Hi everybody, my name is Brian Houck I'm the head of Grounds and Gardens here at
the Getty Center and the Getty Villa. today we're at the Robert Irwin Central
Garden and I know it's an odd time with the public not being here at the Getty
Center, so it seemed like a nice opportunity to show you what's happening
in the life of the garden right now. Spring has not stopped! Spring continues
for everybody, including the plants here. What you'll see today is [that] a lot of the
plantings that we've sort of initiated in the fall and winter are really
starting to look pretty good—this is normally our chance to renovate the lawn,
so we would be doing that, although we're not having as much staff here right now
so that is something that we're gonna adjust this year, and not do our normal
turf maintenance. It's a Bermuda grass like they have on
golf courses on the putting green, but this year I think our biggest
opportunity is to let it rest, because we don't actually have the public walking
on it. So for the grass it appreciates the feet not being on it lately.
And let's see, we have happened to turn off the stream and we have emptied the
azalea pool at this time. We don't have as many staff here right now, so
maintenance-wise, it was easier to not clean the pool regularly like we would
normally do. We have our sycamore trees, which are what they might call pleats, so
they have a very formal sort of boxy curvilinear shape going down on the top
of the garden. And it's really hard to tell right now, but you might have to
trust me, they are just starting to put out their new leaves for this season.
The bougainvillea arbors, which are a typical big favorite here, it's a little early in
the season for them to show a lot of color, they're just starting to come out.
They need a little more heat and then they'll pop to be sort of the full
summer exuberance going down.
All right, we're down now on the plaza level. It's very quiet here; normally the
stream would be rushing, but that's off as well. We were just commenting on some
duck prints that we saw in the decomposed granite, so our wildlife are
still here. And actually just this week, in the last couple of days along the
outside edge, the crepe myrtles have leapt out there, just a little bit ahead
of the sycamore trees, so these are the magenta color and they'll be blooming in
the summer. You know, this garden is now 20 years old, and that's a mature
feature in the garden, so we've begun adjusting their pruning for a more
mature shape. From this standpoint if you look out over across the azalea
maze, you'll see that in these couple of beds we have started to remove some
things. This is sort of a more purple area of the garden, so we are replanting
it. Some things are newer over here, some things are just getting started, and one
area just got pulled out yesterday. And then beyond is the azalea maze, so you
can sort of see how tightly cropped some of those azaleas look right now.
The bloom season is just past, you'll see some straggler blooms on it.
We're just taking the opportunity to be a little do a little bit more rejuvenating
pruning, to let it come back so when you all do return to the site you'll see
something that looks a little tighter and a little more finished.
Oftentimes people will think this is a bit of graffiti in the garden but Anna Grace
and Adele is the daughter and wife of Robert Irwin when he made the garden, so
I guess if this is called graffiti it's one that Robert Irwin did
himself so it's fine, we're very happy to have it.
The Robert Irwin Central Garden represents what high horticulture can
really do. It's not necessarily something people have the resources and time to do
in their home yard; it's a very intensive garden that the Getty does and sponsors,
and it really supports what I think the idea of what can be happening — so we're
offering something symbolic and something meaningful that can remind
people of what's possible — and that's really valuable, to have people sort of
reflect on what opportunities they have in their own yard to know a greater
variety of plants, to get excited and find their own journey in the
horticultural world. You know, for example, in my own yard,
first thing I did was take out the lawn and I have a more wildlife-friendly
garden-slash-drought-tolerant garden, and that personal decision that I've made
supports the butterflies, and it supports the birds, and it supports — I know there
are skunks and raccoons and opossums that go through my neighborhood and they
find harborage in my yard, and that's okay. I'm really happy to do that.
So those are things that I believe can inspire, and maybe it's ripples in a pond
for people to think about an effort we should all be doing.