A Sustainable Garden Tour in Eagle Rock (PHOTOS)

Dozens of people visited the Eagle Rock home of Michelle Markota on Dahlia Drive Saturday—one of 21 locations across Northeast L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley where home gardens were open to the public for self-guided tours.

Part of the 9th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour, which continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in other parts of Los Angeles County, Markota’s backyard is a model of sustainable gardening practices that, as these photos show, are also pleasing to the senses.

Featuring both native and non-native plants, the multi-level backyard garden was transformed by landscape architect Cassy Aoyagi (of FormLA Landscaping) in 2007. The garden covers some 30,000 feet of mostly hillside land in one of the most upscale streets of Eagle Rock—a stretch of Dahlia Drive north of Hill Drive.

Click here to view further details about the Markota garden and see the attached PDF for a list of plants in the garden.

Click here to view the full list of gardens on the weekend tour.