My Heritage Garden

by Laurie
(San Diego County, CA)

Brookside Farm is the name of my special “heritage garden”; I call it that not because I own it, but because I “inherited” it when Brookside Farm, a former Bed and Breakfast, was bought by a local charity foundation where I work. It is also the venue for weddings and events, the proceeds of which benefit the charity. It has many beautiful garden areas which make it a perfect get away spot out in the country.

Our garden areas include a vineyard; a grapevine covered spa; a pine grove with nasturtium and white African daisies thickly covering the ground; a floral walkway with butterfly bushes, a large flowering mallow tree, columbines, purple and orange ice plants, and pink ceanthus in abundance; 2 cactus and succulent gardens; an area with native wildflowers and 8-10 foot hollyhocks reaching for the summer sun; 40+ rose bushes of all kinds; and at the entrance- a barn roof covered with wisteria.

1 ½ years ago I began to tend the gardens, but I am not a professional gardener. I was 51 years old with no more experience in gardening than half-listening to my mother and brother go on and on about some plant they’d just bought. So real quick I became self-taught through library books, subscribing to “Gardening How-To” and picking the brains of every gardener I met. It has become a wonderful hobby and learning experience for me; and now I’m addicted. And, I might add, I can keep up and contribute to the conversations that my relatives carry on!


I started my “hobby” in the fall of 2006 and that winter brought to our area the worse freeze in many, many years--just my luck, as a new gardener, under difficult conditions! During the unusually cold weeks the gardens lost mostly jade plants and other succulents, huge old 8 foot sages, and a very large Geranium hedge.

Then the next fall of 2007 our area was hit by the now infamous fire storms that were whipped up by the Santa Ana winds that burned out many areas of San Diego County. What’s up with this—first a freeze and now fire? How much can a novice gardener be expected to cope with?

Very thankfully, the charity’s offices and housing facilities were not burned although there was extreme soot and smoke damage. As far as the grounds fared, we lost many fruit trees, some grape vines, oaks, pines, and 5 large mock oranges, as well as the green house and all our maintenance buildings.

So the challenge of learning to care for such a wonderfully blessed garden continues to be a big part of my life and I try to involve as many other office workers here as I can to share in the blessing. I think sometimes I hear them almost groan when I start excitingly talking about some new plant I just bought!