Medit Garden Ideas
- To: "Medit- Plants"
- Subject: Medit Garden Ideas
- From: s*
- Date: Sun, 5 Dec 99 19:49:03 -0700
Dear Medit Plant folks,
You haven't heard from me & Cabrillo College (near Santa Cruz) in awhile
so I think its time to bring you up-to-date as to what is happening.
Cabrillo, a community College located on the central coast of California,
where I work as Garden Manager for the Horticulture Department, is moving
its entire horticultural facilities ie., greenhouses, nursery,
classrooms, gardens, Salvia collection (around 200) etc., in the year
2001 to a new site on a yet to be developed portion of the campus.
Instead of a crowded 1.5 acres we will 8+ flat acres to develop and
several more adjacent acres of sloping native landscapes. Funding comes
from a 1998 local college bond issue, state educational monies and other
monies, and will enable us to developing the new site which includes
utilities, roads, parking lots, cyclone fences, buildings, greenhouses,
gardens, etc. The new facility will include a auditorium for lectures,
symposiums, evening meetings and more. When all is finished (is a garden
ever finished?) we should have one of the best and up-to-date educational
hort facilities on the west coast.
Moving the gardens will set us back plant wise for a year or so but when
our plants are established and growing we will be able to expand our
plant collections and interpretation. At the new site we will have
gardens featuring the Medit Climate regions of the world including the
Medit Sea, Chile, Australia, South Africa and of course the California
Floristic Province including parts of political California and Mexico.
Salvias and the Lamiaceae Family, which are one of the main specialities
in our collections will be displayed both in the Medit regions gardens
and other geographic origin gardens. There will also be some theme
gardens and a collection of vines along a 3,000 ft. cyclone fence. Our
native plant collection will include all commerically available local
natives and native cultivars from our Monterey Bay area.
Gardens never have enough space or resources to maintain their
collections. What I need from all of you is plant nominations for each of
the Medit region gardens. I would love to hear your top 10, 20 , 30 or
more plants from each of the geographic regions ie., Medit Sea, Chile,
Australia, South Africa and California. And if you have any suggestions
for ecologically appropriate and/or aesthetically striking plant
combinations for each of these regions, that would be even better! We
want our gardens to include a mix of good old reliable garden plants and
new exciting additions. Most of our current plants are perennials and
woody shrubs but our new gardens should include all types of plants from
annuals to bulbs to trees and vines. These gardens will be visited and
enjoyed by horticulture classes, gardening groups and the visiting
public.
I look forward to your ideas and being able to show fellow Medit-Plant
enthusiasts our new gardens as they develop.
This is your chance to help us develop an exciting collection of
Mediterranean plants.
Sincerely,
Ernie Wasson
Garden Manager
Cabrillo College
Aptos, California
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 10
within sight of the Pacific Ocean
overlooking Monterey Bay, California
