Don’t miss the San Diego Botanic Garden’s new Spring Garden Festival and Tomatomania!® featuring a wide variety of herbs, spring plants, bromeliads, garden art and implements and of course tomatoes! During this festival, garden experts will be on hand to answer questions and provide helpful advice on spring plantings and caring for your entire garden. Terrific food will be available from Divine Fresh and musical entertainment from Bob Ballentine and friends. Be sure not to miss our petting zoo and pony rides. Bring out the whole family!
This year, Scott Daigre will be our special guest speaker at the event. Scott is an avid gardener, sometimes farmer and enthusiastic landscape designer/owner of POWERPLANT Garden Design. Scott is happiest when showcasing rare and classic tomato varieties as owner and producer of Tomatomania!®, the world’s largest tomato seedling sale. He’s just finished a new book that will teach new gardeners and accomplished veterans a thing or two about growing tomatoes – and how to have fun while doing it!
About the Botanic Garden: San Diego Botanic Garden is an oasis nestled in Encinitas in San Diego County. Visitors enjoy restful vistas, flowering trees, majestic palms, and the nation’s largest bamboo collection. The Garden is on 37 acres and consists of four miles of garden trails throughout 29 uniquely themed gardens including: Hamilton Children’s Garden, Mexican Garden, Tropical Rain Forest, and Mediterranean Garden. The mission of the Garden is to inspire people of all ages to connect with plants and nature.
The President and CEO, Julian Duval, notes that “Some may still call it Quail Botanical Gardens (and there is nothing wrong with that) but they will also tell you there is something special about this place whatever the name. The beauty of nature and the search for solace draws people to the Garden, but once you become a regular Garden visitor there is a special relationship that develops. It’s similar to the way we make friends and how, over time, those bonds deepen and become even more cherished. The growing number of people who feel a bond or kinship with the Garden bodes very well for its long-term future.”
“The conversation about uniting with our neighbors started with Jim Farley, President/CEO of The Leichtag Foundation, Timothy Baird, Encinitas Union School District Superintendent, Casey Sclar, Executive Director of the American Public Garden Association, and Julian Duval representing the Garden as its President/CEO. Casey helped inspire this unique opportunity for collaboration by noting the similarity of our missions and the unique proximity of the Garden, the Ranch and the School District’s Agro-Ecology Learning Center (AELC) which is due to become operational in the fall of this year. On April 4, 2014, all six entities convened and signed a memo of understanding outlining their agreement to develop educational, experiential learning and multigenerational programs around the nexus of agriculture, horticulture, nutrition, science, sustainability, community building and the local history and agricultural traditions of Encinitas. The City of Encinitas is very fortunate to be home to this unique assemblage of institutions.”
