Native Here will be participating in the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, open for the Saturday “Nursery Extravaganza” on May 5, and during the Tour on Sunday, May 6th. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm each day. That’s a long day! We will need volunteers to sell books and plants those days. To train for that, come to the nursery anytime we are open in April. You’ll get to know the plants and learn how to write up sales. Both will be great preparation for the fall Plant Fair, as well.

Native Here is open, weather permitting, on Tuesday afternoons from noon to 3 pm, Friday mornings nine to noon, and Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm. Come in, browse, buy plants, or help us with potting, watering, plant care, etc. You will find a great group of people in a serene wooded setting. The nursery is at 101 Golf Course Drive on the Berkeley side of Tilden Regional Park.

As winter came to an end and signs of spring were emerging, John and I spent quite a lot of time revisiting some of our favorite “haunts” to plan for spring seed collecting and to get some winter cuttings. I was appalled at how degraded the vegetation has become in some of these favorite places. Housing development has adversely affected adjacent wild areas: not just the scraping and building when homes were first put in, but the subsequent escape of planted garden exotics, and overzealous “fire control” where beautiful plant communities have been chopped and mowed into oblivion. Grading of fire roads and paths has piled soil and debris off the paths, smothering native vegetation. While this diminishing of the wild plant area makes our sources of propagules scarce, it also underscores the importance of Native Here Nursery’s mission: preserve the native plant gene pools to ensure that the native plant communities endure. Where will butterflies find the appropriate nectar? Bees and flies find the appropriate pollen? Birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals find the appropriate shelter? You and I can share our habitat with those critters by replanting our gardens with local natives. We can also become active in asking our local land managers and fire departments to let the native vegetation flourish. Removal of non-natives in the wildland interface will significantly reduce fire danger. Native habitat does not need to be destroyed, especially on publicly owned lands that were designed to preserve natural habitats. We can join other CNPS members who go out to remove exotic encroachers in our parks (see the notices for Susan Smith’s, Elaine Jackson’s, Lesley Hunt’s, Janet Gawthrop’s, and Tom and Jane Kelly’s work parties). We can purchase plants from Native Here for schools, parks, and community plantings.

October Plant Fair
This year’s plan is for the Plant Fair to be the 4th weekend in October, October 27 and 28. Members who would like to have some part in the production are urged to contact the nursery nativehere@ebcnps.org. Watch the web site for meeting dates.

Charli Danielsen