I know that I have not written about my wild suburbia home garden in a long time. This is not because nothing is happening; to the contrary, the last piece of lawn has met its end! The small bit of turf grass – woefully out of place – on the east side of the front yard is no more. I have been watering the deodar tree deeply but infrequently, allowing the lawn to dry out between periods of irrigation. I then gave this struggling patch of St. Augustine grass a close crop using my weed wacker, and covered it with four inches of oak leaves. It will make a valient attempt to grow back, but I won’t let it. No cardboard, no digging. Will keep you informed on my progress. Instead, I’d like to describe the construction of a labyrinth garden in the South Pasadena nature park.
Nature Park Volunteers
Community volunteers and those from Bank of America’s My Environment® employee program have made a huge difference to the park. We have removed weeds, spread mulch, lined paths with rocks, planted native plants, and watered the new plantings to help them get established.
Last June there was a fire in the nature park. When I first saw the burned area I was confused because if I had wanted a “controlled burn” to rid the park of some weeds, it would have looked exactly like this. No, it was not me! A fire burned annual weedy grasses on a slope, moving down toward the Arroyo Seco flood control channel. The fire charred the flammable grasses and the leaves of a few trees, but most of the plants we put in were unharmed.
The bare, blackened ground called out to us: this is an opportunity, do something good. One of our park stewards suggested a labyrinth garden, and instantly we all knew that this was a great idea. We had a relatively flat piece of land, a pile of rocks, and some strong volunteers.
Labyrinth Gardens
Before starting our own, we looked for other nearby labyrinth gardens and found two. One is located in Arlington Garden in Pasdena. The other labyrinth can be found along the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena.
A Plan
We decided our labyrinth needed to be simple. We had an area of approximately 20 feet by 20 feet, just enough for a simple spiral. Searching pinterest I found just the plan.
Volunteers executed the design in one morning. All it took was a plan, a pile of rocks, a length of rope, a tape measure and some good people with both muscles and good spatial ability. If you haven’t walked it yet, get down there immediately!! You will enter the spiral tense from all of the holiday traffic and activity, and emerge relaxed and refreshed.
Constructing the Labyrinth
What a great addition to the park!
Thanks, Pamela. It really is a fun way to unwind as one walks around the spiral. Have a Happy New Year!
Hello! I would love to visit your labyrinth. Where exactly is it? I’ve also been trying to find out where the Arroyo Seco labyrinth you posted a pic of is. Thank you!
Hi Sarah. My bad! I didn’t include a link to its location. South Pasadena – Arroyo Seco Woodland and Wildlife Park
Hi Sarah. The nature park doesn’t have a street address but it would be at 100 block of Pasadena Ave in South Pasadena (see comment and link below). Hope you don’t have any trouble finding it. Once you enter the park you can approach the labyrinth garden by either turning right and going down the steep and dangerous steps. Otherwise, you go down the hill turn left and walk down to the central part of the park. Then make a right and walk back towards the steps. It’s a small park, shouldn’t be hard to find the labyrinth.
Hi! Just wanted to let you know I was able to visit the labyrinth this past weekend. The design and setting are just beautiful, thank you so much for building it!