Garden Tour Preview: Cathy Long’s Hillside Garden
This garden belongs to Cathy Long, the Seeds & Bulbs Store volunteer you might know from your carefully packed seed orders. Cathy is a dedicated native plant propagator, and her hillside garden reflects that care and curiosity—from a large greenhouse full of homegrown plants to a thoughtfully designed slope garden that invites you to wander.
The home sits on a leveled terrace carved into the hillside, with a fenced area near the house and views out to the canyon beyond. From the terrace, a winding path with built-in stairs leads down through the garden, with a couple of places to pause along the way.
Behind the house, a natural rock wall creates a rugged micro-habitat planted with manzanitas, Dudleyas and other unusual species that thrive in the crevices and ledges.
Cathy also acquired the adjacent canyon parcel to help protect habitat and keep the landscape intact. The canyon lot is not open during the Tour, but it offers a beautiful view of a restoration project in progress. Together, the garden and canyon create a native plant jewel with expansive views and abundant wildlife viewing—especially birds.
With native plants thriving throughout, the garden feels like a small natural park setting, supporting an abundance of life—a perfect reflection of this year’s Tour theme: Where Native Plants Thrive, We Thrive.
In addition to the plants, Cathy has added features that invite wildlife to stay: two birdbaths used by bees and hummingbirds, a barn owl box (active for the past seven years), a wren box with nesting wrens each year, and a bluebird box still waiting for its first tenants. Log piles tucked into the landscape shelter small reptiles and mammals—an “animal freeway” after dark.
A small personal detail
To see Cathy’s garden in person — Get your tickets here
To volunteer — Sign up here
Volunteers receive a free ticket and are invited to a volunteer training hosted at Cathy’s garden