Christie Beniston's Topairies At Pasadena Sponge Garden
A collaboration on the part of Pasadena’s Public Works Dept. and Power & Water, along with Pasadena Planning Department’s Cultural Arts Division and G3 led to the installation of an amazing Sponge Garden at the intersection of Union and Catalina St. through an all-day G3 Hands-on Workshop. The Sponge Garden (a.k.a. Rain Garden) was designed to complement artist Christie Beniston’s Topiaries sculpture, which, when placed in an urban setting, symbolizes the human drive to influence nature in all types of environments. Topiaries is one of several art installations on display throughout Pasadena as part of the Rotating Public Art Program, funded by Pasadena City Council in July 2010.
The Sponge Garden accompanying Topiaries is another manifestation of the human drive to influence nature. 25 Pasadena residents gathered first to learn about and then to implement the techniques of Conservation, Permeability, and Retention (from Surfrider Foundation’s principles of C.P.R.) and build a landscape that is friendly to people desiring a slice of nature as well as to nature herself. It is truly an Ocean Friendly Garden, despite being so far from the ocean.
Topiaries In Completed Garden
The new decomposed granite pathways wind through the garden, shaded by mature CA live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), which are nurturing a whole legion of smaller kin at their roots. Intersecting the pathways and seating areas is a dry creek bed, reminiscent of the nearby Arroyo Seco. No soil was removed from or imported to the site, so the contouring of the land was a result of excavating the paths and creek bed. Plants that thrive in the Pasadena climate, and are mostly native to the local ecosystem were placed atop berms comprised of the native silty loam (if they were dry-adapted) and within the creek bed (if they were comfortable with more water in winter). In the morning, residents learned how to figure out their grade change using a bunyip and how to determine their soil type and compaction profile. Although the turf already had been hand removed from the site, a demonstration of sheet mulching was conducted so everyone could envision how turf might be removed without chemicals.
After a delicious boxed lunch from Lovebirds Cafe, courtesy of Nancy Long at Pasadena Power & Water, the reinvigorated crew undertook to plant the more than 100 one gallon and four-inch container plants using the G3 Planting Technique of watering 5 times! That took a lot longer than everyone thought it would, but everything looked super perky when completed. After planting, a demonstration of installing on-line drip irrigation was conducted, and the site was thoroughly mulched 3″ – 4″ with natural woodchip mulch, courtesy of superwoman Karen Balchunas of Pasadena Public Works, and watered in.
G3’s Pamela Berstler conceived of the original site plan, which was taken by Pasadena Public Works Dept. and turned into the beautiful garden constructed during the HOW. Patrick Healy, Regional Manager of Merchants Landscape Services, Inc., a C-27 landscape contractor, installed the project and picked up any loose ends at the completion of the HOW. Now it’s up to Pasadena residents to add their personal experiences to the garden and enjoy it all year long. Read the City of Pasadena Website Article.
