Garden Project to Take Root
Pierce College will hold a groundbreaking ceremony next week for a two-acre botanical garden that is expected to attract students as well as birds and butterflies.
The $425,000 garden--with plants, waterfalls, Braille signage, benches and a small amphitheater--will be built on a large lawn in the middle of campus, said Davia Solomon, president and chief executive of the Foundation for Pierce College, which is raising money for the project. A pathway through the middle of the garden will create a “biological time line” highlighting plant life through the ages.
“It will be a pleasant place to be, even if you’re not interested in studying plant material,” college President Rocky Young said Friday.
Plants will be labeled and grouped by categories, including Australian, desert/sagebrush and coastal sage/chaparral. Mediterranean greenery will surround a waterscape exhibit, which will include a 3,800-square-foot pond. Some plants will be specifically chosen to attract birds and butterflies, Solomon said.
Although the plot will have more greenery than it does in its current form as a lawn, gardeners will use less water to maintain it because the plants will be drought-resistant, she said.
Students in many disciplines could benefit from the garden. Landscape maintenance and design students will help with the upkeep, life science and botany students will study the plant life, geology students will learn from the time line and the English department has expressed interest in using the garden for writing groups.
“The speech department wants to use the amphitheater so kids can give speeches outside and learn to project their voices,” Solomon said.
The S. Mark Taper Foundation Botanical Garden at Pierce College was named for the organization that contributed $75,000 toward the project, the biggest single donation. In total, about $150,000 in cash has been raised, including a $25,000 grant from the J.M. Long Foundation, which was started by Joseph M. Long, the late co-founder of Longs Drug Stores. Another $75,000 worth of plants has been donated by local nurseries.
Solomon said she believes the Pierce Foundation can raise the remaining $200,000 needed to complete the garden.
The Los Angeles Community College District is not contributing any money, but has donated the land. Pierce College will pick up the $30,000 annual tab for maintenance.
The groundbreaking ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Friday. The garden will be built in two phases, with the first part scheduled to open in September and the second by February, Solomon said.
