The Fetzer Sustainable Winery Garden

By Kate Fey. The Fetzer Sustainable Winery Garden designed by Kate Frey is 'green' and features a winery and a vineyard, which functions are guided by principles of sustainability.

The garden illustrates the use of green power, water conservation and recycling. It also uses local and sustainable materials and is a habitat for local and migrating wildlife.

The soil to the right of the winery under the grape vines, cypress and windmill is dry and infertile, like many of the hill vineyards in California. Grasses and wildflowers that thrive in dry rocky conditions grow here and provide protection for the soil, fertility and habitat without requiring extra nutrients or water.

Clumps of barley, cornfield annuals and clovers infiltrate this area. On the left hand side of the garden is a flowering habitat border to encourage beneficial predatory insects and to support wildlife. A wetter aspect is illustrated with the rough meadow alongside the water filtration ponds. In decomposed granite around the winery are culinary herbs.

The plants in the garden are wildflowers, agricultural and culinary plants and are appropriate to the soil types and moisture they grow in.

Grape vines and Italian cypress are the largest plants in the garden. The garden's boundaries incorporate a flowering habitat border and a traditional grape stick fence of varying height, softened by climbing plants. Climbing roses, ivy and clematis clamber on the winery.

Plant list (click on any of the green links for more information):

Hedging plants
Crataegus laevigata
Ilex aquifolium
Rosa canina
Salix caprea

Climbers
Clematis 'Grace', 'Jersey Cream', 'Wada's Primrose'
Hedera helix
Humulus lupulus
Lonicera periclymenum
Rosa 'Crimson Conquest'
Vitis vinifera

Shrubs
Ceanothus 'Victoria'

Herbs
Foeniculum vulgare
Lavandula stoechas
Rosmarinus officinalis
Salvia officinalis
Thymus vulgaris

Trees
Cupressus sempervirens
Olea europaea

Wildflowers
Anthemis arvensis
Anthriscus sylvestris
Calendula officinalis
Centaurea cyanus
Erigeron karvinskianus
Eschscholzia californica
Fragaria vesca
Galeobdolon lamiastrum
Galium mollugo
Geranium pratense
Hordeum vulgare
Lasthenia gilbrata
Limnanthes douglasii
Linaria purpurea
Linum grandiflorum
Lychnis flos-cuculi
Myrrhis odorata
Papaver rhoeas
Phacelia campanularia
Plantago lanceolata
Primula veris
Prunella vulgaris
Ranunculus acris
Rumex acetosa
Sanguisorba minor subsp. minor
Salvia verbenaca
Silene alba
Silene dioica
Stachys officinalis
Trifolium incarnata
Urtica dioica
Valeriana dioica
Verbascum blattaria
Viola tricolor

Grasses
Agrostis capillaries
Alopecurus pratensis
Anthoxanthemum odoratum
Brizia media
Cynosurus cristatus
Festuca idahoensis
Festuca rubra
Holcus lanatus
Leontodon hispidus

Flowering habitat border
Ammi majus
Anethum graveolens
Centaurea montana
Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'
Digitalis 'Primrose'
Geum 'Lady Stratheden'
Leucanthemum vulgare
Lychnis flos-cuculi 'White Robin'
Rumex acetosa
Salvia nemerosa
Salvia pratensis
Scabiosa cuacausica
Thalictrum aquilegifolium
Trifolium pratense
Verbascum 'Gainsburough'
Veronica gentianoides

Wetland plants
Carex pendula
Caltha palustris
Glyceria maxima
Iris pseudoacorus
Juncus effusus
Mentha aquatica
Myosotis scorpiodes
Ranunculus lingua
Rumex hydrolapathum
Sagittaria sagittaria
Typha angustifolium