For a gardener, one of life’s peaceful pleasures is a mid-winter walk in the park (or garden as the case may be). We as North Staters are lucky to have so many outstanding parks to choose from for just such a walk. While the University of California at Davis Arboretum might seem a bit south of us, and we actually haven’t had much of a winter yet, the Davis Arboretum makes for a great walk. Photo Above: A view down the waterway that runs through the center of the UC Davis Arboretum and its gardens and collections.
Recently, Ellen Zagory, Director of Horticulture at the UC Davis Arboretum, enthusiastically walked and drove me around a good portion of the 2-mile-long, 100-acre, 73-year-old Arboretum – where we paid the most specific attention to the individual ‘Demonstration Gardens’ within the larger park.
Under the leadership of staff horticulturists Warren Roberts, Emily Griswold, Ryan Deering and Ellen, this “public garden, living museum and outdoor classroom and recreation area” has undergone significant renovations and additions that are of special interest to home gardeners. Restored areas include several of the 10 distinct demonstration gardens. The largest of these renovations was completed in 2008 on The Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, famous for its “Valley-Wise” plant and plant-care principles. Photo Right: Good looking and helpful new signs were part of the Aboretum’s renovations completed in 2008.
The Ruth Risdon Storer Garden was named for Dr. Ruth Risdon Storer, a medical doctor, gardener and Arboretum supporter, who provided the “seed” money, as it were, for the garden originally planted in 1980. The oldest demonstration garden in the Arboretum, the concept behind The Storer Garden was to provide planting and design examples that would be healthy and look great “without a lot of water or a lot of fuss” (Superintendent Warren Roberts is quoted as saying) in California’s Central Valley with its dry summer heat and wet winters. Since 1980, the Storer Garden has had only one previous expansion – in the mid-1990s – to include regionally appropriate roses and their companions. Otherwise the garden and its borders have only been added to or tweaked little by little over the past 27 years.
The renovation and expansion, which began in 2005 and was completed in 2008, allowed the Arboretum staff to make effective use of progress in the field of micro-irrigation. Fairly recent research in how and when to water, for instance overhead or drip, or underground, and at what times of day water is most effectively and efficiently delivered to different kinds of plants, allowed the Arboretum to construct a highly efficient and customized, almost completely below-ground irrigation system. At the height of summer, the established Storer garden is watered only every two weeks. Photo Above: The Storer Garden has easily accessible winding pathways. Plantings include both full-sun and full-shade conditions.
Now, as we know, Davis is in many ways a planting world away from us North State gardeners. Much of Davis plants under the enviable conditions of Sunset zone 14 or so, while all of us garden between 1a and 9. And yet, Davis has long been a leader in the field of researching, propagating and trialing native and non-native plants for their regional suitability. Each of their demonstration gardens, their larger plant collections and their many research publications offer us plenty of food for gardening thought.
Back in the Storer garden renovation, as knowledge about and availability of plants that fit the Valley-Wise criteria have increased in the past 15 years or so, the need for both better physical access to and publicly posted information about the Storer Garden had been apparent to the Arboretum staff and their dedicated corps of over 100 regular volunteers. Photo Above: Another demonstration garden worth visiting within the Arboretum is the White or Moon Garden, featuring only white flowering plants, an age-old gardening concept.
Once improved irrigation and new-&-improved museum-quality signage was tackled, the actual plantings and designs were brought “up-to-date,” says Zagory. Seriously overgrown and in some cases outdated plantings were removed or transplanted and, taking advantage of many years of UC Davis plant research and trial results, more interesting, unusual and/or native plants were introduced. Dramatic examples of structural succulents such as agaves and tall, multi-season ornamental grasses, including native deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) and giant feather grass (Stipa gigantea) now punctuate the garden.
As Emily Griswold and Ellen write in a piece about the garden in Pacific Horticulture’s October/November/December 2008 issue: “Renovating the Storer Garden gave (us) the opportunity to consider what messages we wanted visitors to take home from their experience in the garden.” As their planning of the renovation matured, sustainable gardening practices on a holistic level kept coming to the fore and the term “Valley-Wise” was coined and articulated through three guiding principles: “conserving natural resources, protecting the environment from pollution and waste, and providing natural habitat and beauty.” Photo Left: A View of the new Teaching Nursery at the UC Davis Arboretum.
One of the wonderful things about walking through The Storer Garden is its human, close-to-home-garden scale. Its size and individual borders could be envisioned in our own gardens. Its mixed-border approach, which includes small trees, shrubs, perennials and seasonal bulbs, planted beneath and alongside native and non-native oak trees, feels homey. Granted, The Storer Garden is planted beneath and adjacent to the world class 
Pete J. Shields Oak Grove, so that makes for a pretty nice home. Photo Right: A View of the sophisticated, urban and architectural Arboretum Terrace Garden.
If the extraordinary oak collection did not provide beauty enough, in recent years an Entymology 001 class, Arboretum staff and a ceramic/mosaic instructor joined forces in a joint Art/Fusion project in which the students study the many facets of the ecosystem at the center of which oaks sit. The students study soil science, plant and fungal life with symbiotic relationships to the oaks, bird and mammal life, and so forth. The students then work on creating ceramic tiles to demonstrate their knowledge and these are all mounted as artistic and informational displays on the wall of a building that sits along one side of 
The Storer Garden. Even if you are not a gardener, these mosaics are delightful and worth the visit. To date, two sides of this small building have been covered in mosaic, one depicting the Oak Tree of Life project described above, and another entitled Valley Visions, depicting a broader Central Valley ecosystem. UC Davis Arboretum hosts many classes, lectures, and plant and garden work shops available to the public through the year. Photo Above: A mosaic wall created as a joint art/science fusion project by UC Davis students, Arboretum staff and community members.
Beyond the Storer Garden and the Shields Oak Grove, some other areas of the Arboretum you should make a point to visit include the Carolee Shields White Garden, just a few steps from the Storer Garden; the Mary Wattis Brown California Native Garden; the Redwood 
Grove the sophisticated and very urban Arboretum Terrace; and the shiny and new state-of-the –art Teaching Nursery at the Arboretum, which had its grand opening in 2008. Currently the nursery is open for five sales per year and dates of sales can be found on their web site. In the future this program is hoped to be expanded. Photo Above: Besides demonstration gardens, the UC Davis is home to several significant plant collections. Pictured here is the peaceful Redwood Grove.
Many of the gardens and collections at the Davis Arboretum are easily reached by a pleasant stroll up one side and down the other of the waterway that runs the length of the Arboretum. Parking is easy and the entire arboretum is and its gardens and collections are free and open the public 24/7 and parking is free on weekends.
The diverse life-forms, animal and vegetable and insect, that make use of this waterside walkway, including coeds, seniors, parents with small children, people on lunch-break, wood ducks, quail, turkeys, hummingbirds, beetles, pollinating moths, butterflies, bees and so on, will remind you what a diversity of beauty a garden makes welcome in this world. Photo Above: A Wood-Duck pair floating the UC Davis Arboretum waterway.
For more information on visiting, becoming a member of, volunteering at or getting on an email list to take advantage of upcoming classes, plant sales and more, go to the UC Davis Arboretum website.
In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Northern California Natural History Museum, in Chico, Calif. The mission of In a North State Garden is to celebrate the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region. The program is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved. To read more from In A North State Garden or to listen to the podcasts aired on KCHO/KFPR radio, click on jewellgarden.com.
Photo: A stunning double-flowering Brugmansia blossom in the White Garden.
