Peninsula gardener John Noble and his associates have adopted a garden in the heart of Balboa Park that was showcased in the recent May 9 “party of the century,” one of the major events of the park\u2019s 2015 centennial celebration.
\n“It has been the most wonderful experience of my life,” said Noble, who took part in support group Friends of Balboa Park\u2019s Adopt-A-Plot program with the city\u2019s Park & Recreation Department for the 2015 centennial.
\nProfessional landscape designers, horticulture and garden societies, businesses and volunteers have worked to create new landscapes for key areas of Balboa Park, including popular gardens in the Central Mesa, which are among the highlights of putting the best face on the park for its centennial.
\nNoble and others among the Friends of Balboa Park group worked with city parks to get permission to “take over some of the park\u2019s garden space that needed upgrading.”
\nHe said special permits were issued to contractors willing to revitalize the park\u2019s landscaping.
\nThe Peninsula gardener was overjoyed at the plot he got to enhance in the park, which is located at the lily pond in front of the botanical building, one of the park\u2019s most scenic and visited spots.
\n“I feel like I won the lottery,” said Noble, noting, “It\u2019s a wonderful opportunity to make this beautiful garden right in the heart of Balboa Park.”
\nNoble said he has a vision to start a program “to teach kids about plants, the botanical language and nature.” He added it\u2019s important to educate young people early on about the significance of plants and the relationship of different species to one another.
\nNoble has helped out with the Point Loma Native Plant Garden as well as aiding with median plantings, a continuing project of the Point Loma Association, along Nimitz Boulevard and other community thoroughfares.
\nNoble added there\u2019s something “magical” about working with plants.
\n“There is just something beautiful about nature,” he noted, adding, “Most every day I discover something new.”
\nNoble\u2019s getting recognition via a 2-inch logo on his adopted Balboa Park plot. He added it\u2019s great exposure, pointing out that as many as 10,000 visitors a day have their pictures taken in Balboa\u2019s picturesque gardens.
\n“It\u2019s been a very hard challenge to make it on that level,” said Noble of his garden, adding he\u2019s had volunteers, including children, who\u2019ve helped him with the monumental undertaking.
\nThe gardener said most of the storied park\u2019s drought-tolerant gardens are “about reducing water, putting in perennials that need less water than the plants that are being taken out. The overall goal is for water education.”
\nNoble started in November to get his Balboa Park garden plot ready for the May 9 Party of the Century, which was attended by the mayor and countless others.
\nNoble noted the adopt-a-plot project isn\u2019t just “a temporary, short-term thing for the centennial,” but instead is a “historical thing” meant to endure and reshape the park aesthetically, improving it for generations to come.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peninsula gardener John Noble and his associates have adopted a garden in the heart of Balboa Park that was showcased in the recent May 9 “party of the century,” one of the major events of the park\u2019s 2015 centennial celebration. “It has been the most wonderful experience of my life,” said Noble, who took part […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":264662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"A Noble endeavor \u2013 Point Loma gardener adopts a plot in Balboa Park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}