A walk down a short little trail takes you to a unique new South Coast garden, with drought resistant plants which could be the future of landscaping in the region.
Kerry Green, with Ventura County Master Gardeners, helped organize and manage a year long project to create a Native Plant Demonstration Garden at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor's Center in Ventura, at Ventura Harbor.
The new garden, which features drought tolerant plants, is a joint project with the Master Gardeners, Channel Islands National Park, and Cal State Channel Islands.
Yvonne Menard, with Channel Islands National Park, says the National Park’s Visitor’s Center was already home to a garden featuring a number of type of plants found in the Channel Islands. This new demonstration garden, which is just adjacent to it, includes both island, and California native plants.
Five months of work on the garden wrapped up this month week, and now it’s ready for the public to see.
Green says they want the demonstration garden to serve as an inspiration to people trying to landscape their homes. Menard says there are resources available to help people who like what they see create their own home versions of it.
The demonstration garden will officially be dedicated on Saturday, with a series of events. There will be free panels about the plants in the garden at 9:30 a.m., and 1 p.m. And, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Channel Islands National Park Foundation will be selling some of the native plants featured in the garden.
