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WOODLAKE BOTANICAL GARDEN/BRAVO LAKE BOTANICALGARDEN
Environment: Valley, community agricultural botanical garden Activities: birdwatching, dog walking (on a 6' leash; scoop poop), educational activities, photography, picnicking, produce tasting, walking (1.2 mile trail, wheelchair accessible), wildlife viewing Note: To schedule a group tour of the gardens, contact Irene Zacarias, City of Woodlake, 564-8055 Open: The flower garden on the west side of the parking lot is open daily, year-round. The eastern, gated part of the garden is open Wednesday-Sunday, 8-12, and whenever the gate is open. Site Stewards: City of Woodlake, 559-564-8055; Woodlake Pride, Manuel and Olga Jimenez, 559-280-2483 Opportunities for Involvement: Donate, volunteer Links: Sierra Nevada Geotourism, Creator's Palette - Bravo Lake, Woodlake Pride, Woodlake Pride Video, The City of Woodlake Directions: Map and directions are at the bottom of this page. |
"You're only as happy as your surroundings. And by planting gardens, we thought that people would be happy, and they were. They saw the gardens, and they would stop and say, you know, 'This is beautiful.' And they would tell the kids, 'This is an awesome project that you guys have.'" -- Manuel Jimenez
"And I think I haven't found one lazy child
yet, or one bad kid yet, and I've been doing this volunteer work over at
the botanical garden for almost nine years." -- Olga Jimenez
“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy to have such things around us.” -- Iris Murdoch
"Tu, que caminas acaso con pensamientos perturbados, en entra aqui y reposa; y que la dulce serenidad de las cosas que brotan y la paz celestial, se reflejen en tu alma. You who walk, maybe with troubled thoughts, come, enter here and rest; and may the sweet serenity of growing things, and the heavenly peace be mirrored in thy soul." -- Doxis M. Palmer
“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either.” -- Joseph Wood Krutch
"The legacy that I'd like to leave Tulare County and its residents is mostly the beauty, the beauty that can be. -- Olga Jimenez
Photos for this article by: John Greening, Manuel Jimenez, Laurie Schwaller, Jim Skinner
2017 Update: The City of Woodlake has changed the garden's name to Woodlake Botanical Garden, and management, maintenance, plantings and purpose of the garden may be subject to change. |
History:
The Story of Bravo Lake Botanical Garden by Paul Hurley From tiny seeds, great things grow. In Woodlake, the Bravo Lake Botanical Garden has grown fruits and vegetables, flowers, trees, and samples of the San Joaquin Valley’s agricultural bounty since 2003. Its 13 acres of plantings extol the area’s botanical diversity, teach people about the value of natural resources, and promote community pride. “We sort of knew that we wanted to create the first agricultural botanical garden in California,” said its co-founder and director, Manuel Jimenez. Manuel and his wife and garden collaborator, Olga Jimenez, both lifelong Woodlake residents, trace the origin of the botanical garden to 1972, when they first began beautification projects and planting community gardens in Woodlake, with the help of youth volunteers. "Our premise was that we would grow kids by planting gardens,” Manuel said. The Jimenezes had almost 30 years of experience planting community gardens when the city of Woodlake approached them in 1999, wondering if they would be interested in a barren stretch of ground near Bravo Lake that had been the Visalia Electric Railroad right of way. “The city had an empty area that was available,” Olga said, “and we had been doing beautification projects in different parts of the little town.” The couple launched into the large project with their Woodlake Pride youth as grass-roots collaborators with the city of Woodlake. They sought funding from service clubs, including the Woodlake Rotary. They received donations of plantings from nurseries, notably L.E. Cooke for fruit trees and Monrovia Nurseries for ornamentals. They visited other botanical gardens throughout California. They appealed to local businesses and farms for financial and technical support, including carpenters, plumbers, and electricians for infrastructure. Grading and grooming the site took a couple of years. They planted tens of thousands of annuals with the help of a labor force composed mostly of volunteering teenagers. When they began planting, they solicited experts to lay out specific areas of the garden. They planted 1,700 rose bushes in 130 varieties. The garden began to take shape, not just as a ground for growing plants but as a complete ecosystem. “The botanical garden was just a piece of dirt that was barren,” Olga said. “Now, if you go and visit it, you will see that not only have we got plants growing, kids growing, but we also have a variety of birds that have come to visit us. We have cottontails that are there, and turtles, and doves, and lizards. Things that were never there. And since we put the plants down, we see a lot of variety of wildlife just existing in our area.”
The garden officially opened in 2003, and welcomes the public on weekends. Visitors walk a 1.2-mile trail that takes them past fruit trees and vegetable patches, ornamental shrubs and rose gardens, row crops and flower beds. Young people plant between 10,000 and 20,000 specimens a year. The garden is organized to show off not only the plants that grow in California, but the abundance of its agriculture and the heritage of farming in the San Joaquin Valley. “Once we did that, the next phase was to begin to include the key things that we thought were important for the community to learn, and that was conserving the natural resources that we have,” Manuel said. Water conservation was a priority, so the Garden installed several different efficient irrigation systems. They encouraged wildlife, and gradually observed snakes, frogs, birds, small mammals, and insects using the garden. “We share our resources with the wildlife,” Manuel said. “So we plant fruit trees, you know. Fifty percent is for us, and fifty percent is for the wildlife. We let them feed. At the gardens, we let nature take its course.” The Bravo Lake Botanical Garden is a place for hands-on learning. People are encouraged to taste the produce. “You don’t have to visit 10 farms to see 10 crops. Our goal is eventually to plant everything that’s grown in the state. And so, I believe that people do seek to visit a facility like ours.” As complete as the garden is, it is not finished, Olga said. “I know that the seed, that it comes from the seed, but then the good Lord provides the water and all these beautiful plants that come up,” she said. “So, it’s been a learning experience, having this garden, and I’m sure that there’s more to be learned.” October, 2012 
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Directions: Address: Naranjo Blvd. just east of Hwy 245, Woodlake, CA 93286 Latitude/Longitude: 36-24'28'' N, Longitude: 119-05'49'' W 36.4077273, -119.0970507 From Visalia take Hwy 198 east to Hwy 245 (Valencia Blvd), then north 5 miles into Woodlake, and turn east at the intersection with Hwy 216 (Naranjo Blvd) to Magnolia. Bravo Lake Botanical Garden is on the right (south); parking is available along the street and in a parking lot. |