Sneak Peek of the Garden Tour
Oakland Based Urban Gardens
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Garden Tour Teaser 3: A Garden of Rooms |
Buy your tickets today for OBUGS 3rd Annual Art & Garden Tour
In 1906 -- a memorable year in Bay Area history -- architect Bernard Maybeck wrote and illustrated the pamphlet “Hillside Building" for the Berkeley Hillside Club (where he was a prominent member). This timeless work advocates building simply, working in concert with natural conditions (orientation, topography, climate, views, etc.).
The best-remembered words from this are at once a definition and an instruction – “Hillside Architecture is Landscape Gardening around a few rooms for use in case of rain.” Maybeck’s idea was that much of life might take place out of doors, retreating only in inclement weather.
One hundred years later in Lafayette, Shelly and Bill Coglizer have assembled a wonderful, intimate garden. It takes up the case for outdoor living on a flatter terrain that is just as inhab
itable as that contemplated in “Hillside Building.” This garden is a series of outdoor rooms so closely connected
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"Hillside Architecture is Landscape Gardening around a
few rooms for use in case of rain.” -- Bernard Maybeck, Architect |
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to the house’s “few rooms,” that it is difficult to tell inside from out, and probably beside the point. These outdoor rooms vary from petite (quiet fountains and Roman decorative elements) to expansive (carefully-tended allees, hedges, and redwoods [planted decades ago with their young sons] that frame a formal pool). The fact that one end of their pool ducks inside the dining room is the sort of surprise one found in 16th century Rome -- and now in 21st century Lafayette as well.
Over the past 40 years the Coglizers have employed landscape architects to assist the project, and their work is visible in the site’s somewhat formal planning. Yet it is Shelly, working in the garden every day, whose knowing ministrations -- guided by a keen eye -- provide so many of home's palatable pleasures.
The 3rd Annual Art & Garden Tour will begin at St. Martin de Porres Elementary School in Oakland. From there we will head to the city of Lafayette to begin a three garden loop which will be visited through either hiking (lovely walk) , biking (bring your bike - one challenging hill but a pleasant walk up, even with your bike at your side) or shuttle. It will end in Lafayette with festive food, great music, and of course the OBUGS raffle!
Raffle Tickets NOW available! Prizes include a 3 -night stay at the Palms in Weilea, Maui (airfare not included), A Half Day of Sailing on San Francisco Bay with a champagne picnic, Bicycling Merchandise from MOJO Bicycles, A 2-day pass to the SF Silent Film Festival, dinner for two at Le P'Tit Laurent in Glen Park, San Francisco, as well as a 4-class card to BrasArte: World Dance Center, Yoga Classes with Scotty McCaulley and many more prizes!
Raffle Tickets are $25 each or 5 for $100. To purchase please call 510-465-4660 or eamil ob...@obugs.org.
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| Oakland Based Urban Gardens 1724 Mandela Parkway #5 Oakland, California 94607 US Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy. |  |
Oakland Based Urban Gardens
SNEAK PREVIEW number 4
at St Martin De Porres Elementary School
Our first stop on the garden tour!
Buy your tickets now or meet us at the St. Martin De Porres garden on July 24th at 1:00 pm
When OBUGS was approached in 2006 by St Martin De Porres Elementary School to help develop a school garden program, the only physical thing they had in abundance, like many schools in West Oakland, was asphalt. But they had the most important element in a successful school garden, the will of the staff and the families.
They wanted a garden, but the only place they had for it was covered in asphalt. Although of course asphalt can be removed, not with a modest budget. With design help from the OBUGS staff, an unusually shaped garden of large scale containers was designed. Included was a spiral herb garden and the chain link fence was painted purple, rendering it from depressing to delightful. It is also the backbone for espaliered fruit trees. The containers are taller than in many container gardens, both to give deep root space for the plants and for ease of use by short people (KIDS!). Edible crops are planted in the large connected containers, and fronting the garden on the street side are plants that attract butterflies.
Classes in this garden are held both during the school day and after school. Kids grow, cook and eat fresh fruits and vegetables, take part in art projects and garden care. OBUGS covers issues of food security and environmental justice, positive child-development and community building through a hands-on model involving children and their families.
This miracle garden was created in two weekends by the parents of St Martin de Porres with other volunteers and staff from OBUGS. A donation of wood chips from West Coast Chip Harvesters covers the ground between the massive beds and passersby have no idea that this garden is on asphalt. It is a solid model of what can be done in an impossible place when there is the will of the community.
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Oakland Based Urban Gardens 1724 Mandela Parkway #5 Oakland, California 94607 |
Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy. |
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