Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour (Online)

Sundays in the Gardens with the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

(Online, instead of in-person. Three days, instead of one. Free.)

This program will be hosted on Zoom, and livestreamed on YouTube.

Please join us for any or all of these online events, which will be held:

Sundays from 10:00-3:00 on April 26th, May 3rd, and May 10th

Donations requested!

If you can help support the Tour, please make a donation here on the Tour’s website; contribute to our Go Fund Me campaign here; or mail a check to: Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, 1718 Hillcrest Road, San Pablo CA. 94806

Overview

In a series of 25 minute long live garden visits, passionate garden owners and the talented designers of the Bay Area’s most beautiful and inspiring landscapes will show us what’s happening in the garden now, feature their favorite natives, describe their favorite native plant gardening resources, and more.

Renowned ecologist and best-selling author Douglas Tallamy will open this event on Sunday, April 26, at 10:00.

Live Schedule

Sunday, May 10, 10:00 am – 1:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time)

10:00 – 10:10 Welcome with Tour Coordinator Kathy Kramer and garden designer Kelly Marshall. Details on the day’s schedule.

10:10 – 10:35 Jennifer Hurley and Dan Gaff’s garden, Garden #18, Alameda

10:35 – 11:00 Dale Wolford’s garden, Garden #19, Castro Valley

11:00 – 11:25 Mary Ford and Rob Lewis’ garden, Garden #20, Berkeley

11:25 – 11:50 Peter and Jocelyn Rohan’s garden, Garden #21, Richmond

11:50 – 12:10 TBD

12:10 – 12:35 Michelle Minor and Milton Friedman’s garden, Garden #22, Alameda

12:35 – 1:00 Beatrice and Bjorn Hori’s garden, Garden #23, Albany

1:00 – 1:25 Lorraine Kalich’s garden, Garden #24, San Ramon

1:25 – 1:30 Close

Two Ways to View the Program (and a Third, to Learn More)

1) Join via Zoom
We are using the webinar function of Zoom to host the events. You will need to download the free Zoom software to your device to be able to join the event using Zoom. For a seamless experience, we recommend that you download Zoom in advance.

Having trouble? Zoom has amazing support to help you learn how to use it, quite quickly. Here is a great help page, where you can choose getting started either from a desktop (e.g. home computer), or mobile device, and follow the instructions for downloading the software and sign-up.
Here is another very helpful section of the website to troubleshoot and learn more about Zoom:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us

2) Join via YouTube
To view the events on YouTube, all you need is your web browser.

3) See garden photos, read garden descriptions and print plant lists of Tour gardens

Leading up to the tour and during the live events, check out the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour’s View the 2020 Gardens page to see beautiful photographs of each garden, read garden descriptions, and view the plant lists for each of the Tour gardens. (Both the gardens featured on the virtual tours and another twenty gardens are available on the Tour’s website.)
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More on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour!

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.

Do You Have a Garden to Offer for the 2021 Tour?

If you have a garden to offer for the 2021 Tour, the application is here, and now is the time to submit it. Garden visits will begin when the shelter-in-place restrictions have been lifted. They will end in July..

Thank you

We are grateful for the community of people that make this event possible. A very special thank you to the garden hosts and designers for opening their wonderful gardens to the public, and to our volunteers for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with visitors. We are deeply grateful for the support of our sponsors—including local businesses, agencies, and non-profits and individuals.

Thanks to Theodore Payne Foundation

A very special thank you! to the fearless staff of the Theodore Payne Foundation, who were the first to host an online, live, virtual garden tour! Without their great example and advice, “Sundays in the Gardens with the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour” would not have happened.  Margaret, you are an amazing moderator with a successful career before you as an on-screen personality, should you choose to accept it;  Philip, your fabulous artistic design and tech skills did not go unnoticed, and Evan, you have shown yourself to be a stalwart, supportive, and flexible Executive Director in these difficult times.