The new parking garden and other side-garden delights at Marcia Donahue's

The next stop during my Bay Area Garden Extravaganza in late March (see here and here for previous garden visits that day) was Marcia Donahue's Berkeley garden. This was my third visit to Marcia's, the last was in December of 2018. She's made many changes since then, the first one I noticed was the clay beaded necklace she added to the gorgeous eucalyptus in the hellstrip. It's perfect and proudly announces "Marcia lives here!" to anyone who knows her work.

Hellstrip loquat with lots of fruit.

Looking back at the eucalyptus.

And behold...the new parking garden and a most stunning Brugmansia.

I should clarify, "parking garden" is what I'm calling it, not what Marcia called it. I'm not sure she had a name for this area.

Those round bits...

There were many of them. If I am remembering correctly (and I may not be, I really should make notes), Marcia bought the lot and had them shipped home from Japan. 

I don't think Marcia new exactly what the stone shapes were in their previous life. But she recognizes fabulous when she sees it.

I have no idea which tree fern this is (I wanna guess Sphaeropteris cooperi) but I love it... look at those huge fiddle heads!

Walking back into the shady area beyond the parking space you discover this...

The wood shown on the right is a gate that opens into the back garden. I won't go thru it here, but we'll revisit it in my last post from the garden, on Friday.

Sculptural chain links and Marcia's bamboo segments. 

Moving past the Brugmansia now, along the sidewalk and the narrow front garden to the south-ish side-garden.

Where there's a ginormous bromeliad and more of Marcia's work...

There are changes on this side of the garden as well, although I'd be hard-pressed to point out exactly what they are.

I think when I first visited all of the bowling ball shapes on the staircase were actual bowling balls.

Not anymore.

Pow! Flower power.

Bowling ball mulch.

And thru the gate we go...

Papaya!

I find every inch of this garden so very inspiring...

Marcia's plant choices and her design sense aligned with her artistic craft create a place like no other.

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