Secret Garden Open To All- SWC’s acclaimed horticultural center is often overlooked, but always beautiful.
South Bay’s Secret Garden is hiding in plain sight, but Indiana Jones himself would likely drive right past it.
Eduardo Minguia and his crew wish more people would journey to the campus treasure, which he calls “a hidden oasis in a parking lot jungle.”
Spanning four acres, the garden is divided into 12 areas that provide a living lab for the school’s horticultural classes as well as unique areas for visitors to enjoy.
“It’s essentially a four-acre outside classroom,” said Minguia. “The garden’s purpose is to serve as a canvas for a garden design student to practice building garden structures. These include water features, green houses, compost, an English-inspired formal garden, and the most popular site, the fish pond. Southwestern students construct all of these features as a part of their curriculum for the horticultural program.”
California’s drought has wreaked havoc on lawns and gardens up and down the state, including SWC.
“We’ve let some lawns die off,” said irrigation tech Jose Muchka. “We have replaced some of our plants with native plants better adapted for the environment that require less water.”
Minguia, SWC’s field site manager, said he and his crew will still maintain a large portion of the non-native plants they have for educational purposes.
Faculty often take advantage of the picturesque garden for instruction, Mingua said.
“Teachers bring their classes out here during the summer,” he said. “Art teachers, photography classes (and staff from the) child development center bring their kids for picnics. We definitely get used, not as much as we would like. Groups that use this place absolutely love it.”
Stressed out students can find sanctuary in the garden, Mingua said.
“It’s extremely peaceful,” he said. “Students will find a shady spot and they’ll come to read or listen to music. The farther you go into the semester, they kind of have this look on their face that I remember when I was going to school that just says ‘I need a break’ and this is the perfect environment.”
Landscape technicians confessed to some of their own stress. Water restrictions have put some of the garden’s oldest trees in peril.
“We have some trees that have been around for 50 years and are very valuable to us and the school,” said Enrique Gonzales Jr., an irrigation technician. “Water restrictions have cut down sprinkler time to five minutes twice a week. It’s just not enough water to maintain something properly.”
Through implementation of a new irrigation system, the gardening and irrigation team has found a modern way to handle the drought that should allow SWC more time to water its beloved plants. Minguia said it is not the technology, but the team’s passion that will keep the garden growing strong.
“I don’t think the campus realizes how much these guys do to keep this campus looking the way it does,” said Minguia. “Technology is another tool in our belt, but you can never replace a well-educated irrigation tech with a soil probe in his hand.”
