by Geoffrey Coffey | May 17, 2006 | Locals Only
The downtrodden and the threatened come together weekly on the grounds of the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno for an exercise of remarkable symbiosis. The Earth Stewards, a pilot program founded by Catherine Sneed, employs at-risk adults ages 18 to 24 to grow...
by Geoffrey Coffey | Feb 18, 2006 | Locals Only
A new book on California native plants has hit the shelves, opening the door for interested gardeners wishing to learn more about our local flora. Trend- spotters agree that interest in native plants is growing. Classes in native plant horticulture are drawing...
by Geoffrey Coffey | Jan 1, 2006 | Locals Only
My comrade Pete Veilleux, native plant landscaper and bushwhacking enthusiast nonpareil, asked if I would like to join him on a hike to see a secret corner of Oakland. Not far from his house in the teeming East Bay ‘hood where oaks no longer grow, steep...
by Geoffrey Coffey | Dec 3, 2005 | Locals Only
Few explorers would expect to find a beach hidden in the middle of a redwood grove. Yet such incongruities lurk in the mountains above Santa Cruz, where ancient seabeds upthrust millions of years ago by tectonic turmoil gave rise to stark hills of sand now tucked...
by Geoffrey Coffey | Jul 13, 2005 | Locals Only
Distant rumblings from city hall portend a boom on Treasure Island, the former Navy base on the brink of becoming San Francisco’s newest residential neighborhood. This exercise of urban planning in the middle of the bay will be a closely watched experiment....
by Geoffrey Coffey | May 18, 2005 | Locals Only
Water paints with shifting colors the divided contours of the Valley of the Moon in Sonoma, California. The blues and greens of oak and bay forests on protected north-facing slopes complement the fire and earth tones of chaparral on the south-facing sides. Here at the...
