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Fleming Garden, 2750 Shasta Road, Berkeley, Alameda County, CA

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Fleming Garden, 2750 Shasta Road, Berkeley, Alameda County, CA

description

Summary

2011 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Honorable Mention
Significance: The Fleming Garden is an excellent and inspiring example of a privately-owned, all-native residential garden in California, and a remarkable testimony to the power of impassioned amateurs. Scott Fleming – lawyer by vocation, builder by avocation – shaped the steep hillside site 1951-55, guided by the plot plan of modern architect Elizabeth Witkin. He built retaining walls, paths, waterfall, and stream in a naturalistic style 1956-71, while Jenny Fleming – nurse-homemaker by vocation, gardener by avocation – selected and placed plants. She started with memories of non-native fruit trees from her childhood in southern California, and of aspen from Scott Fleming's childhood in Nevada. When the non-native fruit trees died or languished from the clay soil, fog, wind, and foraging deer, her passion became native plant horticulture. Noted native plantsmen James Roof and Wayne Roderick, and nature, provided guidance. The Flemings borrowed both landscape and land from their neighbors, with the neighbors' permission.
The 1971 structure of the modern-naturalistic garden is largely intact. Trees have been removed as they died or grew too large. The property line was extended in 1992. A deer fence that was installed in 1993 severed a path. Paths were added ca. 1993 and ca. 2005 to improve circulation.
The Flemings were dedicated advocates for native plants in California, helping to found and lead the California Native Plant Society, and to promote gardening with native plants. Although it has always been a private residential garden, the garden has been toured by so many classes and groups, and photographed for so many publications, that it has become a part of the public consciousness as an exemplary native garden. The beauty of the garden and its history combine to make it an exceptional garden.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N43
Survey number: HALS CA-43
Building/structure dates: ca. 1950- ca. 1955 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1956- ca. 1971 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1992 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1993 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 2005 Subsequent Work

date_range

Date

1956
person

Contributors

Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
Fleming, Scott
Fleming, Jenny
California Native Plant Society
Bigham, David
Witkin, Elizabeth
Roof, James
August, August
Taylor, Julian
Robert, Robert
Arzola, Robert, project manager
Stevens, Chris, transmitter
place

Location

create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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