January 30, 2011: Annual Branch Meeting

This year the annual meeting was held once again at the Gardens at Lake Merritt at Lakeside Park in Oakland. The very talented landscape architect, Bernard Trainor, spoke on the topic of Garden Design and a Sense of Place. He spoke of his evolution from when he arrived in California and initially designed gardens that matched formal mediterranean designs in European gardens. Then he moved to being completely drawn in by the native plants of California that were specific to the microclimates of the gardens, and now to his current passion of designing gardens that both connect to the surrounding view sheds and mostly native plant materials while providing interesting and intriguing ways to get their owners into the gardens for relaxation, play and entertainment. The talk's photos illustrated these principals beautifully.

There was a short business meeting before the talk and some social time afterwards. The morning rain had cleared and everyone ended the afternoon with a walk through the lovely Mediterranean Garden.