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Sustainable Landscaping: 1830s La Huerta Style
updated: Oct 15, 2011, 9:45 AM
By Billy Goodnick
Jerry Sortomme has done more to promote sustainable landscaping in the Santa
Barbara area than anyone I can think of. As the chair for the Environmental
Horticulture Department at Santa Barbara City College for twenty-two years,
Jerry taught, mentored, and regaled thousands of students. Many of "Jerry's
Kids," as some affectionately call themselves, have moved on to careers in
environmental science, horticulture, contracting, design, and other green
professions.
I met Jerry not long after I started working for Parks and Rec in ‘87. From the
start, I knew he was a force to be reckoned with. Aside from his bottomless
storehouse of horticultural and environmental knowledge, his sense of advocacy
for his horticulture program made him and his students frequent partners on City
projects, with a double bonus of having his classes get their hands dirty in real-
world projects while doing a good turn for their town.
Well, Jerry might have retired from SBCC in 2003, but he's still eyebrow-deep
in very historic, very local dirt. He stepped out the door of room A-162 and right
into a volunteer position as project manager and consultant for La Huerta Historic
Garden at the Old Mission Santa Barbara. The
goal of this unique project is to "exhibit era-specific plant materials, revealing
horticulture art forms, techniques, and the science of the Spanish mission-era."
Huatza Huerta?
Simply put, La Huerta (Spanish for ‘orchard') is an extension of the Old Mission's
museum (under the direction of Tina Foss) but moved outdoors. This project,
begun in 2003, is literally bringing back to life a side of California's Mission era
many people don't know about, especially visiting third- and fourth-graders
studying California history. (This is the year when their parents pull an all-nighter,
finishing the Mission San Juan Capistrano model - complete with a holographic
projection of returning swallows - that's due tomorrow.)
No Choice But Sustainable
I'm always encouraging people to take a planet-gentle approach to gardening,
considering the impact that modern practices and materials can have on the
environment. Well, what better way to learn how to garden with an infinitesimal footprint than by seeing how folks made it work centuries ago when supplies and
resources were scarce?
We're talking SoCal living 250-plus years ago, when Trader Joe's and home
pizza delivery were at the bottom on Father Junipero Serra's to-do list. Starting
in 1769, each of the California missions had to quickly become a self-sufficient
agricultural outpost in the Alta territory that stretched from San Diego to San
Francisco. That meant not only providing much of their own food in the form of
vegetables, fruit, livestock, and herbs, but also plants of medicinal value, feed for
the livestock, and utilitarian and ornamental crops.
La Huerta categorizes plants as stone fruits, pome
fruits, grapes, citrus, subtropicals, exotics, perennials, herbs, utilitarian, and
ornamental.
Getting Past the Doorman
Visit La Huerta and at first glance most of the plants will seem very familiar: citrus
and pomegranate and fig trees, corn, squash, bananas, and grape vines are just
a few.
But look a little closer and you'll see the more primitive, simpler ancestors of
today's foodstuffs, before Darwinian selection and hybridization became the
norm. Orange trees sport vicious spines along the twigs; corn kernels traverse
the cob in chaos.
If you're a plant and you want to live at La Huerta, let me warn you -- it's a very
exclusive club. Plants must show that they were full citizens of Alta California on
or before 1834. The date is de facto, but correlates with when, after successfully
revolting from Spanish control, Mexico took church land holdings in 1833 and
divided them into ranchos. The socio-economic changes to the area, and to
agriculture, were significant enough to serve as a dividing line.
Opuntia cacti are hosts to scale insects that secrete
cochineal, a valuable red dye (sometimes called ‘tuna blood') and major export
from the Spanish New World colonies to Europe and Asia. It takes 70,000 insects
to produce one pound of dye.
The More the Merrier
La Huerta is 100% volunteer staffed by "Huerta Folks." There's something for
everyone, whether you enjoy grubbing around in the dirt, serving as a docent for
curious kids, designing graphics (or better yet, developing a web site, which is
sorely lacking), or poring over old reference documents to uncover more tidbits of history.
"This is Maria Cabrera, a top-notch La Huerta
Gardens volunteer," says Jerry.
So what lures people from all segments of the community to get down on their
knees and dig in the dirt every Wednesday between 9 and noon? The day I
visited, Edwin Hale told me in his distinctly British accent, that after being raised
on a farm in England, he's "entertained ambitions of being a country squire.
I'm the Bolshevik wing of Traditionalism." Hale's passion is researching historic
plants of the Mission Era, "Especially the ones we can trace back to England via
Captain George Vancouver," he says.
I'd love to see La Huerta gain the support of the community (the Orfalea
Foundations pays for the buses that bring
the school kids), since none of the funding comes directly from the Mission's
budget. If you're curious about what's going on, the best place to start is
by contacting Tina Foss or Jerry Sortomme and schedule a visit (no drop-
ins). If you're smitten and want to get active, ask about all the programs and
opportunities and see if there's a good fit for you.
It's clear from the monthly Huerta Happenings newsletter Jerry sends out that
there's a strong community aspect to volunteering at La Huerta, and a relaxed
pace. A recent edition included this Lake Woebegon-esque snippet:
"A pleasant, mild sunny day made for a nearly perfect morning to be
gardening with folks & friends. Garden critters flit by and scurried about
including California Jays, some crows and other feathered creatures, one
or two chipmunks, lizards here-and-there and those wild things hidden
from sight, or too small to be seen easily."
Throw in a bowl of Mission era acorn gruel and a non-fat caramel latte and I can't
think of a nicer way to spend a Wednesday morning.
Note: Pick up the September issue of Edible Santa Barbara Magazine to read an article by Helena Hill,
with photos by Steven Brown, about the school programs at La Huerta.
:: :: :: :: :: ::
Contact info:
Jerry Sortomme: Ph 805.388.1921, E-mail: professorsortomme@hotmail.com
Tina Foss: Ph: 805.682.4713 ext. 150, E-mail: sbmission@aol.com
----
Billy Goodnick is a nice guy who knows a lot about plants and garden stuff.
www.billygoodnick.com
gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/photos/gardenwiseguy
www.sbwater.org/landscapeTv.htm
www.kingbeesb.com
Looking for design ideas and cool plants? Subscribe to Billy's e-mail newsletter by dropping him a line at
billygoodnick@yahoo.com
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