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A wonderful
transformation happens when a walk in a garden includes a stroll
through cultural history: the symbiosis between nature and
culture emerges, and our understanding of the world deepens.
That's precisely the idea behind the plan for a new botanical garden
in San Luis Obispo, California. Weaving both nature and
culture into the narrative, the master plan for the San Luis Obispo
Botanical Garden merges the ideas of traditional botanical garden
design with the educational and artistic aspects of a cultural
institution.
Civilizations have developed architecture, cuisine, and living
patterns that distinctively reflect the landforms, plant, and
materials that surround them. At the same time, the landscape
of the earth has been fundamentally altered by human
activities. Those interactions - between nature and culture,
landscape and daily life - form the basis for the physical design and interpretive
program described in the master plan, a merit
award winner in the 1999 ASLA Awards.
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Design With Culture
A California garden will celebrate mediterranean flora.
BY DANIELLE MACHOTKA
The Portico Group of
Seattle worked with the Friends of San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden
to develop the plan, which concentrates on the five mediterranean
climate zones (California, Mediterranean Basin, Chile, South Africa,
and Australia) and their cultures. The approach is
unique. While many contemporary botanical gardens cover a
variety of geographical areas and mix taxonomy, geography, and
landscape themes, this garden takes the approach of focusing solely
on one climatic zone and the civilizations it supports.
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The idea grew from an
unsuccessful search for local examples of drought-tolerant flora,
native and otherwise. In 1988 Eva Vigil, at that time a
student in ornamental horticulture at California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo, found herself wandering throughout
California to find examples of mediterranean plants.
"Out of that came the germ of an idea - why don't we have a
botanical garden in San Luis Obispo County? So I went to my
advisor and asked, 'Why don't we start one?' To which his
answer was, 'Sure. Why don't you do it?'" Vigil
recalls. And so she did.
After graduating in 1989, she founded the grassroots Friends of
San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden to raise funds for her idea.
The following year the Friends became a dues-paying membership
organization; it now has about five hundred members.
Approximately one hundred of those volunteer for committee work, and
the Friends enjoy considerable community support.
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