My Garden: Pasadena Transformed

From Garden Design Magazine by The Editors on Aug 5, 2011
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My Garden: Pasadena Transformed

A weed-covered lot in Southern California, owned by Caltrans, is completely redone by a couple who live adjacent to the garden, complete with native varieties, a citrus grove, and hundreds of new plants, creating a Mediterranean idyll.

This three-acre garden in Pasadena, California, is considered "My Garden" by Betty and Charles "Kicker" McKenney, who live in a townhouse adjacent to it. But the story of the garden is a bit more complicated than that.

An opening for science

From The Daily Breeze by Rob Kuznia on Mar 7, 2011
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The Daily Breeze

Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale has come a long way since taking up residence on the property of a church 10 years ago.

Last week, the 460-student school - which a couple of years ago moved into its own separate campus on Grevillea Avenue - opened the doors to a brand-new, state-of-the-art science building.

A Public Monument to the Fruit Tree

From UNFRAMED - The LACMA Blog by Amy Heibel on Jan 3, 2011
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LACMA UNFRAMED

The grass has grown in around a notable project at the northwest corner of campus, near Fairfax Avenue: The Public Fruit Theater, Los Angeles, 2010, designed and built by La Loma Development. La Loma collaborated with artist collective Fallen Fruit to build the theater as part of our year-long investigation EATLACMA, which concluded this past November. The Public Fruit Theater remains, as what landscape architect Marco Barrantes calls “a monument to the fruit tree.”

 

"Public Fruit Theater, Los Angeles, 2010," An Outdoor Installation at LACMA Until JUNE 30th, 2011

From by on Feb 7, 2011
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application/pdf iconPress Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“PUBLIC FRUIT THEATER, LOS ANGELES 2010,” AN OUTDOOR INSTALLATION AT LACMA UNTIL JUNE 30th, 2011

New collaboration between Fallen Fruit and La Loma Development creates a monument to the history of fruit trees in Los Angeles

LA Times: Special Issue: Fall Gardening

Marco Barrantes made his mom’s dream yard come true with Rancho La Loma, a vineyard and plant idyll.

From Los Angeles Times by Anne Harnagel on Sep 25, 2010
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application/pdf iconFall Gardening (full article)
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Full Article - A Pasadena Vineyard for Mom
Full Article (page 2)
Photo Gallery - Pasadena garden goes a little bit Napa, a little bit Bohemia
Related Blog - Virtual garden tour: A frontyard vineyard in Pasadena

Most parents have to beg or bribe their offspring to work in the garden, but not Pasadena resident Robin Stever. Upon returning home one day, she discovered her son Marco Barrantes cutting down trees and digging up their frontyard. For years Stever had dreamed about owning a vineyard and, lo and behold, her son had decided to act.

That surprise effort, begun in 2003 during Barrantes' summer break from his landscape architecture and urban planning studies at UC Berkeley, was his first step in transforming the nondescript 1-acre property into Rancho La Loma, a romantically rough-around-the-edges homestead that evokes early California, complete with a vineyard, orchard, vegetable garden and chickens.