I started out over on the garden forums before discovering this side---lots of CA people over there! I always post with my Sunset zone, which confuses people outside of the West but gets you super-useful info from West Coasters (b/c the Sunset zones account for some of the microclimates in the Bay Area).

Also happy to help if you have specific questions---we're in Oakland, so pretty similar climate, but without as much fog (and with a little more sun, depending on where in SF you are). We've gotten a pretty good little garden going with lots of fruit trees, and put in drought-tolerant grass last summer that's doing nicely!

Many, many years ago I hung out in Gardens. Loved it! But I don't know what it's like now. I live up north from you in WA. We have a great gardening clime too. Hope you get some good help!

Thanks Artemis78 and breezy! Maybe i'll dip my toe in. I'm in mid-Richmond district so less than a mile from the ocean. Summer is foggy to the extreme. It might clear up at noon and then the fog comes back at 2 :) There is that every 3-5 days of total sunny stuck in there. And of course the spring and fall are 70's and perfect for the most part.

I guess I'd better figure out my Sunset zone!

Definitely check out California Gardening in the GF. You might also want to check out the Sunset gardening books - very specific for your climate.

@marcydc, you guys are Sunset Zone 17---us too. Not sure which are the go-to nurseries on your side of the Bay, but the good ones in our area carry a nice selection of plants that will do well here in spite of the lack of heat/sun (and also the lack of cold winters, which some fruiting trees need). We've done nicely with Meyer lemons, Gravenstein apples, plums, Valencia oranges, loquats, and feijoas, among others. It's not quite hot enough for cherries (we have two trees, but get very small yields). We used a grass blend developed for Portland, which seems to be doing nicely here so far. For veggies, our local growers who sell at our neighborhood farmers' market specialize in particular varieties that do well here---I imagine they or other growers with similar seedling stock sell at the SF markets, too. I'd also grab a copy of the Sunset Garden book and also Golden Gate Gardening (they just published a new edition) which has Bay Area-specific advice. Good luck!

Artemis,

It boggles my mind that you can oranges and apples in the same orchard! Apples, I've got, but oranges in my 5a/4b zone, never! I'm not sure which is more amazing apples with a low enough chilling requirement, or oranges hardy enough to withstand mild frosts.

L

Try the cottage garden forum...they discuss all kinds of gardens and they're really nice people! I think you'll make lots of new friends :)

We're also in Oakland but used to live at 26th and California in the city for decades. Assume your lot is small and the soil can be poor, so you need to draw your lot to scale and figure out what you want from it.

Seating on those rare nice days? Play area for kids? BBQ area for grilling? Flowers? Veggies? The options are endless but your space is limited.

THe majority of your budget will go to hardscape unless you are lucky enough to have precisely what you want already. Plants are cheap and seeds even cheaper.

There are no really good nurseries in SF. Sloat is barely passable and the others are worse. The closest "serious" nursery is Golden in San Mateo, a superb nursery right off 101 that is sitting on at least $1M of prime real estate - I'm sure that even now, the developers can hardly wait for the family to consider selling, LOL.

The East Bay has Berkeley Horticultural and East Bay Nursery, plus Evergreen in San Leandro. Richmond (city of) has Annie's Annuals, a local fav whose website you should check out. She will be having her open house garden party soon, in May I think. She's the source for many terrific heirloom plants that do well here, including the stunning Ladybird poppy, one of the few annuals that I will buy.

Contra Costa and Marin have some good Navlet's garden centers, a local chain, but nothing really near you.

Don't overlook the big box stores, some of them have decent garden centers with cheap prices on basic stock. If you arrive when the stock is fresh, their plants are fine.

EVERYBODY gets their stock from the same three major wholesalers; the private nurseries aim for more specialized plants and a better quality level on the standard plants. Because of this, even when you finally decide what you want and where you want it, don't expect to be able to buy every plant you're interested in. The growing stock comes in at specific times during the year, and special ordering is very costly (I've done it, and it isn't fun when a $250 4-ft tree dies).

If you're into cottage gardening, the forum here is very active. I posted recently in the Gallery section of that forum, as spring has brought a lot of blooms in the last month. I don't find the CA Gardening as interesting, but it's more weighted towards edibles and Southern/rural CA gardening, which doesn't apply to me, but YMMV.

You might also want to check out the Landscape Design forum. Bahia, a professional landscaper who works out of San Jose, does a lot of beautiful succulent installations and has been recently posting pictures of some of his work. Really remarkable stuff, very inspiring.

MarcyDC - I lived in Ashbury Heights for many years and am keenly aware of your weather, both the challenges and the joys. I had a lovely Meyer Lemon Tree. Tomatoes were pathetically paltry but other herbs and cool season veggies (think Lacinato Kale) worked.

Good Luck.

@lirodendron, I know, right?? I'm a transplant from New England, while my husband grew up in Southern California---so I'm continually blown away by the growing season length and diversity here, while he takes it all in stride. :) I will say that not all apples and not all oranges do well here---you have to have just the right varieties. (Our apples, for instance, are Red Gravensteins, which are an heirloom variety that Northern CA is famous for---they ripen in July and don't store well, which makes me nuts since I'm a fan of autumn apple season, and we can't grow some of the traditional East Coast apples I grew up with.) We also don't really get frosts on the "sunny side" of SF Bay--maybe 2-3 nights a year, and though everybody gets in a tizzy about it, New Englanders wouldn't bat an eye. The worst one we've had since I've lived here was two or three years ago and we did lose some lettuce seedlings, but the fruit had no trouble. (And seriously, the fact that we even had lettuce seedlings in the ground to lose in December was crazy enough!) California weather is wacky and weird, though---if you go to the next city east of Oakland, which happens to be up and over some giant hills that block the marine air, the winters get quite cold and the summers quite hot. They get to grow eggplants and melons, which are pipe dreams here...but they also get to pay for a/c and hefty winter heating bills, so I guess it comes out in the wash. ;)

@marcydc, if you do make the trek over to the East Bay for nurseries, we too really like both Berkeley Hort and East Bay Nursery, as well as Grand Lake Ace Garden Center, which is small but has some extremely knowledgeable staff and a library of gardening books that you can use while you're there. East Bay and Grand Lake also both deliver; not sure if they will cross the bridge, but it's worth asking since they might. We also really love Kasenhoff Growers, a local nursery that sells seedlings at the Grand Lake (Saturday) and Temescal (Sunday) Farmers' Markets in the spring and summer. They know their plants backwards and forwards, and if you describe your garden space, they can zero in on a particular type of tomato or what-have-you that will do well there. (Plus, those farmers' markets are both a lot of fun anyway, especially if you have young kids!)

Since several of you know the Garden forum, do you have a suggestion for Northern Michigan climate, lakefront? We are planning on landscaping our beach area as soon as the darn snow stops :)

Sallysue- I visit the cottage garden forum and I'm in zone 4. You can visit forums specific to the type of plants you're planning to grow or by climate.

I'd recommend that you just go try a few and see what kind of responses you get...but if you want a nice chat and lots of advice and support...go say hi at the cottage garden forum :)

MarcyDC -- we probably have the same weather type. We're in the Parkside district (29th & Rivera). We've only been in this house since September and are just starting work on the garden as well. We had to replace a leaning retaining wall and are now trying to design out the rest of the space.

Before Parkside, we were in the Mission Dolores area. What a change in climates! Our last house had lemons, oranges and cherries - and grew beautiful tomatoes! I'm betting we won't be so lucky here. (We moved one small orange tree with us and its already looking a little worse for the journey!)

As others have stated, the East Bay is the place to go for nurseries -- Its well worth the trip to East Bay Nursery on San Pablo or Berkeley Horticultural. Just be sure to remind them that you're very near the coast. Sloat can give good advice for our location, but their selection is limited and pricing way too high.

lavender - thanks for the tip! I will wander over there as soon as some more snow melts....maybe sooner, this is depressing!!!

Sorry I haven't come back and thanked you all yet. Took spring break with the kids and now I still haven't caught up on work stuff. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to goof off for a week :(

Artemis78, thanks again. Thanks for all the possibilities. I have lots more researching to do.
10K, thanks, i broke the news to DH that he is going to have to give up his idea of tomatoes. I suspected that, but he is crushed. I guess we'll head to the farmers market for those! We did have a lemon tree that had matured enough to give a bag of lemons or so - he was a victim of the deck location :( I will get a new one though. Sounds like the east bay is where I need to head. I keep going to Sloat and wandering around and coming home more confused than when i started.

ZacsDad, I wondered if you were in the Bay Area. I remember your post about your kitchen LED light wattage. I was similarly excited about mine. I think that definitely is a SF Bay Area thing to get fired up about! You are in for a big change in weather in a month or two. No worries though, here you can always drive 10 miles and then come back to nature's A/C when it gets to sticky and hot.

jkom, thanks! You are exactly right. I need to start with the hardscape first. Otherwise it's going to look like some amateur threw random things from Sloat in odd locations and 1/2 of them died (oh wait, that is how I've done it in the past :). I have a lot more space in this house to work with (1300 s.f. yard or so) but some challenges like a big ugly apartment wall next door that I'd love to just cover in a hot pink bougainvillea. I have no idea whether that would work or not, but the wall does face south and gets lots of light. It's also got a low fence and they use their back yard for parking :( So I need tallish things on that side.

And I have to keep enough of the lawn to leave enough space for DS to throw his LAX balls at hist net!

Thanks all again and anyone I missed - I have a lot more research todo. Might try finding a student on craiglist who wants to partner for some pics and references if that sort of thing is done. I did find someone last year, but it was too early and my construction didn't have an end date in site ;)