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Blake Garden

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UC Berkeley’s Landscape Laboratory


Blake Garden occupies 10+ acres of rolling terrain in Kensington, featuring large rock outcroppings, several reaches of Cerrito Creek, and sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. You’ll encounter a range of landscapes here, including a formal garden with a reflecting pool, a shady canyon with towering redwoods, and a California native wetland zone populated by Pacific Chorus frogs.

autumn leaves reflected in stream at Blake Garden

In 1957, the Blakes donated the property to UC Berkeley as a resource for experiential learning for landscape architecture students. Blake Garden continues to serve as an outdoor teaching and research laboratory for the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning.

In the garden, you’ll find numerous projects designed and built by Berkeley faculty, staff, and students, from bee habitats to mosaic benches. Other highlights include a pergola by landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, the Square Garden with stunning flowering magnolias, and a native pollinator garden.

GIVE
MLA
VISIT BLAKE GARDEN
FOLLOW US
Spacing: small

BERKELEY’S LANDSCAPE LABORATORY

a group of people around a table

Blake Garden is the ideal spot for hands-on study and experimentation for MLA students. As an MLA student, you’ll take your plant identification courses here and have opportunities to site independent study projects in the garden. We also offer work-study programs, internships, and volunteer opportunities.

You can also participate in various projects including:

  • Invasive species identification + control
  • Planting and transplanting
  • Propagating plant material
  • Pruning trees + shrubs
  • Wall, path, and seating construction
  • Garden bed restoration
  • Composting + developing soil health
  • Integrated pest management
  • Water management

And only students in Berkeley’s Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning get to celebrate their graduations at this special spot! 

VISITOR INFORMATION

Pride of madeira in bloom
Pride of Madeira, Echium candicans, Blake Garden, 2023.

Blake Garden is built in the Kensington hills, with steep slopes throughout the garden. Parts are accessible by wheelchair. Visitors are welcome and parking is free. Please email Blake Garden staff for more information.

Blake Garden sits on the territory of xučyun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people.

HOLIDAYS + CLOSURES

Blake Garden is closed the following holidays:

  • Presidents’ Day
  • Cesar Chavez Day
  • LAEP Graduation (mid-May)
  • Memorial Day
  • Juneteenth
  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day

Due to weather and administrative days, Blake Garden may be subject to closure on short notice.

  • Visitor Info + Tours
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HISTORY OF BLAKE GARDEN

Anita Syms in Blake Garden

UC Berkeley alums Anson Blake, Anita (Symmes) Blake, and Mabel Symmes moved to this rugged hillside site in 1922 and transformed the property into extensive gardens surrounding their residence. Anita, along with her sister Mabel — one of the first students to enroll in UC Berkeley’s landscape architecture program after its founding in 1913 — created the initial garden plan and established the major plantings.

Blake Garden in its early formations

The garden’s development began in the early 1920s when Edwin and Anita Blake of Berkeley sought a new site for their home in order to make way for the university’s proposed football stadium to be built at the entrance to Strawberry Canyon. Although the site had previously been purchased as a potential quarry, they realized that its true value was in its richly varied terrain, unusual rock outcrops, and the spectacular views of San Francisco and the Bay Area.

The garden was important from the beginning. So much so that when the house was designed, the Blakes impressed on the architect, Walter Bliss, that it be sited to take advantage of the views and shelter a portion of the garden from western marine exposure. Groves of laurel, coast redwood, canary island pine, acacia, and lacebark were planted in exposed areas throughout the garden using this approach.

The property, originally 22 acres, was designed to incorporate two homes, one for each of the brothers, Anson and Edwin Blake. Mabel Symmes, one of the first students enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and her sister, Anita Blake, created the first garden plan.

Symmes and Blake created a progression of spaces by dividing the site into separate areas that reflected the varied topography and microclimates in the garden, linking them informally. Thus, the visitor could experience the garden’s diversity and unique terrain in an intimate and logical way.

The garden is half its original size today. With Blake’s death in the mid 1950s, the 22 acre property was divided into two parcels. The Anson Blakes retained 10.5 acres around their house. Edwin’s house retained a two acre parcel, leaving the remaining land to be divided into small housing lots. Eventually, Edwin’s house was donated to the Roman Catholic Church, which established a Carmelite Monastery on the site.

In 1957 Mr. and Mrs. Blake deeded their house and garden to the University of California, “reserving unto themselves and the survivor of them the right to occupy the property for life.” In 1962, the house and garden passed to the University, and in 1967 the decision was made that the house would be used as the official residence of the President of the University of California. The garden’s management was given to UC Berkeley’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning as a resource for its programs.

The garden has been used as an outdoor laboratory for plant identification, planting design, the study of problems in spatial relationships, and other studies in landscape architecture and environmental design since the 1960s. Under the guidance of succeeding directors, such projects as surveying, mapping, and photographing the site, as well as cataloging plants, have been undertaken.

COLLECTIONS

The Blake Estate Oral History Project was produced by the Bancroft Library & the Regional Oral History Office with interviews conducted by Suzanne B. Riess in 1986 through 1987.

The Blake Estate Virtual Collection, created by the College of Environmental Design Archives includes a number of historic images and maps of Blake Garden. It also includes a collection of photographs, documents, surveys and site plans, and landscape architecture students design projects documenting the garden, and the estate’s history as the private residence of Anson S. and Anita Blake and later as a teaching resource owned and managed by the University of California, Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Design.

Our Staff

  • Kate Lincoln
    Kathryn Lincoln
    Blake Garden Manager
  • portrait
    Timothy Cole
    Horticulturist, Blake Garden
  • portrait
    Kendra Hauser
    Horticulturist, Blake Garden

CONTACT US

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