Horticulture Heaven

July 14, 2008

We have a guest blogger today. Don Delano is Fairplex’s resident horticulturist. The plants, greenery, fruit orchards and flowers are in large part due to Don’s designing and truly green thumb. Don is extremely passionate about gardening and very interesting to chat with. Here is his update on what’s going on in preparation for Fairtime:
 

Well, the Landscaping Department is busy prepping, cultivating, ripping out and generally getting ready for the upcoming Fair.  In following with the Escape to Hawaii theme of the Flower & Garden Pavilion, one of our remodeled sections has been the area directly behind the garden area of the pavilion.  In place of the 15-foot Italian fountain from last year is emerging a lush Polynesian lagoon, complete with flowing waterfalls, flowering bananas and other tropical eye candies for our guests enjoyment. 

 

In the FairView Farms and Big Red Barn areas work is finally underway, having finished the last year- round events in those specific areas.  A new duck pond is under construction, and we will start soon on the goose enclosure.  It is a challenge to develop an interactive area that keeps the animals safe and healthy, yet allows us to view them going about their daily lives and activities.  I would never have believed that ducks can move rocks the size they do if I had not seen it with my own eyes. Industrious they are.  The gardens planting has begun and we have a bumper crop of Valencia oranges on the trees and a fairly large crop of almonds and English walnuts. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Don. Make sure you check out the area of FairView Farms where we grow California commodities lilke kiwi, tomatoes, cashews, corn, lettuce, persimmons, pistachios, raisins, artichokes, apples, peaches, prunes, avocados and more. Bet you didn’t know we grew all those, did you? See? You always find something interesting at the L.A. County Fair, which, by the way, is 53 days away.

5 Comments

  1. Geez, Don. That lagoon sure sounds inviting. Can you come to my house and put one in?

  2. Hi Goddess of Pomona. Fair-ey Blogster here. Thank you for reading our blog and for your concern over these beautiful trees that grace our campus. My children have especially enjoyed the interesting ranger station, the wildlife talks, the conservation information and the free pine tree seedlings (which we still have!) that have been located in this area. Rest assured you will still be able to find all of these in other areas of the fairgrounds.
    You did hear correctly – the trees are being moved from their current location. But they aren’t being trashed and they will be replaced. Thirty-six of the trees, primarily California Oaks, will be relocated to other parts of the grounds that are conducive to their best development. About one-fifth of the trees will remain in their existing locations to become part of the future landscape in the area. Some of the trees won’t survive replanting, so 17 of the trees, predominantly California Sycamores, will be mulched and used for natural landscaping – as we do whenever ailing or damaged trees are removed. If you take a look at the photo of the pond in the horticulture blog, you can see an old oak that is being used as a natural planter. Most of the trees in the Caring for the Land exhibit were planted about nine years ago; some were only 3 years old.
    Happily, the site will become home to even more trees once the construction of the Trade & Conference Center is completed, perhaps even a 3:1 replacement. If you have any comments, please contact our Community Relations department at cardenas@fairplex.com.

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