Interpretive stations in each collection blend botanical and cultural facts.  In describing their intent, Michael Hamm says, "We wanted to express how the culture has adapted to its environment in daily life - everything from how they build their homes to how they live to the plants they eat."  Themes include ecological imperialism and botanical balance in the Chilean Collection, human impact in the Mediterranean Basin Collection, and migration in the Australian Collection.  In the California Collection, a recreated seasonal Chumash encampment illustrates how the natives used local materials for baskets and tools.

Aesthetically, the site affords perfect opportunities for a beautiful walk in nature.  "It's one of those incredibly romantic California landscapes, with the rolling hills, the mediterranean component, and the fog that rolls in," Hamm says.  The Portico Group responded to the power of the surroundings.  They borrowed glimpses of the ocean and distant views of the remnant volcanoes knows as The Peaks.  "We wanted to look as much outward as inward."

Most of the paths meet accessibility standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, with the exception of the few paths on the steeper portions of the site.

No story of the mediterranean climate zones would be complete without a chapter on water.  In the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, natural drainage will support small pools with riparian plantings and seasonal wetlands.

Cisterns buried in the hillside will collect winter runoff to be used for irrigation in the dry summer months.  The climate of San Luis Obispo dictates the need for an irrigation system in addition to the collected rain water, but reclaimed water will play a large part.

This plan's potential success might be predicted by two factors.  The first is that there has been no significant opposition to the project at any point in its development.  The other is the complete devotion that the Friends of San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden showed to the process, a factor that Hamm attributes to making the plan what is is.  Indeed, 1999 ASLA Awards jury member Grant Jones called the garden design one of the best that he has seen.

The next steps, according to the garden's new executive director, Rosemary Harms, include strategic planning and a feasibility study to precede a capital campaign.  For now, the Friends have met goal number three and opened the one-acre preview garden, a thumbnail collection of plants from each of the five mediterranean climate zones that gives the public a glimpse of what's to come.

When the garden is built, everyone from wide-eyed children to amateur gardeners to international researchers will find something of interest.  It was designed for exploration and learning on multiple levels.  As Hamm envisioned it, "We saw families going through the gardens and we wanted something to touch each one of them...if they are going through the experience together, they're really educating each other." LA

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Danielle Machotka is a freelance writer in Mill Valley, California.

Project Credits

Landscape architects:  The Portico Group, Seattle, Washington (Michael Hamm, principal in charge and lead designer; Becca Hanson, principal and interpretive development; Kathleen Day, project designer/horticulturist; Jan Coleman, interpretive planner; Stephanie Stanfield, document design/translation).

Botanical/Horticultural consultants:  Professor Emeritus Robert Ornduff, University of California, Berkeley; Professor V.L. Holland, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; David Fross, Native Sons Nursery, Arroyo Grande, California.

Local Landscape architects:  FIRMA, San Luis Obispo, California (Davie Foote, principal).

Civil engineers:  EDA, San Luis Obispo, California (Jeff Emrick).

Archaeologist:  Robert Gibson, Paso Robles, California.

Client:  Friends of San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden.