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In what was an empty, ugly, large median strip on Fremont Street between Stanford Avenue and Powell Street before Joan Rochlin, left, and Jean Robertson did a major make-over.
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On an extra-large median strip near Joan Rochlin's home, City of Oakland workers would battle weeds. They used power tools and pesticides, stripping the strip of as much plant life as they could.

The semi-annual act bothered Rochlin.

"It was so noisy and it was a real waste of money," she says as she stands in the place where workers once hacked away, a place that is now populated with native plants, pathways and sitting spaces. "That's what prompted me to want something else."

The median strip where Rochlin stands is where Powell Street turns into Stanford Avenue at Fremont Street near the Oakland-Emeryville border. It is more like a median triangle, wide at parts and a block long. The strip is a stone's throw away from Rochlin's house and near a tidy park with a children's playground.

When the weeds were at their worst, homeless people would sleep on the empty lot of land, hidden by the tall foliage. It was a forgotten part of Oakland, an ugly part of the city landscape that attracted criminal activity, neighbors say.

Yet for three summers now, the place can better be described as a park. Rochlin, along with neighbors Jean Robertson and Josh Simon, took ownership of the strip and turned it into a public garden. Locals walk through the area instead of using the sidewalks and dog-walkers detour through it.

"It's a little enchanted forest — very serene, peaceful," says Claire Wings, who walks

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through the garden every day. "We just don't have very much green space in this neighborhood. It's a delight."

Rochlin, a landscaper, says the project was surprisingly easy to start up and get approval for through the city. Her city council representative, Jane Brunner, provided $5,000 in grant money and city workers cleared the area of unsightly bushes and stumps. A watering system, already in place, was modified to fit the garden.

"They pretty much left us alone after that," she says. "(The city) will respond helpfully but they don't interfere."

The garden is easily spotted from the street due to the sheer volume of colors dominated by California poppies.

The western edge of the lot is the widest area and here volunteers planted California coastal scrub — the beach strawberry (fragaria chiloensis), San Francisco wallflower (erysimum franciscanum) and seaside daisy (erigeron glaucus). Here are also coastal California poppies, a variety with flowers that are a light yellow toward their outer ridges and a brilliant orange toward their centers.

"All these plants survive without summer water," Rochlin says. "Don't they look healthy?"

Moving east through the strip, the garden moves through varieties of Wild buckwheat (eriogonum), which are a magnet for butterflies, and several varieties of bunch grasses, which Rochlin and friends grew from seed.

Still further up the strip is a grassland meadow, Rochlin says. Vibrant green grasses about 2 feet tall surround a stone bird bath, also a purchased with the grant.

"The birds use it. You see them splashing around in the mornings," Rochlin says. Soon, the area with the grasses will be filled in to recreate a lush meadow.

Walk further east along the footpath and there are varieties of clarkias, purple needle grasses (nassella pulchra) and varieties of coyote bush. Along the pathways are several large rocks with carved out area that provide perfect spots for sitting quietly and enjoying the garden.

The eastern tip of the triangle is dominated by the orange California golden poppy.

Robertson, also a landscaper, says she and Rochlin spent several work days getting the garden started with help from neighbors. Tilden Regional Park donated some of the plants as did a Tomales Bay nursery.

To control the perrenial weeds they used cardboard mulch. Robertson said the mulch has, so far, kept the weeds at bay and has made it unnecessary to use any herbicides.

After the initial push to get the garden growing, the women say they hardly ever have to maintain the spot. They commit about three or four hours of work about five times a year. The area seems to take care of itself. Visitors, they add, are vigilant about keeping the spot free of trash and animal waste.

Rochlin says now instead of city workers and transients, the median strip attracts bumblebees and goldfinches, robins and grasshoppers.

"Every year it gets prettier," she says.

Reach writer Laura Casey at 925-952-2697 or e-mail lcasey@bayareanewsgroup.com