year's conversation, engaging speaker, Eco-Garden & Western Feng Shui Designer/Educator Alisa Rose Seidlitz will share ways to create spaces of beauty and delight for yourself, while staying in sync with nature. Honoring Soil, Wind, and Water, she'll answer questions and discuss pollinator-habitat plants, edible flowers, water-wise design choices, surprising bee info, and some open secrets about California poppies, yarrow, and the plants we call "weeds." (A bit of rewilding can be key!) Garden is partially accessible.