With garden, PCC grows closer to sustainability
Brooke Ormonde
Posted on: 3/10/10 Section: Features
Possibly mistakable for a typical decorative plant island on campus, the new sustainability garden in the quad is actually a symbol of the permaculture revolution.
Thriving in this garden are both edible and medicinal plants that harmoniously burgeon together in a self-sustaining cycle.
According to Caitlin Bergman, a permaculture designer, consultant and educator for the Los Angeles Arboretum, the sustainability garden is untainted by chemical pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides.
During its creation the garden's subterranean soil was infused with a natural compost pile that included cardboard and dead leaf clippings.
"This compost is naturally breaking down and feeding the plants, making the soil healthy with worms and good bacteria," said Bergman.
The garden is home to a unique variety of plants.
The Ceanothus plant is one of the most special in the garden, according to Bergman, because it fixes nitrogen and bacteria into the soil allowing the plant to create nitrogen from the sun.
"It also creates beautiful purple flowers that attract bees to pollinate the fruit trees," she said.
The sustainability garden has two Earth guava trees, known as pineapple guavas, that have an electric pineapple fruit flavor, along with edible "soft pink petals that taste really good," said Bergman.
Also on the sustainability island is the Myrtus communis plant, which has tasty purple berries and can be used medicinally.
There are also onions, columbines and Lupis perennis: the flora of the garden that fix nitrogen into the soil.
There are many plants in the garden, such as the Grivellea plants, that attract pollinators for whom, according to Bergman, "it is very hard to find food."
Organizers said the garden, planted in late January, was a project coordinated to inspire and inform the campus community about the current ecological movement in permaculture.
"In Pasadena alone, 70 percent of drinking water is used to water plants," said Natural Sciences Professor Ling O'Connor, leader of the sustainability garden project.
Thriving in this garden are both edible and medicinal plants that harmoniously burgeon together in a self-sustaining cycle.
According to Caitlin Bergman, a permaculture designer, consultant and educator for the Los Angeles Arboretum, the sustainability garden is untainted by chemical pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides.
During its creation the garden's subterranean soil was infused with a natural compost pile that included cardboard and dead leaf clippings.
"This compost is naturally breaking down and feeding the plants, making the soil healthy with worms and good bacteria," said Bergman.
The garden is home to a unique variety of plants.
The Ceanothus plant is one of the most special in the garden, according to Bergman, because it fixes nitrogen and bacteria into the soil allowing the plant to create nitrogen from the sun.
"It also creates beautiful purple flowers that attract bees to pollinate the fruit trees," she said.
The sustainability garden has two Earth guava trees, known as pineapple guavas, that have an electric pineapple fruit flavor, along with edible "soft pink petals that taste really good," said Bergman.
Also on the sustainability island is the Myrtus communis plant, which has tasty purple berries and can be used medicinally.
There are also onions, columbines and Lupis perennis: the flora of the garden that fix nitrogen into the soil.
There are many plants in the garden, such as the Grivellea plants, that attract pollinators for whom, according to Bergman, "it is very hard to find food."
Organizers said the garden, planted in late January, was a project coordinated to inspire and inform the campus community about the current ecological movement in permaculture.
"In Pasadena alone, 70 percent of drinking water is used to water plants," said Natural Sciences Professor Ling O'Connor, leader of the sustainability garden project.
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