Mariposa Gardening & Design, Coop Inc.

Artichokes give so much character in this Alameda backyard homestead! When some are left to flower, they provide a bountiful source of pollen for bees. Birds will use the artichoke fluff to build their nests! The dried stems can be left as shelter for hibernating insects or composted to be returned to the soil. 💚

This California native sweat bee is loving these blooming Alliums! When tending a mixed edible garden, we like to leave some veggies to bloom for the pollinators. 🦋

Featured in these photos are onions (Alliums), asparagus and pomegranate which blend in with ornamental grasses and flowers. This diverse interplanting helps mitigate pests by drawing in beneficial insects like ladybugs, birds and other pollinator species. This client wanted a mini urban homestead and we delivered!

Before and after for this speedy planting project in Oakland!

At Mariposa, we specialize in habitat plantings for butterflies, birds, bees and other pollinators! Our mission is to reconnect you and your garden with nature. We fuse art and ecology into the landscape, bringing beauty to the practice of sustainability. 🦋

Do you have a garden that needs a quick refresh? We are looking for more planting projects! Reach out to us for a consultation today. 💚

Some more favorite wildflower combinations! Here we have a butterfly meadow featuring California poppies, Baby Blue Eyes, Collinsia, Crimson Clover and Tidy Tips. Aside from the clover, all of these are California native wildflowers that draw in a large variety of bees and butterflies. The clover has the added benefit of being a nitrogen fixer that helps with plant growth!
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Would you plant these in your garden?

Swipe to see this meadow in Berkeley when it was freshly planted! It's amazing how the grass plugs fill in to create this soft, sweeping meadow. At Mariposa, we love meadow gardens because of the shelter and edge conditions that they provide for pollinators. Like the edge of a forest, the interface between meadow and planting bed is rich with biodiversity.

This meadow (located in a Berkeley backyard) borders a fruit tree guild, which is a medley of pollinator and edible plants surrounding a fruit tree. The interplanting supports the tree, bringing in pollinators, nutrients and shading the soil. With the addition of a meadow, even more beneficial insects are enticed into the garden. Dragonflies zip overhead, followed by birds, fluttered after by butterflies and the buzzing of bees. Ladybugs gather in abundance. Habitat is extended. 🦋

Swipe to see this meadow's progress 💚

This candid video from our garden care shows how this low grassy meadow iin Berkeley s filling in. Low grassy meadows start as plugs and fill in like this! Grassy meadows also provide much needed habitat for Skippers and other butterflies. 🦋

Berkeley

Stages of growth in this Berkeley backyard garden. From pots to a planted paradise, we love to see the seasonal flourishes that punctuate California's spring and summer.

Good planting design takes into account the temporal nature of the garden. Staggering blooms and creating interest, no matter the season or age of the garden, draws in people and pollinators alike.

Planting annuals that fade as perennials grow in to take their place is part of utilizing the traits of different plants for diversity and lushness. Different species of pollinators also need annuals to survive, either as sources of nectar and pollen or as host plants. Planting annual native wildflowers that reseed themselves is often incorporated into our planting designs for that purpose. 💚

Before and after! Swipe to see the progress of this garden as we laid a soft set path and planted a pollinator habitat. 🦋

This Berkeley backyard garden oasis is one of the many gardens we tend to on a monthly basis after the garden installation is complete. Through a careful and experienced hand, we prune, fertilize and w**d as needed.
With such diverse planting, it's easier to keep a garden ecosystem in balance. Many beneficial insects are drawn into the garden to keep any pests in check as a natural form of pest management. By creating habitat and learning natures patterns, we work with her not against her. 💚

Stonework details from this garden we designed and installed in the Berkeley hills. The undulating forms of the leaning flagstone walls are a unique detail that speaks to the skill of our stonemasons at Mariposa. 🦋

Stonework is one of our specialties and we'd love to do more gardens like this! Leaning flagstone walls also provide a roosting place for butterflies at night, as they like to sleep in the shelter of the warmed stones.

Credit to who worked with us on this beautiful stonework

Songbird haven! These tall shrubs and trees form a shelter and nesting place for many songbirds in this Oakland hills garden. Diverse plantings help to create the basis of a thriving food web, that attract all sorts of pollinators. You don't need pest control when your ecosystem is in balance. 🦋

Photos of this Mariposa garden by .che

A few more images of this residential pollinator garden in Oakland, California.

So many California native and adapted species blooming together, including Abutilon megapotamicum (Flowering Maple), Aquilegia formosa (Western Columbine), Mimulus 'Jelly Beans Scarlet' (Sticky Monkeyflower), Verbena lilacina 'De la Mina' (De La Mina Verbena), Pelargonium spp. and more. They are all working together to create a biodiverse and pollinator friendly garden tapestry. 💚

Photos of this Mariposa garden by .che

Tickets on Sale Now! Have you ever wanted a closer look at a Mariposa garden? Three gardens are open for touring on October 19th as part of Open Garden Days. See Seed Fountains, dry stacked walls and stairs, as well as lots of expertly designed habitat!

Each garden is available to tour 10am to 12pm, 12pm to 2pm and 2pm to 4pm, with a special Digging Deeper talk happening at 2pm to 4pm at the Berkeley Pollinator Playground garden.

Buy your tickets now at the link in our story, or comment “🦋” and we’ll message you the link. We would love to see you there!

Photo of this Mariposa garden by .che

Dry stacked bluestone stairs are the focal point of this garden in the Oakland hills. Durable, permeable and beautiful, dry staked stone features in almost all Mariposa gardens! At Mariposa, we don't do any work with concrete or mortar due to the negative environmental effects (both during production of the material and lack of permeability).

Recharging the aquifer by allowing water to spread and sink into the ground is one way we can help fight against drought and the urban heat island effect. 💚

Interested in having us install dry stacked stairs in your garden? Reach out to us for a consultation! We're taking new clients. 🦋

Photos of this Mariposa garden by .che

Swipe to see the before and after! 💚

This garden features a large dry laid patio, fire pit, leaning flagstone walls and a habitat planting! What was once bare earth is now a garden perfect for hosting and gathering. We love to entice our clients outside and reconnect with nature.

Credit to for working on this beautiful stonework with us 🦋

Swipe to see the before 🦋

Mexican Feather Grass: pretty but highly invasive! This fluffy grass is extremely popular while also being very damaging for local ecology. This grass produces tens of thousands of seeds that are spread by wind, water, or soil. Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima) takes over whole areas and overcomes native plants once established.

Unfortunately, nurseries still sell this grass but there are great alternatives!

We recommend (and often plant) Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'), Muhly Grass (check out Muhlenbergia 'White Cloud' or 'Pink'!) and/or Autumn Moor Grass (Sesleria autumnalis). These grasses are beautiful and also work great in our climate, while not being invasive.
Or, you could just plant more flowers like we did for this client! 💚

A crevice garden! Crevice gardens are a unique form of rock garden. 💚

They provide a niche habitat for insects, butterflies or reptiles who like to roost in between the rocks that capture the heat of the sun during the day and stay warm at night.

A bird's eye view of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained garden in the Oakland hills. This garden is a great example of how we design songbird habitat! Like the edge of a forest, we layer taller plants to create a ladder from small shrub to tall tree.

This creates a huge amount of biodiversity, as flowers, berries and perches all intermingle. The ladders also create a sense of safety for birds as they can always take shelter in the branches. Wild strawberries provide food for birds, as well as the nectar flowers that attract beneficial insects. By learning from the patterns of Nature, this method successfully inspires a food web where everyone flourishes. 💚

Photos of this Mariposa garden done by photographer .che

The path home. The opening of a garden gate in the Oakland hills reveals a lush sanctuary tucked under the boughs of a Coastal Redwood. 💚

While designing this garden, we incorporated a lot of songbird and butterfly habitat. This tapestry of biodiversity creates an oasis for pollinators looking for refuge, as well as for our clients. This is definitely a view we wouldn't mind coming home to everyday!

Stay tuned for more pictures from this golden hour garden photoshoot. We are so happy with how these turned out! 🦋

Photos of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained garden by .che

Brentwood is always so hot and dry in the summer, but this backyard garden is always lush and green!

Contrary to popular belief, watering your landscape is actually good for the environment. The best thing you can do with the water from your tap is use it to keep the soil hydrated. Keep soil hydrated also lowers the risk of wildfires.

Hydrophobic soil actually contributes to runoff and the heat island effect, as well as being unable to sustain organic life! Putting in plants and keeping the soil hydrated is the best thing you can do to help to combat rising temperatures. It also helps expand habitat and increase biodiversity.
We recommend greywater systems to help conserve water by using it multiple times!

Sign up for our newsletter for more information by visiting the link in our bio or commenting "💚" and we'll send you the link directly!

A California wildflower bouquet! Swipe for closeups 💚

Photo 1: Western Columbine
Photo 2: Mimulus 'Jelly Beans Scarlet,' a beautiful hybrid of the native Californian Sticky Monkeyflower
Photo 3: Oenothera Primrose
Photo 4: Oenothera and Mimulus together

Photos of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained garden by photographer .che

Have you seen a wildflower garden like this? These red, unforgettable blooms are none other than Mimulus 'Jelly Beans Scarlet,' a beautiful hybrid of the native Californian Sticky Monkeyflower (a hummingbird and butterfly favorite). 🦋

Combined with Western Columbine and Oenothera Primrose, they form a native California wildflower bouquet that persists for the season!

Photos of this Mairposa designed, installed and maintained garden by photographer .che

Closeups of this San Francisco backyard garden that features a drystack wall and butterfly habitat! 🦋

We love the complimentary shades of orange and blue of the stone, and how well they make the greens of the garden pop! The California Fuchsia is such a great pollinator plant, as it is native to California and is a great nectar source. Hummingbirds love this plant and it often features in Mariposa gardens. 💚

Photos of this Mariposa designed and installed garden by .che

A closer look into the front pollinator garden that is in summer bloom! 🦋 We have lots of native and adaptive plants that are pollinator favorites:

Photo 1: Pink-Guara (bee blossom)
Photo 2: Red-California Fuchia, Blue-Native Salvia Chamaedryoides
Photo 3: Blue-Geranium Rozanne
Photo 4: Pink-Penstomen gloxinioides 'Garnet'
Photo 5: Purple-Verbena bonariensis

Would you like to see more birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators in your garden? Reach out to us today for a consult 🦋

Looking for a chance to join our cooperative? We're hiring! 🦋⁠
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Please visit our website for full job descriptions and information on all job openings, including more on how to apply!⁠
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We are a Bay Area landscape design and build company committed to restoring ecologically sound outdoor spaces in urban areas. In every garden, we see a unique opportunity to reconnect a space with its natural systems. We fuse art and ecology into the landscape, bringing beauty to the practice of sustainability.⁠

Photo of this Mariposa garden by .che
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Link in bio 💚⁠
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Before and after! This Berkeley front yard has become a rich butterfly habitat where pollinators can thrive! 🦋

At Mariposa, we see each of our gardens as a link in a chain of microhabitats that help restore local ecology. Avoiding the monoculture of traditional lawns and learning from nature, we are able to build gardens that have a tapestry of native and climate-adapted species that support our ecosystem. We strive to reconnect our clients with nature,
by giving ✨ you ✨ spaces that balance aesthetics and systems awareness.
Reach out to us to book a consultation today and start your journey of reconnection with Mother Earth 💚

Plant highlight! The burst of color that this California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum) gives with this bright blue backdrop is so stunning! California Fuchsia is also a hummingbird favorite! Combining grasses with nectar plants helps provide shelter for butterflies and other pollinators, keeping them safe from predators. 🦋

Can you believe this before and after? Located in the Oakland hills! 💚

At Mariposa, we work with native (and adapted) plants and local ecology to create habitat for us all to thrive! Pollinators (and humans) can enjoy this garden so much more now that it is in harmony with nature. 🦋

Our clients also renovated their house after the garden was installed to include floor to ceiling windows. They love the view of their garden that much!

After photo of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained garden by .che

Before and after! This incredible Mariposa garden in the Oakland hills was designed in 2016, installed in 2017 and here we are 8 years later still caring for this garden. 💚

This garden transformation features a drystack stone retaining wall, drystack stairs, a fire pit, songbird habitat and butterfly habitat. We're so happy with how this garden is still looking after many years and love these new photos! 🦋

After photo of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained garden by .che

Andrea, our founder, has been a stonemason for 25 years! Trained in stone masonry all over the world, Andrea founded Mariposa in 2005 and now it's our cooperative's specialty! She provides special training for our install team on how to create beautiful drystack walls, stairs and structures. 🦋

We love grasses! Here are 3 reasons you should too:

1. Grasses provide shelter for many pollinator species
2. Many butterflies use different species of grasses as a host plant so they are home to caterpillars, such as Skippers
3. They are largely drought tolerant and do amazing in Bay Area gardens!

These photos show this Oakland garden freshly planted to now!

After photo of this Mariposa designed, installed and maintained Oakland garden by Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic .gardens