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Marcia’s Garden: a Conversation

Articles: Marcia’s Garden: a Conversation

Pair of contented heads in serpentine with blood grass, Imperata cylindrica. Photographs by George Waters
One of the greatest pleasures of life is conversation.
Rev. Sydney Smith, Essays

From the sidewalk nothing suggests that 3017 Wheeler Street, Berkeley, is the address of a remarkable gardener. There are, it is true, unusual plants to be seen. Rose ‘Mermaid’ climbs an old cordyline in the sidewalk, glossy leaves and elegant, single, golden flowers concealing vicious curved thorns. Another rose, the lively pink ‘Erfurt,’ throws flower-laden stems over a garden bank crammed with the gray and silver foliage of drought-tolerant plants. But it is a facade.

The medley of plants on Wheeler Street is the setting for a Berkeley Victorian house that Chris and Marcia Donahue are renovating with great care and attention to detail. Despite the work to be done in the house, Marcia could not ignore the garden, and a most extraordinary garden she has made of it.

Adam and Eve at the hand-shaped gate

I had to adjust my perception of garden-...

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