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Coastkeeper Garden has the potential to be an unparalleled asset to Orange County. This 2 acre Garden will be located at Santiago Canyon College in the City of Orange. This unique sustainable garden will host plants from six southern California native habitats as well as California Friendly ® plants from around the world. The Master Plan incorporates six California Friendly ® vignettes (garden rooms) stylized after architectural styles popular in southern California’s into “backyard” landscapes that harmonize with the native plant habitat amid trails lined with wildflowers and park benches.
Want to learn more? Visit these Garden pages:
Urban landscapes contribute significantly to coastal pollution mainly through inappropriate gardening practices such as over-watering, poor run-off management, and over-use of pesticides and fertilizers. The California Friendly ® plants featured at Coastkeeper Garden will require less water, fertilizers, and herbicides than our typical landscaping choices. The Garden will also highlight new and improved technologies that decrease water use such as ET controllers, drip irrigation, synthetic turf, and reservoir style patio containers. Other Garden features include:
A wealth of educational opportunity exists at Coastkeeper Garden. The most effective campaign to encourage environmental protection is public education. The purpose of the Garden is to teach youths and citizens the importance of individual stewardship in protecting our valuable resources. The Garden will host the only interpretative program in the region designed to protect our future water supplies and our freshwater and marine environments. Activities will range from school children on field trips to learn about water conservation, to college research projects, to drought tolerant landscape demonstrations for garden visitors, to classes on local natural history. By creating a place where something is always happening, we achieve a synergy that will extend the visitors stay and encourage repeat visits.
The Coastkeeper Garden’s Master Plan will embody the spirit of resource protection, in its selection of native and California Friendly ® plants, in its value as an educational venue. According to the California Urban Water Conservation Council (2005) demonstration gardens, “Increase the public’s awareness of the importance of landscape water use efficiency and inspire them to action.” Our vision is that Garden visitors will adopt a new gardening culture. Our sustainable Garden will: promote self-sufficiency with regard to materials and maintenance, increase public access to open space and gathering places; increase urban canopy cover and ecological habitats; reconnect residents to our native habitats; and create new standards for aesthetic and landscape management in parks and urban landscapes.
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Create a signature public garden
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Encourage a market transformation to water efficient landscaping
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Provide a venue for new conservation technologies and ideas
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Uphold the historic legacy of the City of Orange
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Support the activities of local environmental education programs
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Expand existing efforts at sustainable watershed management
As Orange County moves closer to build-out, native species of plants, birds, butterflies, and wildlife will be impacted negatively. Local residents will become more disconnected from the natural local environment. The Garden will increase public awareness of the importance of preserving our native habitats by representing them in a public garden. It is our hope that garden visitors will encourage their public leaders to use public space to preserve our natural heritage.
Over fifty percent of Orange County’s water use is outdoors. This includes parks, public spaces, and urban lawns, most of which use profuse amounts of water. As options for increasing imported water supplies dwindle, residents will need to adopt a conservation lifestyle in order to meet future water needs. Experts agree that outdoor use can be reduced up to forty percent with proper irrigation technology and drought tolerant plants. Coastkeeper Gardens will offer practical landscaping advice on how residents and public agencies can significantly reduce their water use.
Inefficient landscape water use generates urban runoff that pollutes our waterways and coastal areas. Beach postings and closures due to bacterial laden urban runoff have plagued Orange County for years. In 2005, Orange County experienced 36 beach closures lasting 124 days. Community involvement is often the factor that eliminates these types of harmful events. Volunteers and visitors to the Garden will learn how their current behaviors could be negatively impacting our coast and corrective actions that can be taken to improve the environment. By involving the community in Garden activities we enhance its educational value and provide the public with the information they need to help protect water quality.
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