Arlington Garden is pleased to announce that we are celebrating our 15th anniversary throughout the 2020 calendar year!
In light of the pandemic, the garden is working with Board Vice President Kim Jacobsen (our Anniversary Planning Chair) to create a slate of innovative new remote programming for our anniversary. We are developing a variety of entertaining events, including educational activities for children and regenerative gardening tutorials for adults. People wishing to learn more about our evolving anniversary programming are invited to subscribe to our newsletter or bookmark this website.
The images directly above show the site of the garden before planting began in 2005 and as it is today. They make vivid the amazing transformation that occurred in the garden in a mere 15 years!
Inspired by Jan Smithen’s book Sun-Drenched Gardens: The Mediterranean Style, our founders Betty and Charles McKenney worked with designer Mayita Dinos to create a garden celebrating Southern California’s mediterranean climate. The product of this collaboration is a unique community-built garden offering free education, inspiration, and enjoyment to the public, and which shows how beautiful a climate-appropriate, community-built garden can be.
We are proud that instead of a freeway, we built a garden. 15 years ago, we were the early adopters of regenerative gardening and we are an excellent example of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, “California Watershed Approach” of landscape design. We are a landmark of healthy habitat and living soil, grown from a denuded empty lot that sat dormant for almost 45 years.
— Michelle Matthews, Executive Director of Arlington Garden
2019 was a transformative year for the garden. State Senator Anthony Portantino selected the garden as Senate District 25’s 2019 California Nonprofit of the Year, and last September, at Autumn in the Garden: A Sensory Experience, the garden’s Craftsman-inspired fountain was dedicated to the memory of its founders, the McKenneys.
As part of our 15th anniversary celebration, we are offering a limited number of garden benches for memorial or honorary dedication to persons, businesses or organizations. These benches provide opportunities to relax, reflect and rest while enjoying the beauty and serenity of nature in the garden, opportunities that are especially welcome in these troubling, uncertain times.
You can also support the garden by purchasing our (locally) famous sweet orange marmalade. Our marmalade is made from Washington navel oranges grown in the garden, processed locally by E. Waldo Ward, and sold at area retailers. It can be purchased from Armstrong Garden Center in Pasadena and Jones Coffee, both open during the pandemic.
The garden is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located at 275 Arlington Drive. For more information about the garden, the commemorative garden benches, or our plans for the 15th anniversary, please email info@arlingtongardenpasadena.org.
