The Garden Club of America Zone XII meeting was held in Santa Barbara, CA in April. The business meeting featured updates from all Zone XII clubs. The keynote speaker, Thomas Woltz, landscape architect, spoke about the role of landscape in public gardens and design. His design process uses archeologists, cultural resource historians, botanists, and engineers to see how the landscape, history, and ecology are all entwined to tell the story. One project highlighted the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta where a historic lunch counter once stood. The resulting design reenergized the campus while paying homage to the Civil Right movement. See this link for photos and more information. https://nbwla.com/work/the-georgia-institute-of-technology.
We finished the day with tours of three private gardens and one public garden -Lotus Land- each with their own personality and design ethos. Madam Walska purchased the property in 1941 and turned it into a botanic garden. Lotus Land is situated on 37 acres which boast cactus collections, bromeliads, and exotic specimens. https://www.lotusland.org/gardens/
The last day included the Zone XII awards presentations and a keynote from the Nature Conservancy of the Santa Cruz Island. The Nature Conservancy has worked to bring the native habitat back from overgrazing, habit loss and ecological mismanagement.
Thank you for allowing me to attend the meeting. It provided a wonderful opportunity to meet with other GCA clubs in our zone and share ideas and experiences.
-story and photos by Liz W.
