Coastkeeper Garden

I am interested in drought resistant plantings and was enthusiastic about visiting this botanical garden because its in Orange County, where I reside, and close to home.
My husband and I were underwhelmed. This is the start of a very good botanical garden, the paths are great and you can see it shaping up. However, there are no name signs for any of the plants and its easier to see what you do not want rather than a design that is really pleasing to the eye.
I truly hope that this botanical garden gets funding and is able to expand and add to its inventory. We really need it here in Orange County.

What a great place! I came to take my kids to the nature play garden. They are having a great time! There is no formal playground equipment but rather rocks, logs, hills, and dirt to climb on. There’s even a tunnel! There are lots of benches to just sit and enjoy listening to the wind rustle the leaves. There is one picnic table down at this end. The play garden is at the very end. There is a portapotty towards the middle of the whole garden. Only one trash can and it was more for the gardeners, I think. A great place to take your kids to play in nature, get dirty, and use their imaginations!

«We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.»
― Desmond Tutu
«I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer — and what trees and seasons smelled like — how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.»
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
I toured this demonstration garden today while looking for my son (who i had actually driven by at the entrance where he was helping a friend direct cars into the parking lot. I missed him, he missed me, I ended up touring the garden with a friend looking for mini-​me).
Back when I was domesticated, I took out our front grass and planted native plants that created a supportive environment for hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. I used to love just sitting on the porch with a glass of wine and watching the various birds and insects hover about. Plus we used very little water especially since our adjacent neighbors always over watered their respective patches of green.
Water will be our next resource battlefront, if it isn’t already and everyone should do their part to create a more drought resistant and fauna attractive environment. This 2.5 acre Coastkeeper Garden located at Santiago Canyon College in the City of Orange can help you create such a garden.
Per their website: «This unique, sustainable garden hosts 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) into „backyard“ landscapes that harmonize with the native plant habitat throughout the Garden.»
In the native garden I started, with the great CA weather we actually have a beautiful garden year round and the other parental unit has expanded it once I left and became a wild and free animal. (Don’t worry, someday I will be domesticated again).
If you are in the area, take a look at this garden. there are monthly classes and occasionally community events like the neighborhood pumpkin painting soirée that my son was volunteering at (or rather talking to his friend who was really working).
The Garden is located on the southeast corner of Santiago Canyon and Jamboree Rd next to the Irvine Park entrance on the Eastern portion of the Santiago Canyon Campus. There is a gravel road you enter on just before you hit Jamboree if going East on Santiago Canyon. The garden is open 7am-​4pm from Tuesday to Saturday. There are plans to expand if fundraising is successful.
If interested in the environment and drought resistant environmentally friendly gardens, this is a must visit.