News Release

Public Invited to Opening of Native Plant Demonstration Garden

Date: November 15, 2017
Contact: Yvonne Menard, 805-658-5725

The National Park Service, California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), and the Ventura Master Gardeners welcome the public to attend the opening of a native plant demonstration garden on Saturday, December 2 at 10:30 am at Channel Islands National Park in Ventura Harbor. The Channel Islands Park Foundation will also be hosting a native plant sale at the park visitor center from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

The native plant garden demonstrates how easy it is to create a drought tolerant home garden using plants native to our region and the California Channel Islands. The plants featured in the garden are readily available at local nurseries, easy to maintain, produce less yard waste than your average lawn, and have beautiful blooms that vary throughout the year.

The garden includes a dry rock river feature that collects any runoff and rain water into a seasonal pool and irrigation holding tank, demonstrating a good method of managing seasonal water flow. The stream also functions to infiltrate and recharge the groundwater at the site.
 
At 9:30 am and 1:00 pm a panel of garden experts with the Ventura Master Gardeners and CSUCI will discuss techniques to consider when creating your own home native plant garden. There will be educational booths sponsored by organizations including the City of Ventura Water, CSUCI, and Channel Islands Restoration at the event.
 
“Using island and California native plants in your home garden is a great way to help to preserve our  Mediterranean-type ecosystem”, said Channel Islands National Park Service Superintendent Russell Galipeau,  “It is one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world and is home to remarkable levels of plant diversity.”

The Mediterranean ecosystem is also one of the rarest ecosystems, occurring in only five regions in the world with characteristic mild wet winters and warm and dry summers. Although these regions cover only slightly more than 2% of the world’s land areas, combined they have approximately 20% of all of the plant species in the world. Channel Islands National Park preserves some of the finest remnants of these coastal ecosystems in America.