Rossana Woo
It’s a quiet Friday morning and biology professor Kate Kubach is seen trimming branches off a thick shrub in the botanical garden at Pierce College.
Ever since the first phase of the botanical garden was completed in October 2003, Kubach, along with Pat Farris and Dr. James Rikel, have been working tirelessly on the maintenance of the garden.
“Any time we can fit it in, any chance we get, we come out here because there’s a lot to be done,” Kubach said.
It was these three individuals’ desire for a demonstration garden that would be accessible to students and teachers alike that made the botanical gardens bloom.
The idea came from biology professor Farris, who at first only wanted a corner of what was known as “The Quad”-the 2-acre patch of lawn located between the Life Science and Math Buildings-to grow native plants to be used in her Biology 10 class.
It was Rikel, head of the life sciences department, who had the idea to construct a larger garden.
“I went to the college president [who was Darroch “Rocky” Young at the time] and he said as far as he was concerned we could use the entire quad,” Rikel said.
Kubach then joined with Farris and Rikel and formed the Faculty Garden Committee.
The committee’s first challenge was getting the money to build the garden.
At that time there were no bond funds available.
Davia Solomon, then-director of the Foundation for Pierce College, searched through databases of private foundations that might be interested in funding the garden project.
In 2001, Solomon found two: the S. Mark Taper Foundation, which contributed $75,000, and the J.M. Long Foundation, which contributed $25,000.
With the contributions, the garden committee had enough money to pay for the initial construction.
But it was not enough for everything.
Plants had to be donated and installation of the plants was done primarily by the committee.
“The initial planting was real hard because we had to do it all ourselves, so we got all our students out helping us. That proved to be a really great experience for the students and all of us too,” Kubach said.
For Farris, the planting of the first phase was also hard-literally.
“…That soil is just like concrete. We had [to use] a jackhammer for every plant,” she said.
Support from other people is much needed, according to Rikel. “We’re working right now on creating a position of garden curator because [the garden] really does need somebody full time to coordinate student workers and other initiatives to keep it intact,” he said.
The second phase currently under construction will include a new concrete walkway, sun trellises and rare Australian plants.
Rikel said he looks forward to a more finished look to the garden.
“It’ll still have a lot of the same character of the first phase. I think that’s the best part,” Rikel said.
Kubach agrees: “To have the whole second half filled in-that’s just exciting to us.”
The concrete walkway will be an “evolution walk” featuring embedded “fossils.” Well, they are actually man-made, “…but they are based on real fossils, so they look just like real fossils,” Kubach said.
The Australian plants are one of the things Farris is most excited to see.
“I know about them, as far as their climate conditions and things like that, but I don’t know each individual plant,” she said.
As for the existing half of the botanical garden, it’s hard to say which plant is each committee member’s favorite.
“I don’t have one favorite,” Kubach said. “I’ve become partial to the cactus section of the garden because I didn’t know about those particular types of plants. That’s an area I’ve really enjoyed being in.”
Farris has her eyes set on the blooming cacti.
“Every once in a while there’s a cactus out there that just has this amazing, huge bloom. It’s actually a pollinated flower, so it’s a huge white flower and there are just bees all over,” she said.
Rikel’s two favorites are the Fremontodendron, commonly known as the flannel bush, and the Catalina ironwood.
The planting of the second phase is expected by the end of March and the complete garden will be open to the public in April.
Josslin Mata, as well as many other students, uses the Botanical Gardens as a study space. (Mary Meyer)