Bill Morem: Botanical garden’s plan outsmarts environment

Bill Morem

Without question, a major bonus point of living around here is the weather. Season in and out, it’s kind of like Goldilocks’ ideal porridge: not too hot, not too cold.

OK, maybe it gets a little toasty over the Grade right about now, but by and large we have the good fortune of living in one of just a few true Mediterranean climates in the world.

That said, we’re also staring down the barrel of what may be one of our cyclical droughts, meaning our sunny clime is going to hit our wallets as water undoubtedly heads the way of oil — ever more scarce and expensive.

We have a choice, though: Keep watering our lawns until the water police say we can’t, then watch as our yards turn into skanky weed patches. Or start planting drought-tolerant species that thrive in a Mediterranean climate.

It seems like a logical choice, and that’s where our budding San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden come into play.

If you haven’t been there yet, it’s on 150 acres next to El Chorro Regional Park, across Highway 1 from Cuesta College. Its vision boggles in scope.

Plans call for five huge gardens — each with its own restaurant —representing Mediterranean climates throughout the world. There will also be wedding and meditation gardens with about 52 miles of permeably paved paths and trails interlacing gardens and pocket-sized performance areas strewn throughout the hillside site.

A less ambitious plan would overwhelm, if not kill, an ordinary mortal; that’s why Liz Scott- Graham is a perfect fit as the garden’s executive director. She’s no mere mortal.

Liz has been either in the forefront of environmental issues — such as bringing national recognition to the Guadalupe Dunes — or, as a lawyer, using her legal skills behind the scenes for ecological causes.

Plying me with excellent tuna sandwiches with a side of olives,

she recently outlined the Botanical Garden’s future.

“We want to make this a place to save our children from nature deficit disorder,” she explained as we walked through a fledgling memorial garden. “Along those lines are activities like solar car races, a solar fountain and cooking food on solar ovens, as well as ongoing daily activities and camps. We want no child left inside.”

But if you must be inside, the gardens’ Oak Glen Pavilion is a good place to be. Built with hay bale construction techniques by Cuesta College students, the pavilion uses minimal energy through baffled windows, fans and a vacuum system at the building’s entries. It’s used for classes, talks and demonstrations and can be rented for private parties.

Liz sees the gardens as being the “jewel in the crown of The Morros,” a world-class operation that will lure some of the 4 million travelers who drive by on Highway 1 each year and also be a destination tie-in for world travelers who come to the county for its wineries and wild places.

“I see it as an economic engine for the county,” she said.

For area residents, it’s also a great resource for buying drought-tolerant

Mediterranean plants to retool thirsty yards—a convenience, with the coming cost of water, that should make our own economic engines purr.