Dear Alrie,

My Husband and I just wanted you to know how HAPPY we are with our native California garden. We love the dry creek bed. It makes our walkway look like it meanders to our front door, instead of seeing a boring straight cement walkway. Also we spare the air everyday, no chemicals, pesticides, saves on water, needs no maintenance, less expensive than your ubiquitous lawns etc. Randy and his crew did a great job. Efficient, fast, quiet, polite--unbelievable!! You are so lucky to have them--me too!!

Thank You
Don and Maxine

A few months ago Middlebrook Gardens finished landscaping my front yard. I've never been much of a gardener, but this garden has changed my life. It gives me immense joy to step out into my yard every day and notice the changes. New things blooming, vines reaching up to cover the fence, plants that were little tiny things only recently reaching out to cover the ground. My front yard has been transformed from a place I avoided to a place I long to be.

I am privileged to be an employee of California State Parks. I'm currently working at the beautiful Año Nuevo State Reserve. I admire the beautiful wild plant life here at work, and I'm thrilled to see the same native plants in my garden when I get home. At work I see the wild buckwheat blooming, monkeyflowers on the hillsides, and the white yarrow just beginning to spread out it's umbrella topped blooms. When I go home and see the same plants in my yard it makes me feel like my house is a part of the natural California landscape, not just another house in suburbia. My garden makes me feel like an intrinsic part of California.

I think this experience should be available to all Californians, whether they want to plant a few native plants themselves or have their property entirely landscaped with natives. I urge you to support the Native Plant Society to make native California plants readily available to the public. Everyone should be able to experience the joy of plants that mother nature designed to live right here. Plants that need minimal water and care to grow just where they are meant to.

Sincerely,
Elise E. McFarland