This garden is designed for Don Katz. Don is known as the Blind Potter, and is without sight. He is a person who is in his body - with a rich and varied sensory understanding of his environment. A wine expert, music lover, and ceramicist, Don finds value in his garden through sound, touch, and smell - and undoubtedly the people he will gather around. With this in mind, I worked with the Theodore Payne Foundation to create an approach to making a garden that will be bird-friendly, biodiverse, and rich in aromatic native plants. This new garden will be planted to support bird life and bird song in mid-city and can be modified with the spirit of serving this deeper purpose.

Bird life is best supported by a garden with three main attributes: cover, food, and structural diversity. These qualities can be best described as: Cover for birds to hide - Food in the form of native insects, seeds and berries drawn by native plantings – Structure through a layered environment for birds with tall trees for perching down to grasses for shelter. The best place to find plants that support birds is to look at plants from the Chaparral biome - shrubs and trees that have co-evolved with birds, and by planting them in your garden we can better encourage birdlife and a rich sonic environment. The larger chaparral shrubs can be used for hedge replacement and pruned into small trees a bit taller than head height. The smaller shrubs can be used to create cover for birds. Chaparral shrubs provide food in the form of berries, seeds, and insects that a drawn to native plants over imported species.