... (that I can talk about!!) is probably
the restoration of the Arizona Garden, a highly unusual,
circa 1881 formal Victorian cactus garden on the grounds
of the old Hotel Del Monte (now the Naval Postgraduate School)
in Monterey, CA. Begun for no good reason other than that
the garden had been neglected for over 45 years and was
a disaster... one day, in a fit of energy, I just started
weeding. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!
The project escalated into a two and a half year effort
involving hundreds of military and civilian volunteers,
with Navy Seabees operating the heavy equipment.
Coordination proved challenging: research
and permits; developing funding; arranging for equipment
& transportation; volunteer safety, training & scheduling;
establishment of a greenhouse & plant propagation, publicity,
RFPs for government contracts, etc.
The effort garnered significant public attention:
Strybing Arboretum and Stanford University opened their
folio collections to aid in the extensive research necessary.
The Curator of the Huntington Botanical Gardens Desert Collection
came up for a weekend to identify existing plants and make
recommendations for the restoration. The Huntington subsequently
donated two pick-up trucks full of plants and cuttings from
their world-renowned collection. Plant donations were also
provided by the Ruth Bancroft Garden, Stanford University,
and the University of California at Berkeley. The project
was awarded several historical preservation and Legacy Fund
grants totaling more than $65,000 over a three year period.
In the spring of 2000, inspired by our spectacular
results, Stanford University began restoration of their
own Arizona Garden, the last remaining example of this unique
garden style by landscape designer Rudolph Ulrich. These
two original Arizona Gardens were built at the behest of
the California Big Four Robber Barons: Crocker, Stanford,
Huntington, and Hopkins.
