Richmond Homestead: timeless skills for new times

Wildcat Garden, the school garden at East Bay Waldorf School, has been added to the tour.  Parent volunteers will show you around and tell you how the garden is used by the students.

The school is high in the El Sobrante hills, adjacent to Wildcat Canyon Park.  If you need a little wildlife break, take a jaunt up into the park for fabulous views and an encounter with nature (or cows).  I once saw a number of coyotes in daylight in the park near there.

Another garden, not quite officially its own site, will be available to visit in Martinez.  It is the Center Avenue Community Garden, and is the latest project of the Martinez Permaculture Center.

One of your fabulous hosts at the MPC, David and Teresa, will walk you down the street to visit the community garden if you have time.

While I was away camping, we reached our limit of 75 registered visitors!  Looking at the number of gardens, I decided to expand the number of available tickets to 100.  If you know someone who has been meaning to register, please urge them to do so now.

New things to check out:  New descriptions of Alison's Garden, and new description and pictures of the Martinez Permaculture Center.

I just spoke with Iyalode, who is a remarkable gardener, herbalist, medicine woman, and community leader.  She has been influential in the creation of many gardens in the Richmond area and is excited to open two community gardens for the Homestead Tour. 

Check out the Gaza Garden in North Richmond and the Peace Garden in the Iron Triangle.  If you're not familiar with these neighborhoods, or are only familiar with the negative publicity they have received, visiting these gardens is a great way to see for yourself the wonderful things happening everywhere in our community and to see the healing power of a garden.  Iyalode will be at one or the other of these two gardens during the Homestead Tour, and she is a wealth of information and wisdom.  I highly recommend visiting both these gardens!