Our Vision

As a part of the largest urban community college in the nation, and located in the ecologically rich but heavily developed San Francisco peninsula, the City College of San Francisco’s Native Plant Garden presents a unique opportunity to connect our diverse student population with our diverse ecological heritage.

Bordering the entrance to the Science Building, the Native Plant Garden will consist of a northern and southern bed. The northern garden will function as a living laboratory for students in biology, ecology, botany and other sciences. The southern bed will operate as an educational garden to introduce home gardeners and landscape artists to native plants. The southern bed will present native plant gardening as an ecologically beneficial alternative to the water-intensive, high-input, low-value systems associated with traditional, horticultural gardens.

Together, the two gardens will showcase the beauty and utility of native California plants in landscaping and backyards.  The gardens will demonstrate the use of California plants in water conservation, erosion control and wild life habitat, and add CCSF’s Ocean campus to the larger network of volunteer-supported corridors, which connect the Bay Area’s patchwork of natural areas.

The Native Plant Garden began in the laboratory and continues on as a student-directed endeavor, as a part of City College of San Francisco’s dedication to sustainability and the preservation of San Francisco’s natural heritage.  Benefiting from student, faculty, and campus wide support, the native plant garden will continue to foster a relationship between people and planet, and the environmental stewardship that is the cornerstone of sustainability.