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18 Spring /Summer 2009 reviving a working ranch at the huntington by matt stevens hen Henry Huntington bought the San Marino Ranch in 1903, he acquired a commercial orchard Wof fruit trees and acres of California oaks. The property then stretched well beyond the cur - rent configuration of the botanical gardens and eventually included more than 600 acres.Within a few years, he established one of the earliest commercial avocado orchards in California, wanting his working ranch to be self-sustaining and profitable. Aerial photographs taken over the ensuing decades show the gradual attrition of profitable crops as Huntington expanded residential development in San Marino with acres from his ranch and prepared his remaining estate to become a public garden. With the urging of grounds superintendent William Hertrich, Huntington created the Desert Garden, Japanese Garden, and Rose Garden. Today, only eight acres of orange trees survive, just north of the Botanical Center.Visitors to the gardens rarely see the orchard unless they seek out Henry and Arabella’s mausoleum, which overlooks the small grove. Few other signs linger from the once-massive enterprise, save for a small group of mature orange trees in a neighboring front yard in San Marino that likely had formed part of Huntington’s massive grid 100 years ago. A new project at The Huntington draws inspiration from the institution’s agricultural heritage while also making stronger connections with gardeners throughout Southern California. HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 19 Called “The Ranch,” it will include spaces to demonstrate various urban gardening techniques. The educational site, located to the northwest of the Botanical Center, will not be accessible to daily visitors, but a broad range of programs will provide ample opportunity for enthusiasts to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. “We’ll be demonstrating a myriad of growing approaches,” says coordinator Scott Kleinrock, “from techniques for urban farmers who are growing for farmers’ markets and restaurants to those more relevant to home gardeners who grow in back - yards or even on balconies.” The 15-acre site includes the surviving orange grove, a “food forest,” and a half-acre zone that will feature demonstration spaces for container gardening and pruning workshops. A group of mature oak trees occupies the lower western ridge, providing a natural canopy for a smal l outdoor amphitheater. Kleinrock has spent the winter and spring adapting his design for the space.The master’s student in landscape archi - tecture at Cal Poly Pomona has worked on a number of community garden projects, including transforming neg - lected or vacant lots into thriving urban gardens. It’s fitting that part of the Ranch used to be a parking lot for crews Scott Kleinrock (above), coordi - nator of the Ranch project, standing in The Huntington’s orange grove. Henry Huntington bought the property, known as San Marino Ranch, in 1903 from J. De Barth Shorb, whose house was illustrated (left) in John Albert Wilson’s History of Los Angeles County, California , 1880. Huntington began constructing his new residence in 1909 within view of rows of fruit trees (right). Previous page: “Los Angeles County To-day,” from a Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure, 1929. 20 Spring /Summer 2009 A new project at The Huntington draws inspiration from the institution’s agricultural heritage while also making stronger connections with gardeners throughout Southern California. working on the Chinese garden. Before coming to The more than a dozen thematic gardens—including the new Huntington in December, Kleinrock co-designed a half-acre Chinese garden, Liu FangYuan—the institution has been the community garden at theTri-City Mental Health Center in site of conferences and classes on such topics as succulents, Pomona. As in that project, Kleinrock wants participants to be roses, and bonsai. In 2005, the opening of The Rose Hills part of the process of creating a working urban garden and Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science completed teaching space. Classes and workshops will begin later in a new Botanical Center that also included the Bing Children’s the year. Garden and classrooms, offices, teaching labs, and a nursery. The Huntington is no stranger to the symbiotic relation - And yet The Huntington’s agricultural heritage had retreated ship between gardens and educational opportunities. With into the background. HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 21 time, the Foundation made a $1.1 million grant to supportThe Huntingon’s effort to rediscover its agricultural heritage. “It was Farmlab’s gift of those trees and the Annenberg Foundation’s stunning generos - ity that helped us to pick up that piece of our past that we had long neglected,” says Folsom. In accepting the trees, Folsom saw an opportunity to revitalize his vision of a working ranch, but with a particularly contemporary emphasis, tapping into a wider movement that includes projects like Michelle Obama’s new vic - tory garden yet still harkening back to Henry Huntington’s own kitchen garden circa 1907, com - plete with edible mushrooms. While Folsom will retain the wide rows of orange groves on the eastern side of the Ranch, he has planted the trees from the South Central Farm on the upper western slope in the far less rigid layout of an evolving edible landscape. While many gardeners still give in to the temptation to plant distinct rows of lettuce, carrots, and radishes, Kleinrock likes to encourage them to think outside their raised beds. Edible land - scapes include plenty of non- edible plants that do important “Part of Mr. Huntington’s legacy had been left behind,” work in a garden. Underneath some of the new fruit trees, says Jim Folsom, the Marge and Sherm Telleen Director of Kleinrock is planting comfrey, which sports large, fleshy the Botanical Gardens. In the last decade or so Folsom has leaves that are rich in nutrients. By trimming and mulching taken some gradual steps to acknowledge that history: plant - the leaves, a gardener can improve the fertility of the soil. ing several dozen citrus trees at the top of a hill in the Sub- Note to aspiring gardeners: Be sure to use the Bocking 14 tropical Garden; inviting the California Avocado Growers to cultivar, a sterile variety of comfrey that won’t overtake an plant a heritage orchard adjacent to the orange grove; and area like a weed. Another ground cover, common yarrow, with bringing in nearly 80 trees from the South Central Farm, an its white flowers, can keep the area beneath a tree attractive . urban garden in Los Angeles that was closed down abruptly The plant attracts aphid-eating ladybugs and wasps and can in 2006 amid a fair amount of controversy. Farmlab, an ini - either take irrigation or withstand drought. Kleinrock has tiative of the Annenberg Foundation, rescued the trees from also brought in goumi—a fruit-bearing shrub that helps fix the site—loquat, banana, peach, and apricot among them— the nitrogen in the soil, serving multiple functions in the and brought them to The Huntington in boxes. At the same edible landscape. 22 Spring /Summer 2009 The 15-acre site includes the surviving orange grove, a “food forest,” and a half-acre zone that will feature demonstration spaces for container gardening and pruning workshops. In the education and demonstration spaces of the Ranch, workshops on container gardening; self-watering contain - the trees will be ripe for pruning—literally. A site for back - ers—with reservoirs that saturate plants as needed rather than yard orcharding will include young varieties of trees—stone flooding them—might give new gardeners the confidence fruits, citrus, figs, pomegranates, persimmons, and fruit-bearing they need to grow some of their own fruits and vegetables. mulberries. With aggressive pruning, says Kleinrock, gar - When Kleinrock has conducted backyard orcharding deners can control the size of their trees, allowing them to workshops at other community gardens, he has relished see - harvest and prune as needed without a ladder. Smaller trees ing the confidence grow as people learn to trust their prun - can yield more fresh fruit in the longer run than the larger ing instincts. In the end, he says, it’s not always about the counterparts, as easy access keeps gardeners from losing fruit food. “The produce is almost secondary to the community that rots at the top of larger trees.The smaller size also means that can be built around transforming a neglected space.” three or four trees can be planted in place of a larger one. The trees from the South Central Farm—no longer in With some planning, a gardener can plant multiple varieties boxes—now form part of a developing food forest along the of the same type of fruit in one hole, bearing fruit at varying western side of the Ranch. One specific focus of Ranch points in a season. Folks with even less free space can take research is integrating trees into food production. Food forestry is a technique for growing Scott Kleinrock plants comfrey beneath an apple tree. Many other varieties of fruit trees, including peach an edible garden in a self-sustaining (opposite), were rescued from the South Central Farm by Farmlab. They now form a food forest adjacent to the ecosystem similar to what might Ranch’s demonstration gardens. Photos by Lisa Blackburn . be found in a natural forest. Such a model is already well established in tropical and temperate zones but will require some experimentation in Southern California’s Mediter- ranean climate. While impractical for most commercial enterprises, on a smaller scale a thriving food forest could be a forager’s paradise. “We’ll have to try different edible and nonedible plants,” says Kleinrock, “but that’s what makes this a working ranch rather than a display garden.” The program’s participants will help tend the land - scape that takes shape beneath the shade of trees that had once formed part of the urban garden at the South Central Farm.

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