Garden Tour Time!
Plus: 20 years in the making, the Botanical Garden is about to open
(June 11, 2009) The Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation has brought the garden tour back this summer, and I’m glad to see it return after taking a hiatus last year. There are other changes afoot for the organization, but more about that in a minute. First, the gardens.
The focus this year is on Eureka and Bayside, with 13 gardens on display. Gisela and Jerry Rohde’s garden, which they call “Rust Never Sleeps” after the rusty metal sculptures throughout the garden, will be open, as will “Goldfinch Gardens,” the garden of Dave and Louise-Bacon Ogden. This is, as you can imagine, a bird-friendly garden, but in more ways than one: They’ve got a chicken coop tucked back there, so I’m sure chicken lovers will flock to this one. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
Other cool gardens include the Eureka Adult Day Health and Alzheimer Services garden, which is not only a lovely thing for the folks at the facility but also an inspiring example of good water use: A bio-swale collects runoff and uses it in the landscape. Also, the Carter House is opening its kitchen garden, so get over there and start making plans for your own luxurious, brick-lined, beautifully designed vegetable garden.
It’s happening on Sunday, June 28 from 10-5, and you can get tickets at garden centers around town or by calling 442-5139. Tickets are $15 for members and $20 for non-members and can be purchased at all of the gardens except Eureka Adult Day. The Bayside Grange, which is also on the tour, will serve tea and scones and have more info about HBGF available.
Okay, so check that out. Meanwhile, I was curious about what was happening with HBGF this year, so I called up the organization’s new director, Max Abrahamsen, and grilled him about the future of the garden.
Max was born and raised in Eureka, had a career in Seattle in business consulting and accounting, did a short stint in Texas, and has now returned to enjoy his place in Redway and be near his mother in Eureka. He’ll be the first to admit that he’s not a horticulturalist but a business person — and fortunately for HBGF he went right to work conducting a financial review of the organization and building a strategic plan.
“We’re coming up on our 20-year anniversary,” he said, “and we’re making a lot of progress at the garden. But my first priority was to get the garden open to the public.” So now the garden — which, in case you haven’t been, is located next to College of the Redwoods — is open every Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. No appointment necessary, just show up and enjoy yourself.
Another goal was to get an expert gardener working at the site, and to that end they’ve hired Terry Kramer as their on-site gardener. So if you do drop by, you might see her out there, doing all the things that gardeners do.
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Today
Open Gardens
outdoors / 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens, College of the Redwoods, Eureka. Roam the 44-acre fully fenced property. $5. www.hbgf.org. 442-5139.
Audubon Society Marsh Field Trip
outdoors / 8:30 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the end of South I Street. Led by Ken Burton. Bring binoculars and have a great morning birding. Trip held rain or shine. 442-9353.
Friends of the Arcata Marsh Tour
outdoors / 2 p.m. Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center, 600 S. G St. Meet leader Sharon Levy for a 90-minute walk focusing on the birds and ecology of the Marsh. 826-2359.
Bird Survey
outdoors / 8 a.m. Shay Park, Arcata. Assist Audubon’s Rob Fowler on his ebird site survey. 839-3493.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By Gardener fan / June 14, 2009, 3:08 p.m.
thanks for the detailed coverage of the garden tour and the botanical garden. However, Amy chose to spend one whole paragraph on the business background of Max Abrahamsen, the new botanical gardens director… but said nothing about Terry Kramer, the on-site gardener. The fact that Terry Kramer wrote the Journal’s gardening column years before Amy did, that she has written the gardening column for the Times-Standard for 2 decades, and that she is a trained horticulturalist, should have warranted at least a little paragraph, and the interest of Journal readers.