photo by Steve Cattanach
by Rebecca Kajumba
Ventura Botanical Gardens was founded in 2005 by a small group of people from the community, seeking to create, maintain and enhance the city. The gardens are located in Grant Park and have over 160 species of plants from the Mediterranean climate zone. Some of these plants include a Mediterranean pine forest of 60 trees as well as a small eucalyptus forest.
Today, the Ventura Botanical Gardens are welcoming volunteers to help by getting their hands dirty with garden work, taking up volunteer leadership positions or even donations in order to improve and expand the garden. They are working on clearing and uprooting invasive plants and recovering the plants that are native to Ventura. New Chilean plants are also going to be added to the garden.
Demonstration trail is one of the most beautiful hiking trails. It starts behind City hall and climbs gently for a mile, showing off the beautiful views of Ventura. All along the trail are beautiful wildflowers and plants. This trail is wide and wheelchair-accessible up to the first viewpoint.
The most magical experience comes at sunset but views are beautiful all day long.
