Showing posts with label Edison Right of Way. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edison Right of Way. Show all posts

Sunday, December 28, 2008

More Secret Garden -- The Earthside Nature Center


A couple of weeks ago, after discovering the old Earthside Nature Center, I posted a series of photos and some narrative. Since then, I've tried to find out more about Earthside. I returned today for more photos and the discoveries continue.


The shrub/tree in the photo is a toyon, which is native to southern California. It is also known as the California holly.

Elizabeth Pomeroy, author of Pasadena: A Natural History, recalls Earthside Nature Center as "inspiring and verdant little oasis of California nature." She says, "I visited there often -- once inside, under the sycamores and beside the pond with its tadpoles, the city seemed far away."


This photo is taken from the south end of Earthside looking north to Del Mar Blvd. That's Eaton Blanche Park on the left, the Eaton Wash channel down the middle and Earthside on the right. There is a footbridge from Eaton Blanche over to Earthside. Can you see it?


The Southern California Edison power lines border Earthside on the east. I took this photo while standing in a grove of oak trees on the south end of the Earthside site. The building on the right is the Boys and Girls Club. Until a few years ago, a Christmas tree farm covered much of the land under the wires.

If you look hard, you can spot little signs around the Earthside site identifying plants and trees. Some of the identified plants remain. Others are gone.

There are also plaques dotted over the site on rocks, tables or posts, which bear the names of Earthside supporters.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Secret Garden

Closed off for more than a decade, the weathered remnants of Earthside Nature Center hold forth. Like the Secret Garden, it waits to be restored.


In its heyday, Earthside was a wonderful garden of native plants and wildflowers on grounds shaded by sycamores and oaks and surrounded by grape vines. Naturalists held guided tours to teach others about native plants. In 1989 Earthside won the American Horticultural Society’s award for Urban Beautification.

Earthside Nature Center was photographed and described in the book The Natural Habitat Garden:

“At Earthside Nature Center, a two-acre garden only for natives founded in 1971, [Kevin] Connelly and naturalist-author Elna Bakker work with more than color combinations in mind. Though the place is positively brilliant, what was first in the gardeners’ minds was a desire to see plants with their natural companions.” The book describes two acres of flat gardens with pathways zig- zagging down the hillside next to the wash.

Connelly and Bakker were forward-thinking and quite accomplished. They combined their talents to make Earthside. Bakker was a noted naturalist who wrote many books including "An Island Called California: an introduction to its natural communities" published by UC California Press. She died in 1995 and was remembered in this article which now appears at the Sierra Club website. The Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club awards the Elna Bakker Nature Interpretation Plaque for outstanding achievement and creativity. Kevin Connelly was active with the Theodore Payne Foundation, which published his book A Gardner's Guide to Wildflowers. He also wrote Month by Month in a Water-Wise Garden.



Today, you’d need to know exactly where to go to find Earthside. The Earthside remnants sit a couple of hundred yards behind an abandoned child care center on the south side of Del Mar Blvd. But, if you can get past the chain link fence fronting Del Mar, the sign warning of rat traps, the fallen trees, glass and gopher holes, the old Earthside awaits. Earthside (which seems like more than two acres) is bordered on the west by Eaton Wash channel and the Eaton Blanche park and on the east by the Edison power lines. On Saturday, my son and I walked the area. The sky was gray, but hopefully these pictures are enough to get your imagination going.


Also, thanks to Richard Janisch for uncovering this gem!


One of the terraced paths leading down the hill beside the wash.

A potting shed with bench and sink to the right. Also, notice how deep the leaves are around the picnic table.


Another trail, now blocked by a fallen tree, heading southward alongside the wash. A 1967 plan approved by the Pasadena Parks Director, but never implemented, designated part of this area east of the wash for overnight group camping.

Grape vines, like those in the foreground, border much of the nature center. This is taken standing on one of the terraced trails looking south from the nature center. That's the Eaton Wash with Eaton Blanche park to the right.


A kiosk that, according to a faded sign, was donated by the Pasadena Rotary Club.


I had to push away old grape vines to see what this sign said. There are bunches of dried grapes on the left of this photo. I wonder what the Dr. Stephen Smith Learning Center was.

Yes, I know this is a repeat of a photo that appears above. But, I can't figure out how to delete just this one picture without deleting the entire post, which I really don't want to do!