Marcia Donohue's remarkable and inspiring garden in Berkeley

Our airbnb host in Berkeley very kindly offered to see if we could visit the garden of Marcia Donohue, just round the corner. A valuable history here. And with permission, we went and visited the garden in late afternoon light.

There are decades of work here, and work continuing. Note in the photos how natural and created forms are integrated. As are chickens. Inspiration for our own gardens, which are still comparatively young. We are encouraged especially by the intense and subtle use of what is quite a small garden space.

this elegant eucalypt in front of the house fitted the situation so nicely but also took us home

some fun uses of bowling balls throughout the garden
Not much fun if you don't have a bit of fun!

magical little touches

small things achieve a lot
and in time these strings fade and die,
there is a combination in the artwork of the very robust and the ephemeral

the leaf fall, so ephemeral, so much enhances the look of these pavers

and then, walking along the street, this amazing sight, a tea tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, or rather two of them, which someone had in the past twisted together. An Australian tree gone mad in Florida, see link above.