Today I noted that progress is being made in creating Balboa Park’s Central Gardens. Work continues to be done around the Botanical Building and along one side of the Lily Pond!
The new pergola west of the Botanical Building is taking shape, the grassy area around the fountain to the east is all dug up (as you can see in the above photograph), and new grass and garden plants can be enjoyed by park visitors in various other places!
The UC San Diego Brian & Nancy Malk Sunset Overlook opened last summer. Situated high above Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an elevated platform offers wide views of the Pacific Ocean and parts of coastal La Jolla.
If you’d like to enjoy amazing panoramic views, head down La Jolla Shores Drive to Midpac Lane and look for the small parking lot.
The new overlook includes picnic tables and a bench where you can sit, relax and gaze out over the ocean. Native plants flourish around the platform and pathway.
Nearby, an informative sign tells how the Kumeyaay people lived in La Jolla (Matlahual) for thousands of years and have acted as stewards of the land. This area was part of a lagoon. It was an important natural resource that provided useful materials–for basket making, medicines, fishing, hunting, gathering and more. The sign at the overlook was developed in partnership with Jamul Indian Village and Mary Munk.
I visited recently on a sunny day…
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
Every year, in Balboa Park, around the middle of January, the public can learn to prune back roses. Today the San Diego Rose Society, Balboa Park Garden Stewards, Rose Garden Corps, and the UCCE Master Gardener Program of San Diego County were educating would-be green thumbs at the award-winning Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden.
I blogged about this free educational event three years ago. I noticed that this year a number of friendly folks were also on hand to sharpen garden tools! Very handy!
Why not click the above links and consider becoming a member of one or more local gardening groups. If you’d like, you can even volunteer to help maintain Balboa Park’s very beautiful rose garden!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
A giant butterfly now makes its home in a special Balboa Park garden. The butterfly can be seen among the native plants of the San Diego Natural History Museum‘s Nature Trail!
Today I spotted this butterfly sculpture on the north side of the museum building. It can be observed from the Wildlife Walkway portion of the Nature Trail. I was told it appeared in the past week or two.
It’s appropriate the butterfly now makes this garden home. Many of the native plants along the Nature Trail attract nectar loving pollinators.
I tried to ascertain who made this beautiful sculpture, but no luck yet. If you know anything about it, please leave a comment!
…
If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
Five years ago I explored the San Diego River Garden in Mission Valley. Read about my visit here.
The community park, full of native vegetation and art, was developed by the San Diego River Park Foundation. It’s no longer listed on the foundation’s website. For all intents and purposes, it appears to have been abandoned.
I noticed, about a week ago, that people can still enter the old River Garden and walk about on its trails. So that’s what I did.
As you can see, the human-made parts of the park are fading away. Signs, planters and art are weathered and are slowly disintegrating.
While works of the human hand gradually pass away, the forces of nature persist. Plants, trees and natural life grow, renew, overtake.
…
If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
A week ago, members of the Lemon Grove volunteer group Revitalize Broadway planted an extensive pollinator garden next to the Lemon Grove Depot trolley station, in what is called Promenade Park. I first read about the project here. I saw the garden today!
Keep in mind the new plants are very small now, but they’ll grow and eventually fill out the garden spaces.
Several informative plaques among the new plantings explain the benefits of native plants, and how they attract a variety of local wildlife, including beneficial insects like butterflies and bees.
If you’d like to learn more about the Revitalize Broadway group and their positive community efforts, click here. Do you live in Lemon Grove? Why not join these good people?
What did I see today?
One plaque describes the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
Another plaque explains the migration of monarch butterflies and how certain plants provide food sources for declining butterfly populations. Pictured are Yarrow, California Lilac, Pozo Blue Sage, Pacific Aster and Narrow Leaved Milkweed.
Another part of the new garden is slightly depressed and resembles a dry creek. It’s called a rain garden.
Designed to be environmentally friendly, it will help valuable rain water permeate the ground and act as a natural filter.
…
If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
This holiday season, if you have a chance, head into Balboa Park’s Botanical Building. You’ll discover 675 poinsettias! That’s what I was told by a representative of Forever Balboa Park!
There are poinsettia displays at the center of the Botanical Building, beside the fountains at either end, along windows, and here and there planted in the surrounding lush greenery.
All that holiday color is a sight to behold!
Enjoy these photographs which were taken during the first day of December Nights…
…
If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
How exciting! I see that potted plants have arrived in Balboa Park, to be planted in the new garden areas by the Lily Pond and around the Botanical Building!
The nine new garden areas together are called the Central Gardens. It’s a major addition to the park we all love!
Creating the Central Gardens with their new walkways and new pergola is Phase Two of the Botanical Building and Gardens revitalization.
You can follow the progress of the project and learn more about it by checking out this special Forever Balboa Park website.
…
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
Liberty Station in Point Loma boasts many great works of public art. The Garden of Transformation, with its colorful, luminous butterfly, is one of my favorites! You can find it in the North Promenade near the Stone Brewing patio.
Sunlight shines through the monarch butterfly’s translucent wings producing a rainbow-like effect. It’s magical.
Garden of Transformation was dedicated almost exactly a year ago, in October 2024. The steel and dichroic laminated acrylic sculpture was created by San Diego artist Kaori Fukuyama. (Perhaps you’ve seen her Wave of Change on the front of the Target store in North Park.)
The small garden where this stunning butterfly lives is an official Monarch Waystation. The space contains milkweeds and other nectar plants. According to a sign near the art, between early spring and fall you might observe adult butterflies, young caterpillars, chrysalis, and other pollinators here.
A native seed library stands nearby.
The artist, in her statement, envisions “this installation as a welcoming space where people from diverse backgrounds can come together to observe monarch butterflies and learn about the conservation of this important species…”
…
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
The San Diego Bonsai Club hosted their fall show this weekend in Balboa Park. Amazing works of living, growing art filled long tables in Casa del Prado’s Room 101.
Members of the club presented their bonsai for public viewing, and everyone was invited to learn about the unique art form from experts and make purchases of plants.
When I visit these shows, the beauty and wisdom makes an enduring impression.
What did I learn? Working with bonsai takes patience. Make a mistake–clip where you shouldn’t have–and your error isn’t fatal. Simply put your bonsai aside for a time and let it grow.
Then revisit it. You’ll find a newly grown living thing, ready again to be sculpted into a wild-seeming, aesthetically pleasing object of beauty.
That would seem to be good advice for other types of artistic creation.
Seriously frustrated with a painting or written manuscript? Put it aside, let it live for a time in your subconscious.
New perspectives and ideas will grow in your mind. Then train and prune your creation again.
…
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Feel free to share!
Cool San Diego Sights! 