REALLY good (for advice) nurseries in Oakland/Berkeley?

16 years ago

I'm a New England gardener myself, but my daughter lives in Berkeley and her boyfriend has just bought a Craftsman bungalow in Oakland. Her job is to create a garden (preferably "food producing") out of the small backyard, which is now mostly grass. The yard does have a variety of fruit trees, but they will need advice (what they actually have, how to prune, whether they need more -- or male/females, etc -- to get fruit). In addition, they want to put in a fast-growing screen in the back (trees or shrubs) to block the view of an adjoining apartment building. She asked for advice on plants but of course I only know East Coast species and cultivars (I did suggest clumping bamboo as one option -- I assume that would do well in the Bay area?) She has never gardened before, aside from helping a bit in a family vegetable garden in Connecticut when she was young -- but she's eager to learn more.

She has a birthday coming up so I thought of getting her a really good, basic West Coast gardening book with an emphasis on vegetable gardening and/or fruit trees (I just saw the thread below this with some suggestions), along with a gift certificate to an especially good nursery in the area (by "especially good" I mean both in terms of stock AND in terms of their willingness/ability to give advice). Can anyone suggest a REALLY good place in the Oakland/Berkeley area? With the incredible abundance of plants out there, I have to think there are some incredible nurseries but I'm hoping there is one that not only has great stock but a staff who are willing to answer newbie questions -- my experience here on the East Coast is that some places do that better than others!

(I'm not sure of forum etiquette about asking for recommendations for commercial establishments -- if that's off limits, but you have a place you really recommend, please email me privately!)

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts (and sorry to sneak into a California forum... feel free to visit us in the New England forum any time! ;)

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Comments (8)

gardenguru1950
16 years ago
WHAT an absolutely thoughtful, well-written and considerate post!

If I lived in Oakland/Berkeley area, I'd run over and offer your daughter a free consultation on your behalf.

The best "really good, basic West Coast gardening book" is, of course, the "Sunset Western Garden Book". Buy it for your daughter. It's not specific to vegetable production but it covers it more than adequately. Sunset Books also produces books on vegetable growing, their latest incarnation being "The Edible Garden".

I'll let those who live in that area recommend the best service nurseries. And it's about time someone asked this question this way instead of "where can I get plants cheap?".

Thanks ctlady. I love Connecticut, by the way.

Joe
davissue_zone9
16 years ago
I second the Sunset Western Garden Book. The best full service nursery with the most knowledgeable help in the area would be Berkeley Horticultural Nursery. I was just there today, and they had some very nice stuff. Here's their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Berkeley hort
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The Ace Garden Center on Grand Ave and The Dry Garden Nursery are both in Oakland, and also have a lot of the same plants, but you are right, Longs was/is a fun place to shop, and particularly for the color junkies, they sure made it easy to pick up the plants you wanted in the full range of colors available, which is something many of the other nearby nurseries don't have the space to accomodate to the same degree. For those wanting the same full selection, as you have mentioned, East Bay Nursery and Berkeley Hort Nursery are good fall backs, but at higher prices. I'd also suggest that people discover the pleasures of the incredible selection out at Annie's Annuals in Richmond(www.anniesannuals), for those who need a fix for finding the less common things. Almost everything is only 4 inch pots, but this time of year is when they start having more of the rarer stuff available, and well worth a visit. Annie's also has the added benefit of the display gardens which give an idea of how to use/how big the plants get. Some of our local smaller Berkeley nurseries are also well worth checking out, such as Yabusaki's Dwight Way Nursery, and Magic Gardens. I'll also vouch that The Dry Garden Nursery is also worth a visit, especially if you have never been there before.
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bahia
16 years ago
Some other local nurseries with a good selection of plants would include The Dry Garden Nursery on Shattuck Ave in Oakland,(right on the Berkeley/Oakland border), the Ace Garden Center Nursery on Grand Ave in Oakland, Yabusaki Nursery on Dwight in Berkeley, Magic Gardens in Berkeley, and East Bay Nursery in Berkeley. Your daughter should also make a trip out to Annie's Annuals in Richmond, which sells very interesting plants,(not just annuals) in mostly 4 inch sizes, and has an especially good selection of rarer plants at this time of year. They also have a web site. If you wanted to accompany your daughter on a shopping/info nursery trip, you might also find it entertaining to visit Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, just over the hills inland from Oakland. This nursery would emphasize plants that might be more familiar to an east coaster, as they are abit colder in winter there and have more winter deciduous perennials and shrubs to select from, as well as catering to a more conservative/east coast garden design mentality as compared to the bay side of the hills, where it is really anything goes, and hortisexuality has taken a firm hold of the gardening public...

For quick screen plantings, clumping bamboos would certainly work, and depending on the height wanted, the species selected would vary. Tree Dahlias or Tree Daisies, (Dahlia imperialis or Montonoa grandiflora) could also be used as quick growing vertical screens with fall into winter blooms for such screening.

The fall sales at both the local botanic gardens will be happening in September/October, and are great opportunities to get really interesting plants that nurseries don't always have, and could emphasize rarer plants that do well here in the SF Bay Area from the Berkeley/San Francisco/UC Santa Cruz Botanic Gardens.

Any of these nurseries could also recommend people who do consultations to give your daughter advice. There are tons of qualified people around who do this locally, but expect to pay at least $75/hour and up...
stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
16 years ago
Longs near Montclair should be near the top of the list.The Orinda and others in places like that do as Bahia stated.. Boring(sorry). Endless Japaneses maples and conifers and the like.They do have(Orinda/Lafayette)a huge variety of garden scupture's for sale.If you want 6' jumping Dolphins in copper-they got it!
I think once she sees what exotics will grow in the great Oakland climate she can go more SouCal and a bit of Hawaiian then Northeast.
ctlady_gw
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow! You guys are terrific -- lots of good suggestions! Thank you SO much (We were in Berkeley to visit her for the first time this June, and I was blown away by the variety of plants, and what people had done with what were for the most part relatively small planting areas (I would have done some of this research myself when I was there, if I'd known they'd be buying this house! ;) Did go out to the botanical gardens at UC/Berkeley but aside from that, settled for more generic sightseeing and lots of walking (which resulted in LOTS of photos of some really stunning yards! Incredible use of ornamental grasses everywhere, too!)

I thank you all enormously for taking the time to respond -- this gives me lots of great ideas (for LOTS of birthdays to come, too!) (Just hope she doesn't read this forum until AFTER she gets her present...! ;)
dicot
16 years ago
I think one of the best resources for this type of help isn't the busy people at a nursery, but the incredibly helpful Berkeley Ecology Center. 2530 San Pablo Ave (near Dwight), Berkeley, CA 94702
http://www.ecologycenter.org/

They provide garden factsheets, sell books and seeds, have experts on staff who's job it is to help answer local residents' questions about plants and pesticides, and a wide array of technological information on greywater use, xeriscaping and other aspects of sustainable living.

They are also affiliated with the Berkeley community garden movement, which will have all the info on what works and what doesn't in Oakland/Berkeley, especially how to deal with pests organically. The community garden movement there even helps provide organic produce for the schoolkids! Your daughter might want to spend a weekend in one of these gardens helping and learning for ideas.

I wish L.A. had a place half as good.
jakkom
16 years ago
For screening, they may find it more useful to put up a trellis above a fence and grow a good vine to cover, such as hardenbergia "Happy Wanderer" which puts on a show almost as good and even longer than the more-vaunted wisteria, or a passiflora for tons of beautiful Gulf Fritillary butterflies ten months out of the year.
habitat_gardener
16 years ago
Merritt College in Oakland is another good place to go for plants and advice (at their fall plant sales: Saturdays 9-3 on Sept 15, Oct 13, and Nov 17), and also a great place to find someone who'll do good work for less than the $75 an hour someone else mentioned. Also a great place for classes, including permaculture (which includes food/edible landscaping).

I agree that the one book to get is the Sunset Western Garden Book. For more details on vegetable gardening, the local book is Golden Gate Gardening by Pam Peirce. I like The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith, who gardens in New England, even better. Other useful books are The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping (and other titles) by Rosalind Creasy; and Designing and Building Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik.

REALLY good (for advice) nurseries in Oakland/Berkeley?

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gardenguru1950

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REALLY good (for advice) nurseries in Oakland/Berkeley?

Comments (8)

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