Cynthia Typaldos’ Palo Alto Garden

CNPS Garden Ambassador:  Cynthia Typaldos

 

CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Garden Location:  Front and back yard
Garden Size:  3,200 square feet
Year Planted:  2012

 

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People are stunned at the beauty of native plant bouquets.  It’s a way to be kind and also do some native plant gardening inspiration and education!

Cynthia Typaldos started her California native plant garden six years ago with the goal to create a native habitat.  After gaining approval from her landlord, Cynthia was able to transform the ordinary, lawn dominant front yard into an extraordinary California native plant garden – an oasis for wildlife in a suburban desert.  Not only that, but Cynthia was able to use rebates from her utilities to cover the nearly all the costs!

Before starting her garden, Cynthia worked with the Santa Clara Valley Water District and their creek mitigation efforts to have an invasive ivy removed, as it had taken over the fence bordering the yard and the creek.  The yard was also full of weeds including crabgrass and oxalis.  With some dedicated mulching and weeding, her garden is now virtually weed free!

The cottage-style garden is anchored by a long-blooming island tree mallow (Malva assurgentiflora), while manzanita (Arctostaphylos ssp.), California lilac (Ceanothus ssp.), and coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) provide a green, lush look all year.  Recent additions include a California buckeye (Aesculus californica) and chaparral currant (Ribes malvaceum) by the driveway; toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides) and desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) along the creek side; and a monkeyflower (Mimulus ssp.) and several varieties of buckwheat (Eriogonum ssp.) in the center areas.  Cynthia also started converting the back yard in the fall of 2017, which now includes a wildflower meadow and natural, mulched path that meanders through the garden.

Attracting pollinators, especially bumblebees, has been especially rewarding to Cynthia.  Yet Cynthia’s garden is magnet for not only wildlife, but her neighbors as well!  Cynthia has met many of her neighbors who stop by to look at the garden, and admire how it changes over the seasons.  Every year in the spring, she uses some of the wildflowers in her gardens to create bouquets in vases.  She then gives these to friends and businesses that she frequents.  “People are stunned at the beauty of native plants so it’s a way to be kind and also do some education and recruiting!”

Cynthia’s favorite California native plants

About the garden

Garden Location:  Front and back yard.

Garden Size:  3,200 square feet

Year Planted:  Various parts of the garden were planted at different times, starting from 2012.

Lawn Removal:  Sheet mulching with layers of cardboard and mulch.

Design and Installation:  Combination of myself and a landscaper.

Style Inspiration:  As wild as possible – while keeping my neighbors and landlord happy!

Go-to Native Plant Nurseries:  CNPS Chapter plant sales, and Summerwinds in Palo Alto.

Irrigation:  Now that the garden is mature, I water every 3 weeks via drip system in summer/fall/late spring. I hand water new plants.

Maintenance:  I maintain my garden myself with monthly help from a professional native plant gardener/designer.

Wildlife Spotted:  Lots of native birds and insect pollinators, my favorite of which are bees.  Also frogs, ducks, lizards, opossums, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, and field mice.

Favorite Element:  The wildflower meadow in the back.

Biggest Challenge:  Keeping a wild look that is still suitable for a suburban neighborhood.

Advice:  Get involved with your local chapter!  Our chapters have experts that give great talks about key gardening topics, such as easiest garden plants, container gardening, and more.  They have plant lists that really help in choosing your first set of plants (and beyond).

Also, participate in the local garden tour.  It’s a lot of fun – you get to know your other native plant gardeners plus a whole slew of interesting people in the chapter and those who come to your garden on the tour.

Remember to put the “Native Plants Live Here” sign on your garden to let the neighbors know why it’s so fragrant and beautiful.  Pass out bouquets in the spring.  Have a space for wildflowers.

More information about Cynthia’s garden can be found at Going Native Garden Tour (#GreerDucky_GNGT)

Visit Cynthia’s garden on the 2019 Going Native Garden Tour in Santa Clara Valley.  The tour is free and will be held May 4th and 5th.  Click here to learn more and register for the tour.  #GoingNativeGardenTour, #GNGT2019

California native plants in Cynthia’s garden

 

CNPS Horticulture Team

Gardening

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