West Berkeley Cottage Yard

In June 2020, we started work for a client in a cottage behind a primary residence in West Berkeley. The ~10x35 area behind the cottage had a bamboo cluster and a concrete-and-embedded-bottle stepwall that needed to be removed. The top 6 inches of soil were sifted for garbage and hazards, amended, and horizontal planks added to the rear fence, along with training wire for passiflora. The 3rd and 4th pictures show planting day, in October 2020, the 8th picture is from June 2021. Since then, and after replacing 2 passiflora that were attacked by pests, the yard continues to thrive and the passiflora is highly productive.

The front of the cottage was also addressed, installing a encaustic tile entry landing, an eyebrow arbor beneath the eaves to host jasmine, and a trellis on which an abutilon was trained. The front beds were planted with pollinator and hummingbird attactors. Irrigation was provided for front, rear, and also raised beds in the intermediate yard between primary residence and cottage.