Vista Verde is a community in the hills above Portola Valley that offers natural beauty and tranquility with easy access to the entire San Francisco bay area. Homesites are mostly more than one acre, which, combined with the many trees and the natural contours of the land, provide maximum privacy.
The natural beauty is enhanced by a wide variety of trees and shrubbery, including majestic oaks, madrone, manzanita, pine, redwood, maple, hazelnut, coffee and wild lilac. Palo Alto's Foothills Park and other private parks with thousands of acres of open space surround the area with forested hills and hiking trails. Mike Ward, former president of the Vista Verde Community, says, "It's five miles off the freeway and 30 years away from it."
Nearby Portola Valley offers top-rated schools; a highly regarded private middle/high school, Woodside Priory; parks; athletic facilities; and a fine library. Two small shopping centers and Interstate 280 are less than ten minutes away. Other attractions within fifteen to twenty minutes include Stanford University, the beautiful Stanford Shopping Center, and the downtown areas of Menlo Park and Palo Alto, with many shops, restaurants and cultural opportunities. The Stanford University Medical Center is 15 minutes away.
Vista Verde Landscaping
Most Vista Verde residents moved to this area because they love the beauty of the native plants and enjoy the opportunity to see wild birds and animals nearby. This landscape guide, contributed by Yvonne Price, provides direction in planting with suitable natives and other plants that lend themselves naturally to this area. Appropriate landscaping helps avoid conflicts with Vista Verde's natural surroundings while enhancing the beauty and maintaining the character of this area.
Native plants that do well here:
SHRUBS:
TREES:
- Coast Live Oak - Quercus agrifolia
- White Oak - Quercus lobata
- Canyon Live Oak - Quercus chrysolepsis
- Madrone
- Coast Redwood - Sequoia sempervirons
- Big Leaf Western Maple
- Douglas fir - flammable, plant away from structures
Plants that have invaded the area and need to be removed:
- French Broom - small yellow pea type flowers
- Scotch Broom - larger yellow pea type flowers
- Italian Thistle - small purple thistle flowers, seed pods fall off easily
- Scotch Thistle - large purple thistle flower, seeds blow in wind
- Star Thistle - small yellow flower with spikes
Plants that have invaded but may have a use in certain limited situations:
- Vinca, also known as Periwinkle - very green runners, purple flowers,becomes a thick mat that takes over and chokes out natives
- Ivy - watch that it doesn't get into trees and choke them to death
- Most grasses - wild ones dry out and become a fire hazard, lawns use excess water
Plants that deer do not eat (unless they are particularly hungry that day):
- daffodils, bearded iris, narcissus, oleanders, baccharis (coyote bush), ceanothus, rhododendrons, ferns, lavender, rosemary, hypericum, shasta daisies, redwoods
Delicacies that deer love and that need to be enclosed or covered:
- fruit trees, roses, tulips, petunias and most bedding flowers and vegetables
Plants that are highly explosive and flammable and should not be planted in this area:
- Pines - all varieties are sources of flammable pitch
- Eucalyptus - the oil in their leaves is highly flammable, trees explode in a fire
- Junipers - very flammable from pitch
- Chamise - also known as greasewood because it burns so quickly
Fences that can spread fires by providing a line along which a fire can race and may block access for fire fighters:
- Fences made of flammable material
- Fences that enclose large parcels of land
Enclosures that work well in this area:
- Small enclosures for flower and vegetable gardens
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