Useful Local Resources

A Gardener’s Guide to California Native Plants

Native Revival Nursery,

2000

Spiral bound.

A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future

Benjamin Vogt; New Society Publishers,

2017

Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification

Thomas J. Elpel; Hops Press,

2013

California Native Plants for the Garden

Bornstein Fross and O’Brien; Cachuma Press,

2005

Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History

Barbour, Lydon, et al; Cachuma Press,

2001

Designing California Native Gardens

Middlebrook and Faber; UC Press,

2007

Ecology for Gardeners

Steven B. Carroll and Steven D. Salt; Timber Press,

2004

Field Guide to Pacific States Wildflowers

T. Niehaus; Houghton Mifflin,

1998

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture

Toby Hemenway; Chelsea Green,

2001

Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology

Eric Grissell, Timber Press,

2001

Invasive Plants of California’s Wildlands

Bossard, Randall and Hoshovsky; UC Press,

2000

Marin Flora, 2nd ed.

John Thomas Howell; CA Academy of Sciences,

2007

Native Treasures

Nevin Smith; UC Press,

2006

Oaks of California

Pavlik, Muick, Johnson and Popper; Cachuma Press,

1993

Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region

Beidleman and Kozloff; UC Press,

2014

The California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds and Other Animals

Nancy Bauer; UC Press,

2012

The Pruning Book

Lee Reich; The Taunton Press,

1997

Wildflowers of California’s North Coast Range

Reny Parker; New Creek Ranch Press,

2015

American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques

Alan Toogood, American Horticultural Society Practical Guides; DK Publishing,

1999

Botany for Gardeners, 3rd Ed.

Brian Capon; Timber Press,

2010

California Plant Families: West of the Sierran Crest and Deserts

Glenn Keator; UC Press,

2009

Complete Garden Guide to Native Shrubs of California

Glenn Keator; Chronicle Books,

1990

Worth hunting for.

Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California

Glenn Keator; Chronicle Books,

1990

Worth hunting for.

Creative Propagation, 2nd Ed.

Peter Thompson & Owen Josie; Timber Press,

2005

Making More Plants: The Science, Art and Joy of Propagation

Ken Druse; Stewart, Tabori and Chang,

2012

Propagation Handbook: Basic Techniques for Gardeners

Geoff Bryant; Stackpole Books,

1995

Propagation Secrets for California Native Plants

Jeanine De Hart,

1994

Rare and out of print pamphlet.

Secrets of Plant Propagation

Lewis Hill; Storey Publishing,

1985

Seed Propagation of California Native Plants

Dara Emery; SBBG,

1988

Rare and out of print

Seeds: The Definite Guide to Growing, History & Lore

Peter Loewer; Timber Press,

2005

The New Seed-Starters Handbook, Rev. Ed.

Nancy Bubel; Rodale,

2018

Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage

Robert Michael Pyle; Yale University Press,

2014

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Sue Halpern; Vintage,

2002

Mariposa Road: The First Big Butterfly Year

R. M. Pyle; Yale University Press,

2013

A tale about finding as many butterfly species as feasible in one year.

Milkweeds, Monarchs and More, 2nd Ed.

Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn; Bas Relief LLC,

2011

The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation

Karen S. Oberhauser and Michael J. Solensky, editors; Comstock Publishing,

2004

A collection of scientific studies and essays covering breeding, migration and overwintering biology.

California Insects

Jerry Powell and Charles Hogue; UC Press,

1980

Common Dragonflies of California

Kathy Biggs; Azalea Creek Publishing,

2009

Field Guide to Common Bees of California

2013

Humblebee Bumblebee

Brian L. Griffin; Knox Cellars Pub.,

2012

Our Native Bees

Paige Embry; Timber Press,

2018

The Bee-Friendly Garden

Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn; Ten Speed Press,

2016

Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage

Robert Michael Pyle; Yale University Press,

2014

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Sue Halpern; Vintage,

2002

Mariposa Road: The First Big Butterfly Year

R. M. Pyle; Yale University Press,

2013

A tale about finding as many butterfly species as feasible in one year.

Milkweeds, Monarchs and More, 2nd Ed.

Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn; Bas Relief LLC,

2011

The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation

Karen S. Oberhauser and Michael J. Solensky, editors; Comstock Publishing,

2004

A collection of scientific studies and essays covering breeding, migration and overwintering biology.

Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners

James B. Nardi; U of Chicago Press,

2007

Soil Matters: From Backyard to Backcountry

Bay Nature,

Booklet. $6; available HERE

Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web

Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis; Timber Press,

2010

The Earth Moved

Amy Stewart; Algonquin Books,

2005

Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World

Judith Schwartz; Chelsea Green Publishing,

2019

Raptors of California

Hans and Pam Peeters; UC Press,

2005

The Genius of Birds

Jennifer Ackerman; Penguin Books,

2016

The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior

Edited by Chris Elphick, John B. Dunning, Jr. and David Allen Sibley; Alfred A. Knopf,

2001

The Sibley Guide to Birds

David Allen Sibley; Alfred A. Knopf,

2000

Western Bird’s Nests

Hal H. Harrison; Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1979

CalFlora

https://www.calflora.org

CALFLORA, with its own native plant database, has a Plant Finder feature that, like CalScape, shows the native plants that grow naturally in the vicinity of a particular location. For horticultural information, CalFlora links to CalScape, and for plant nursery information, it links to the California Native Plant Link Exchange.

California Native Plant Link Exchange (CNPLX)

http://www.cnplx.info/index.html

CNPLX uses the CalFlora database but presents the information in a different way from CalFlora. Native plants can be searched by county (rather than by specific address) and by several other criteria such as type (tree, annual, etc.) and family. For each plant that grows wild in California, there is a plant information page that shows nurseries and seed vendors that sell the plant and information about growing the plant. This site is less useful for selecting appropriate plants for a particular site than CalScape or CalFlora, but its online inventory of nurseries that sell particular plants is well laid-out. And it’s good for identifying what particular plants are native to Marin County.

CalScape

https://calscape.org/

CALSCAPE, developed by the California Native Plant Society, is designed to enable homeowners and landscapers select and find the native plants that are the best fit for any particular location in the state. It is truly a one-stop site for growing California native plants. A powerful search feature shows which plants are really native to any location in the state, and helps homeowners and landscapers figure out which ones they want, where to buy them, and how to grow them. With this website, you can drill down to the most appropriate native plant by type (tree, shrub, etc.) for a given location: for example, a low-water shrub for part-shade. Each plant entry includes photos that show the plant in many forms, a narrative and summary description, the wildlife it supports including butterfly and moth caterpillars for which it is a host plant, and plant care information.  Finally, it lists nurseries that carry the plant.

CNPS / California Native Plant Society

http://www.cnps.org

The website maintained by the state offices of the California Native Plant Society offers extensive resources under the tab: Our Work/Gardening. In addition to the great plant database, Calscape, they have virtual garden tours for inspiration, information on nurseries that carry native plants, design basics, details on how to plant, water and mulch, how to deal with pests, plus a very useful set of articles on pruning native plants. Definitely worth exploring.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

http://www.AllAboutBirds.org

Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden

http://nativeplants.org/

Regional Parks Botanic Garden at Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA. Established in 1940, the garden’s primary role is to create beautiful landscapes displaying California’s diverse plant life. Its mission embraces not only aesthetics, but also native plant conservation, public education, and horticultural experimentation designed to bring new native plants into the nursery trade. In the garden’s many habitats are species from the high Sierra to the serpentine barrens of the coast ranges, and from the northern rain forests to the southern deserts. They offer a schedule of fun and informative classes, field trips, and workshops, as well as plant sales and seed sales.

Hungry Owl Project

http://www.hungryowl.org

iNaturalist

https://www.inaturalist.org/

Contribute to science: become a citizen scientist! The iNaturalist app, created by the CA Academy of Sciences, enables you to record observations out in the field, upload them into a worldwide database and share with fellow naturalists. If you don’t know what it is, the app will make suggestions, as will a crowd of user experts.

Marin Audubon Society

http://www.marinaudubon.org

MARIN CNPS / Marin chapter, California Native Plant Society

http://www.cnpsmarin.org

The Marin Chapter is a part of the statewide organization, and the website has lots of native plant gardening information, including gardening photos and advice. They offer numerous handouts and plant lists for specific habitats, as well as slideshows of native gardens in the county. This last includes the native plant pollinator garden at the Bay Model in Sausalito, which the chapter planned, planted and maintains with Charlotte’s generous help.

NABA | North American Butterfly Association

http://www.naba.org

4 Delaware Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960

National Audubon Society

http://www.audubon.org

National Wildlife Federation

http://www.nwf.org/

11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190

NestWatch

http://NestWatch.org

FOR: complete details on how to determine which birds may be nesting in your area and what type of nest they build, downloadable plans for many types of nest boxes, how to troubleshoot problems.

PlantID.net

http://plantid.net/Home.aspx

Developed by Bruce Homer-Smith and the California Native Plant Society, PlantID.net is a non-commercial website designed to help you identify California plants found in the wild. Enter what you observe about the plant and your location, and it will produce a short annotated list of possibilities.

SEEK

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

Found a mushroom, flower, or bug, and not sure what it is? Open up the Seek camera to see if it knows. It will show you lists of commonly recorded insects, birds, plants, amphibians, and more in your area. Based on the extensive database of observations submitted around the world through iNaturalist.

Xerces Society

http://www.xerces.org

4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97215

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

http://www.AllAboutBirds.org

Hungry Owl Project

http://www.hungryowl.org

Marin Audubon Society

http://www.marinaudubon.org

National Audubon Society

http://www.audubon.org

NestWatch

http://NestWatch.org

FOR: complete details on how to determine which birds may be nesting in your area and what type of nest they build, downloadable plans for many types of nest boxes, how to troubleshoot problems.

iNaturalist

https://www.inaturalist.org/

Contribute to science: become a citizen scientist! The iNaturalist app, created by the CA Academy of Sciences, enables you to record observations out in the field, upload them into a worldwide database and share with fellow naturalists. If you don’t know what it is, the app will make suggestions, as will a crowd of user experts.

National Wildlife Federation

http://www.nwf.org/

11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190

PlantID.net

http://plantid.net/Home.aspx

Developed by Bruce Homer-Smith and the California Native Plant Society, PlantID.net is a non-commercial website designed to help you identify California plants found in the wild. Enter what you observe about the plant and your location, and it will produce a short annotated list of possibilities.

SEEK

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

Found a mushroom, flower, or bug, and not sure what it is? Open up the Seek camera to see if it knows. It will show you lists of commonly recorded insects, birds, plants, amphibians, and more in your area. Based on the extensive database of observations submitted around the world through iNaturalist.

NABA | North American Butterfly Association

http://www.naba.org

4 Delaware Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960

Xerces Society

http://www.xerces.org

4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97215

National Wildlife Federation

http://www.nwf.org/

11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190

California Flora Nursery

,

2990 Somers St. (at D St.), Fulton (just north of Santa Rosa), 95439. 707-528-8813

FOR: Cal Flora is a small, unconventional nursery devoted to natives and habitat gardening with a diversity of offerings. They are knowledgeable and experienced. Most plants are propagated on site.

CNL (California Native Landscapes) Nursery

,

254 Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley (Tam Junction), 94941. 415-888-8471

FOR: Marin’s mostly native nursery, CNL grows and sells organic California native plants & veggies and offers lots of great garden art. CNL’s store is one of the retail outlets for Home Ground’s line of locally packaged native wildflower seeds.

DripWorks

http://www.dripworks.com,

190 Sanhedrin Circle, Willits, CA 95490, 1-800-522-3747

FOR: Quality drip irrigation supplies; predesigned plans for irrigation systems, big library of how-to videos.

Grab N’ Grow Soil Products

http://grabngrowsoil.com,

2759 Llano Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407, 707-575-7275

FOR: bagged or bulk soil products and composts; organic nursery planter mix; All-green compost; cardboard in rolls for sheet mulching.

Green Jeans Garden Supply

,

690 Redwood Highway, Mill Valley (Strawberry) 94941. 415-389-8333

FOR: Neem seed meal to treat orange aphids, bulk organic fertilizers and soil additives, egg meal (to make a deer deterrent), lots of plants for pollinators, good advice.

Harmony Farm Supply

http://www.harmonyfarm.com

3244 Gravenstein Highway North, Graton (north of Sebastopol). 707-823-9125

http://www.harmonyfarm.com,

3244 Gravenstein Highway North, Graton (north of Sebastopol). 707-823-9125

FOR: vegetable starts (organically grown on site), bare root berries and fruit trees in season, soil amendments, compost bins, tools.

LeBallister’s Seed and Fertilizer

,

1250 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407. 707-526-6733

FOR: bulk sales only of native grasses, wildflowers, lawn and pasture grasses, cover crops, rock dust and fertilizers.

Lee Valley Tools

http://www.leevalley.com,

1-800-267-8735

FOR: the very best gardening tools and great service, too!

Marin CNPS Plant Sales

,

Falkirk Cultural Center grounds, 1408 Mission Ave., San Rafael

FOR: The Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society offers an extensive array of native bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs and even sometimes trees at their April and October plant sales, held on the grounds of Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael. Home Ground supplies about a third of the plants each sale through their propagation activities. Check www.cnpsmarin.org for dates. Flowering plants for pollinators are the emphasis in spring; shrubs are the emphasis at the fall sale. Also available: Home Ground’s line of locally packaged native wildflower seeds.

Marin Landscape Materials

http://www.marinlandscapematerials.com,

7596 Redwood Blvd., Novato, CA 94945, 415-897-1337

FOR: bulk soils suitable for vegetable gardening; bagged Pt. Reyes compost; gravel, pavers, stones and boulders.

Martin Brothers Supply

http://martinbrotherssupply.com,

232 Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley (Tam Junction) 94941, 415-388-2025

FOR: organic soils and composts, especially good are super-harvest and mushroom composts for ornamentals and veggies.

The Nursery at Emerisa Gardens

,

555 Irwin Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95401-5657. 707-525-9644

FOR: Narrow-leaf and showy milkweed (seasonal availability); also many native nectar plants, both annual and perennial. Open Mar–Nov.

Urban Farmer Store

,

653 E Blithedale Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941 415-380-3840

FOR: all kinds of irrigation equipment and supplies, lines and sprinkler heads; also irrigation timers and good advice.

W. Johnson Ornamental and Building Stone

http://www.johnsonornamentalstone.com,

4132 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95407, 707-584-7480

FOR: A huge selection of stones, from pavers to boulders, at good prices. Here you can personally select individual boulders. Delivery and placement services are also reasonably priced.

Walton’s Saw and Knife Works

,

44 Woodland Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901. 415-456-6320

FOR: great place to get your tools sharpened, plus they offer a huge selection of tools to cut and chop with.

Wildseed Farms

http://www.wildseedfarms.com,

Fredericksburg, TX, 1-800-848-0078

FOR: regional wildflower mixes, wildflower seed and native grass seed.

DripWorks

http://www.dripworks.com,

190 Sanhedrin Circle, Willits, CA 95490, 1-800-522-3747

FOR: Quality drip irrigation supplies; predesigned plans for irrigation systems, big library of how-to videos.

Urban Farmer Store

,

653 E Blithedale Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941 415-380-3840

FOR: all kinds of irrigation equipment and supplies, lines and sprinkler heads; also irrigation timers and good advice.

Grab N’ Grow Soil Products

http://grabngrowsoil.com,

2759 Llano Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407, 707-575-7275

FOR: bagged or bulk soil products and composts; organic nursery planter mix; All-green compost; cardboard in rolls for sheet mulching.

Harmony Farm Supply

http://www.harmonyfarm.com

3244 Gravenstein Highway North, Graton (north of Sebastopol). 707-823-9125

http://www.harmonyfarm.com,

3244 Gravenstein Highway North, Graton (north of Sebastopol). 707-823-9125

FOR: vegetable starts (organically grown on site), bare root berries and fruit trees in season, soil amendments, compost bins, tools.

Marin Landscape Materials

http://www.marinlandscapematerials.com,

7596 Redwood Blvd., Novato, CA 94945, 415-897-1337

FOR: bulk soils suitable for vegetable gardening; bagged Pt. Reyes compost; gravel, pavers, stones and boulders.

Martin Brothers Supply

http://martinbrotherssupply.com,

232 Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley (Tam Junction) 94941, 415-388-2025

FOR: organic soils and composts, especially good are super-harvest and mushroom composts for ornamentals and veggies.

W. Johnson Ornamental and Building Stone

http://www.johnsonornamentalstone.com,

4132 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95407, 707-584-7480

FOR: A huge selection of stones, from pavers to boulders, at good prices. Here you can personally select individual boulders. Delivery and placement services are also reasonably priced.

Lee Valley Tools

http://www.leevalley.com,

1-800-267-8735

FOR: the very best gardening tools and great service, too!

Walton’s Saw and Knife Works

,

44 Woodland Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901. 415-456-6320

FOR: great place to get your tools sharpened, plus they offer a huge selection of tools to cut and chop with.