Santa Rosa homeowner turns nightmare lawn into eco-friendly oasis

When Kirsten Miller bought her home in Santa Rosa’s Junior College neighborhood 12 years ago, her first priority was removing the lawn, front and back.

Since then, the landscaping has seen several revisions, provided countless learning opportunities and cultivated a sense of place for Miller, 39, her husband Asher and their two sons, 10 and 5. It represents the progressive development of their outdoor space, she said, and reflects what she has become as a gardener.

On April 30, hers will be one of about 30 homes included in a day long Eco-Friendly Garden Tour.

When Miller created the “first version” of her garden, she planted a wide assortment of plants with no real plan or understanding of her site. She was excited to take advantage of the sunny exposure of the west facing front yard, and planted fruit trees and a variety of edibles.

However, she soon discovered that a deer wandered the neighborhood, one that liked her garden. Roses, fruit trees, newly emerging bulbs and veggies were soon munched. And many ornamentals like lavender struggled with her soil type and microclimate.

Instead of fighting against nature, Miller learned to work with it. She began to encourage plants that self-seeded or spread and transplanted them to other areas of the garden. Plants that survived with limited water were encouraged. Liberal applications of mulch helped conserve water helped, too. After lots of experimentation, she now calls the front yard garden “pretty much finished.”

A small asparagus patch that escaped the hungry deer intermixes with buddleja, euphorbia, olive, verbena, mimulus, nepeta, erigeron, assorted succulents and other drought tolerant plants.

One half of the front garden is sustained by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system Miller installed after attending a workshop sponsored by the City of Santa Rosa, with the help of a neighbor.

“Really, that’s the best way to do it,” she said. “You learn together on your project, then go back to their home and can put in another system. The knowledge then gets spread around.”

Based on the amount of work required to put in a system and the payoff, she said, “it really is a no brainer.”

The backyard landscape also has been a series of trials and errors. While fully fenced to protect against hungry urban deer, it posed other challenges. A large concrete pad, likely used by a previous owner for RV parking, radiates large amounts of unpleasant heat, while large redwoods along the east side of the property create dense shade and acidic soil in which vegetables struggled to grow.

Miller was able to transform the space into what she calls an oasis after embracing the idea of “working with it instead of fighting it.” Removable shade sails solved the heat problems. She moved the vegetables away from the redwoods but has learned that fruit trees manage there just fine.

Her urban orchard now includes fig, nectarine, apricot, prune, cherry and pear trees, and veggies line meandering paths of decomposed granite, as well as strawberries and raspberries.

Five happy hens also thrive under the trees, unaffected by the acidity and able to scratch in the deep leaf duff.

Because the yard never gets full sun, crops take longer to mature, so Miller no longer grows root veggies with a long growing season, such as celeriac or turnips.

Instead, she plants leeks, favas and other winter cover crops, and during the summer avoids vegetables like cucumbers and peppers that aren’t worth the water or the effort.

“I’m born and raised in California,” Miller says. “I’m very stringy with water.”

Miller said that being outside and paying attention to her surroundings has nurtured a growing sense of place and connection with the Earth. She knows when and where the sun will set, when to expect her flowers to bloom and what plants will make the bees happy.

“Just 10 minutes of weeding, and I feel back to myself,” she said. I’m calmer, more clearheaded and happier.’

Miller said she decided to share her garden with the public because “I wanted to demonstrate that transforming a garden into an oasis as accessible. It doesn’t have to be costly or too overwhelming, and you don’t have to be an expert in order to transform your space.”