You may have noticed that the Bridgeway medians in the north end of town are currently exploding with color!

That didn’t happen by accident. Enhancing the medians was one of the first projects undertaken by Sausalito Beautiful, and for a decade now, we have worked with the City’s landscaping team to make these “public gardens” look better than ever.

Shelby Van Meter, founder of Sausalito Beautiful and lead of the 2014 Sausalito Median Project, states that “Enhancing the Bridgeway medians was a top priority for Sausalito Beautiful. Ensuring visitors had a favorable first impression and fostering community pride for residents and businesses was essential.” With our enthusiastic encouragement, the City funded and conducted a major cleanup for the City’s medians.

Tom Wilhite, Sausalito garden designer, longtime Sunset editor, and Sausalito Beautiful founding board member, provided the plant palette and layout for the median enhancements. In his words, “We tried to keep plants that were thriving and weave in some lively colors and textures with grasses and large succulents.” Sonoma boulders were hand-picked and placed on site as part of the makeover.

For the median at Spring and Bridgeway, directly in front of Saylor’s Restaurant and Bar, a complete makeover was needed. First, Sausalito Beautiful raised $10,000 in donations from local businesses to help defray the cost. Next, the City’s landscapers cleared weeds, removed dead plants, and helped with boulder placement and soil preparation. Under Tom’s direction and with the help of GSI Landscape crews, the entire median was sheet-mulched (layered with compost, cardboard, and mulch).

Finally, native plants like Manzanita, Ceanothus, and California Poppy were interspersed with boulders and drought-adapted succulents (Coral Aloe, Senecio, Echeveria, Aeonium, etc).

If you’d like to see more projects like this that beautify our town, please consider making a donation to Sausalito Beautiful.