This past Sat., my Mom and I toured 5 gardens, 2 in Berkeley and 3 in Oakland.
Here are some highlights.

This garden belongs to Keeyla Meadows who is a painter, sculptor & garden designer. Here's her bio:
http://www.keeylameadows.net/b...
Her garden is a riot of color, full of her creative art pieces and lots of plants, all packed into a small city lot space.
These shots are of the small front yard section. You can see how small that is by where the people are standing on the sidewalk and where the front porch is.

Her tiled patio


Eclectic use of tile, pavers and bits of granite


Small veggie garden

Two veggie planted turquoise pots, the large one planted with zucchini I believe and a fig tree in the middle

She made these walls for her raised beds, filled with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. There are several very large boulders used throughout the garden as well.


More of the patio
and standing on that patio looking toward an arbor

She mixes all kinds of materials for the pathways

Looking toward her studio in the back, the large stacked rocks in the center is one of two fountains.

Funky bench, blackberries behind it. *************One of her colorful pots


Bright doors, mosaic floors. *************** Looking back at the arbor

This is her yellow and purple garden with a butterfly shaped bench, cement cylinders, painted steps and platforms and blooms to match.

She had a beautiful metal arbor with brugmansia blooms over the butterfly bench, backed by large yellow brug tree and real blooms.


A mosaic bench against the house**************with matching patio floor


Some more plantings



Aerial views from the second story balcony. You can see the large boulders and pavers crammed into such a small space, making different elevations in the garden thereby giving the garden different 'rooms' or spaces. The yellow/purple garden is totally hidden in the back corner in the first shot.

Next we toured the garden of Marcia Donahue, a well known Berkeley sculptor and gardener.
It felt like we stepped into an exotic jungle with lots of tall trees, shrubs and plants of all kinds, creating a dense lush green canopy. Along the side of the Victorian style house, a lush tunnel of bamboo,and other plants, under planted with bowling balls and silverware. Again, on a small city lot.



Several chickens were wandering around

These 'bulbs' were her pieces of ceramic art work.


This is her porch light, which I recognized from one of my favorite garden books by Thomas Hobbs, The Jewel Box Garden.

This next garden was a favorite of mine. It was an acre in the Oakland hills, created 11 years ago, formerly covered in eucalyptus, juniper & ivy. The owner has transformed it over the years, adding stone walls, patios, a large koi pond, arbors, a small greenhouse, a lath house, a pool and a small nursery. She has also added art pieces from her friends, Keeyla Meadows and Marcia Donahue.

It's late, I'll finish tomorrow.

Wow, Sue. I hope you have highlights from the other gardens too. I love these tours.

Keeyla Meadows' garden is fabulous. What a happy place! The funny thing is that most of the individual art works look absolutely hideous to me, but they all work together just beautifully. And I suddenly feel like painting my house all over again. I love the colors of her house. It looks like a big Gucci wallet.

I can't see where the silverware is in Marcia Donahue's "tunnel," but I love seeing chickens wandering around in a garden.

The third garden is amazing -- so tropical! It's hard to believe it's in the East Bay, although I do remember the weather in Oakland being very kind to tropical plants.

I agree about the art work, over the top for me but perfect in her garden. She's written a couple of books, here is her most recent one. You can click on the book to see some of the pages. Make sure you use the scroll bar to move through several pages at a time before clicking the next page.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881929409/

I forgot to take a picture of Marcia Donahue's silverware collection but it was a large pot filled with sand I believe and all the silverware just stuck into the sand, the ornate handled knives all grouped together, (maybe 40-50 of them), and the large group of forks grouped together.
Found a Flickr image
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881929409/
Her redwood 'hand' gate https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881929409/
and https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881929409/

I didn't take too many pictures in the next garden, the sun was so bright and glaring. Here are a few:
I am always looking for garden path & recycled material ideas.

This was another fabulous garden, so many wandering paths and levels, I actually lost my Mom for a while! Lots of brick used everywhere.
This was at the entry way, one on each side.
The gate made from horseshoes.

Beautiful shaded paths in the lower garden

In one corner, a small embellished wall

A large brick wall, with wave pattern along the top divided one area from the other. Covered in creeping fig. The wall had bits of unusual embellishments as well, bottles and clay objects and a few quirky surprises.

There were three gates with words over them. The gate in the brick wall said "There". Another said "Here" and this one said "Everywhere".

Through the gate was this interesting collection of clay pipes & art work and the views toward San Francisco from here were fantastic although too hazy for a good shot.

Lots of paths led to various sitting areas.



My favorite spot was the patio right along the back of the house, wonderful bright plantings, a fountain and orange umbrella.



Next to that patio were stairs going up into the middle of the garden.

Which led to the pond,

I loved how the grasses popped up between the flagstones


The pond spills water under the walkway and down this channel to the waterfall that faces the umbrella sitting area.


Some more details:











That's all folks!

Oh Sue, that is just wonderful, each one is so special in it's own way. I thank you many times over for taking the time to post your tours, they are such a treat for me.

Great photos, Sue! I attended Secret Gardens of the East Bay for years, and got so many ideas. I still review those photos sometimes. In September we're doing Monterey Bay Master Gardeners, which we always enjoy!

Glad you enjoyed it ladies!
If I am not in the middle of a move then, I would be interested in doing that tour too Janet! Just put it on my calender after checking the website:
http://www.montereybaymasterga...

How are things going on your move Sue?

We close on this house Sept 10th, still no word from the bank on the new house. We'll probably have to store everything and stay with my Mom for a while. If the other one closes within a couple of weeks of this one then the buyers offered to allow us to do a rent back, that would be the best case scenario as it would only take one move. I am not holding my breath though. I am gradually packing, tackling the garden too, lots of dividing and taking cuttings.

So much creativity is exhibited in these gardens. I really love the brick "railing" with the dark blue tiles incorporated in it. It's in the two photos showing the "stairs going up into the middle of the garden" in the last set of pictures. The pig is very cool too.

Zuzu, I liked that too---I love the those pierced tiles in walls & fences. This photo's from the Secret Gardens 2003 tour---the whole house was inspiring to me. When I look at the photos I can see my interpretation of it throughout my garden.

Sue, if you can make that MBMG tour, it would be great! I have one definite "yes" and two "maybe", so there's room for you to carpool with us if you want. They always have a plant sale, too, so cargo sometimes gets a little challenging, though!