The Dry Garden: A three-acre labor of love called Arlington

Posted on | February 4, 2011 | 2 Comments

As beautiful as private landscapes can be, and they can be stunning, none can match the poetry, joy and solace of a public garden done right. As proof, look no further than Arlington Garden in Pasadena. Here, since breaking ground on the 3-acre site five years ago, neighbor Betty McKenney has seen just about every kind of human interaction.

“We have people who meditate and pray,” said McKenney, left. “We have counselors and young people from a local clinic, some of whom are pretty troubled. Certainly there are schools and Scout programs. People bring their computers, or they read. They walk dogs. We see engaged couples getting photographed. Other photographers work on catalogs with their models. Last time it was a little bit risque. Some of those girls had really long legs. We see couples — 70, 80 years old — holding hands walking through the garden. I saw a mom one afternoon sitting with her little boy. He was eating a pomegranate and they were talking about birds. Then teenagers come in at night. We have it all.”

And that’s even before arriving at the plants, a mix of carefully selected, drought-tolerant California natives and Mediterranean climate zone imports, assembled in a public space that is first-class wildlife habitat and model of water conservation. Click here to continue reading about Arlington Garden in this week’s ‘The Dry Garden’ in the Los Angeles Times.

The Times has an extensive photo-gallery of Arlington. For a full set of shots taken for the assignment on Flickr, click here.

Comments

2 Responses to “The Dry Garden: A three-acre labor of love called Arlington”

  1. antigonum cajan
    February 6th, 2011 @ 4:58 am

    Sounds, looks like my own private in an urban concrete/asphalt context. Correctly chosen plants, little or no maintenance, no pests, pollution or noise.

  2. Emily Green
    February 6th, 2011 @ 9:12 am

    To see Antigonum Cajan’s blog, go to:

    http://antigonumcajaneveningpost.blogspot.com/

Leave a Reply





  • After the lawn


  • As you were saying: Comments

  • As I was saying: Recent posts

  • Garden blogs


  • Contact

    Emily Green by e-mail at emily.green [at] mac.com
  • Categories