Arlington Garden is temporarily closed due to a fire in our storage shed and staging area. Please click here to support our rebuild and recovery.

Arlington Garden Pasadena map

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Arlington Garden in Pasadena
275 Arlington Drive
Pasadena, CA 91105

For mailing address, click here

Arlington Garden is accessible via public transportation.

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Instead of a freeway, we built a garden. Temporarily closed. DM to purchase a photo session permit, book a school or group visit, volunteer + more!

**please share our GoFundMe** Our Arlington Garden

**please share our GoFundMe** Our Arlington Garden community is deeply touched by all the expressions of support following the recent work shed fire. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to ask how to help!

One way is to support this @gofundme campaign so that we can rebuild and reopen the garden quickly after the fire. 🔗 Link in bio 🔗

Details below in case you’re reading this and had missed this news ⬇️

On Wednesday, May 21st, a fire destroyed Arlington Garden’s storage shed and volunteer hub. We do not know how the blaze began. The shed and surrounding area contained all of our tools, equipment, supplies, physical records, a rain cistern, and even our irrigation control system – everything that we use to care for this special place. Thanks to the quick response of the South Pasadena and Pasadena Fire Departments, the @lacompost hub and our climate appropriate plantings were unharmed.

Your donation will help us cover the garden’s costs that exceed our insurance coverage to remove the debris, build a more fire-resistant shed and volunteer hub, and replace our filtered water dispenser, destroyed equipment, tools, and other supplies.

This is not just a material loss for the garden, but also an emotional one. The humble green maintenance hut with plywood walls and two little birdhouses was the heart of Arlington Garden. Garden visitors stopped by to purchase marmalade or refill water bottles. Kids and curious pups peeked in. Our volunteers and small staff gathered there over the last 18 or so years. And it held many happy memories.

We are facing a major challenge to the garden’s wellbeing—already in the last two days, we have struggled with the loss of irrigation and missing equipment, postponed upcoming programs and volunteer days, and been forced to cancel photo permits. Without a shed, we cannot fully care for the garden. Without debris clearance and assessment, we cannot reopen.

The garden is for everyone and we have always relied on many types of community support! If you’ve enjoyed Arlington or included it in your life’s special milestones, we would be grateful for your support.

**The garden is temporarily closed.** Early Wedne

**The garden is temporarily closed.**

Early Wednesday morning, a fire broke out in the Arlington Garden storage shed, which contained all the garden’s tools, equipment, supplies, and our automated irrigation system — everything our non-profit garden uses to care for the landscape, support our volunteers, and offer educational programming. We do not yet know the cause of the fire.

The shed has been here since the early days of the garden in one form or another. It and its contents are mostly not recoverable, and this is a very significant material loss for the garden. Thankfully, the areas around the shed were mostly untouched and our nearby climate appropriate plantings were highly resilient - they were hardly even singed!

Due to the debris, we have temporarily closed the garden and postponed upcoming programs out of an abundance of caution. Our priority is to ensure the site is safe for all visitors while we assess the damage and begin the clean up process.

We are very grateful to our neighbors who called in the fire, and especially thankful to the South Pasadena Fire Department and Pasadena Fire Department for their quick response.

Thank you for your understanding. For your own safety, we ask that you mind the barriers we have put up at the entrances and please stay out of the garden!

We will share information about the impacts of the fire, and ways that our community can help, in the near future.

In the meantime, please DM us or email at us at info@arlingtongardenpasadena.org with any questions. We will post an update when we reopen, and we hope to see you at the garden soon.

📸: closed sign, burned shed, resilient climate appropriate plantings, shed in better days

POSTPONED // TENTATIVELY RESCHEDULED FOR JUNE 8 +

POSTPONED // TENTATIVELY RESCHEDULED FOR JUNE 8 + JUNE 15

Get grounded in earthen building at this two-part 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 on Sat 5/24 and Sun 6/8– part of the 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 series at @arlingtonpasadena. Led by Ricky Martin and Lynn Fang of SoilWise and Altadena-based artist Ching Ching Cheng, you’ll learn the art of natural earthen construction using bricks made at workshops this spring.⁣
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Select from one and/or both sessions: ⁣
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𝘚𝘢𝘵 𝟻/𝟸𝟺: 𝘉𝘌𝘕𝘊𝘏 𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘚𝘛𝘙𝘜𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕 𝘉𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘊𝘚 ⁣
Learn first steps of bench construction, create a bench form and make/apply a base coat of earthen plaster—plus info on how to mix, form and dry the adobe bricks⁣
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𝘚𝘶𝘯 𝟼/𝟾: 𝘉𝘌𝘕𝘊𝘏 𝘗𝘓𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘐𝘕𝘎 + 𝘍𝘐𝘕𝘐𝘚𝘏𝘐𝘕𝘎⁣
Apply a designed mosaic of historic broken tiles rescued from Altadena by @savethetiles and a plaster coat with natural weatherproofing ⁣
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𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥: ⁣
• The basics of natural fire-resistant and earthquake-resilient building techniques⁣
• How to build a bench form with natural and upcycled materials⁣
• How to mix and apply earthen plaster from clay, sand, straw and water⁣
• Construction techniques such as building arch stabilization⁣
• Real-world insight into climate-resilient architecture included in CA’s building codes⁣
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No prerequisite or prior workshop attendance is required. The workshops are for all skill levels and abilities but best suited for adults and teens (accompanied by an adult). ⁣
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These workshops are priced on a reciprocity sliding scale basis to reflect the costs of producing the sessions. They were developed in response to community curiosity in natural building following the Eaton Fire but are not funded by any outside sources. ⁣
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Limited work-trade opportunities on 5/23, 5/24 and 6/8 are available.There is no charge for under 18 with a paid adult. A 10% discount is offered if you sign up for both workshops. ⁣

Each workshop limited to 20 participants.
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Want to support but can’t attend? We welcome sponsorship to help underwrite costs and reduce ticket pricing.
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See Eventbrite in the @arlingtonpasadena bio to register.⁣

A special Weekend Project ... this Saturday, 5/10

A special Weekend Project ... this Saturday, 5/10 from 9a-12p join other battle-hardened weed-assassins to care for our native garden.

We will be clearing weeds in the shade throughout the native garden. If we manage to pull or cut the vigorous grasses before they set seed, next year’s weed warriors will have an even easier battle!

As part of the workshop, participants will learn to distinguish common weeds and some of their properties (for example, if they’re edible or medicinal).

This big ‘ol weeding event is a fun way to contribute to the aesthetics and health of the Garden with other volunteers, community members, and staff. It is also a great way to meet fellow plant people and a distracting way to get exercise. It is lovely outside now at the height of Spring and all the wildflowers are blooming.

We will have N95 and P100 masks, goggles, and nitrile gloves available for those taking precautions. It will be sunny and hot, so please wear sunscreen and a large, stylish hat—and don’t forget your water, of course!

Everyone is welcome! Participation is free but space is limited. Sign up online at the link in bio. This project will be led by AG’s Garden Educator capri kasai.

📸: wildflowers in bloom, volunteers during our monthly @livingearth.la volunteer Tuesday, two flyers, more wildflowers in bloom, information about onion weed, and finally a photo of this absolutely pernicious but lovely weed in the flesh.

A contemplative and quiet way to look at the habit

A contemplative and quiet way to look at the habitat @arlingtonpasadena volunteers and staff nurture is through a new 𝘉𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘚𝘪𝘵 in collaboration with our friends at @pasadenaaudubon.

We had a great first session in early March, so the bird sit is returning every other month on the first Saturday to the garden beginning at 8:30am.

The Saturday 5/3 session will be led by Alex Coffey of Pasadena Audubon.

We look forward to seeing you!

Free and back due to popular demand for more brick

Free and back due to popular demand for more bricks! In collaboration with @ruckusroots join us Saturday 5/3 at Arlington Garden for a second hands-on adobe brick making workshop, where we’ll craft natural, sun-dried bricks to use in a cob bench for seating in Arlington Garden’s orchard. Learn the ancient art of adobe construction—used by civilizations for thousands of years—while connecting with sustainable building techniques.

This free, intergenerational workshop will be led by Ricky Martin @riarma626 and Lynn Fang @l_fang of SoilWise @soilwise.earth with Altadena-based artist Ching Ching Cheng @chingchingcheng as part of Arlington Garden’s 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 of spring programs.

Adobe bricks- made from a simple mix of clay, sand, straw, and water- offer surprising strength, natural fire resistance, and even resilience to earthquakes when properly reinforced.

Earth building = cob = adobe: a climate-resilient, historic natural building technology that utilizes clay-rich soil, sand, clay and straw for construction which has been used for centuries. Building code standards for safe cob construction were even approved to be included in the 2022 California Residential Code and 2021 International Residential Code after seismic research at Santa Clara University. Adobe is a thermally-efficient, renewable and affordable way to build sculptural benches, ovens, walls (instead of wood fences) and beautiful and creative garden fixtures.

Please wear clothes and shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Bring a water bottle, sunscreen, and snacks if you’d like them as this is a 3 hour workshop.

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