A Secret No More

I am coming out of retirement because my fingers just can not sit still about someone chopping down John Greenlee's secret garden. Minutes ago, I drove down Franklin Street and saw that the once secret garden is well in the midst of being killed. What was once a beautiful meadow by the nationally known "Grass Guru" (a Pomona homeboy/ favorite son!!) is now chopped stumps and dirt. The privacy that was afforded by the large plantings there has been stripped away to expose the nothingness that remains. So Sad!!! Yet another righteous and cool thing about Pomona that has been destroyed. For what?

Hopefully Ren can get us some photoraphs of the destruction, as my guess is that they'll be at it again on Monday...But for now, here's a link to what was once a Pomona beauty.

And now that the secret is out of the bag, to get to the formerly secret meadow, you go down Garey towards the 60 fwy, turn left on Franklin and it's on the left side about 10 houses down. And don't forget to keep an eye out for bamboo house (across the street and closer to Garey), another Greenlee/Simple creation.

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Happy Earth Day

I couldn't get Mr. Big to wear his earth shirt today, so I painted the blog green instead.

Many pockets of the Pomona Valley are embracing the green movement. Unfortunately, the City government of Pomona is not leading -or even following- the way, but here's a few local people and groups that should give us hope that the City might one day see the light:


Cal Poly's Center for Regenerative Studies - a unique program that is grooming future leaders of sustainability. Cal Poly has reached out to the City in the past, but so far this is, for the most part, an untapped resource. Grants and for-credit programs could change all that. So could just talking to each other. Thanks to Ren for this photo.


Pomona Regens - three "intentional community" houses of sustainable living here in Lincoln Park. The Regens held an open house a couple weeks ago, and the Goddess had the distinct pleasure of meeting an interesting and thoughtful assortment of the residents. I'll be posting more on Scott's talk about "Urban Gardening for Lazy People." For now, here's the picture as a teaser.

Claremont High School's Teen Green. Pomona students are members too. Weren't you saying that you were going to be doing something like this at Pomona High, Andrew?


John Greenlee - the Ornamental "Grass Guru" of Armstrong Nurseries and Pomona boy- done-good. The picture is a garden he designed for an exhibit in San Francisco. And then there's that secret garden of his somewhere in Pomona...John has been talking about killing your lawn (or replacing it with a low water version) for 30 years, but popular culture has just now caught up with him.


Ted Pugh - the "Pomona poet" who was writing green his whole life, including a time when such things were considered not only unfashionable, but downright counter culture. I imagine the fairies he kept in his forest looked a bit like this.


Coates Bicycles - they've been peddling bikes for over 70 years. Now, when pedaling bikes is being embraced as the way of the future, they are being forced out of business by a very-out-of-touch-with-anything-green-and-progressive City of Pomona.


Here's the often photographed Judge Gallup, one of Pomona's early characters about town. He serves as a visual reminder of Pomona's turn-of-the-century roots as a bike culture. Thank you to the Pomona Library digital collection.


The Claremont chapter of Food Not Lawns, which recently put in this "front food" in Pomona's Lincoln Park. Mmmm Mmmm good.


Lastly are all the people whose names I don't know who are doing their part to help Pomona sustain itself for our children. The nameless are typified by the elderly woman who painstakenly planted a colorful drought tolerant garden on the side of her home, just steps away from the gritty corner of Towne and Mission. It's not pictured, because I want you to actually get on your bike and check it out. (It's on the southwest corner, to the side of a white wall with a flower imprinted on it.) Guaranteed to put a big, earth day smile on your face. As for me, I'm just glad I'm done with this post!

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Tuesday Mornin' Dreamin'

Here's the old fire station at Alvarado and Garey that we were talking about on the comment thread 4 posts down. Photographer Richard has Greenlee-ized one planter and added stained glass windows. But look how just a few small improvements make this blighted eyesore look so much better.

Given that the inside is reportedly unuseable due to asbestos, and the outside is mostly black top, what could it be used for? We need to find out who owns it.

Any ideas for a name that takes into mind this old fire station's past and future uses? The Garden Hose was all I could come up with.

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Pomona Council Compost

RAIN or SHINE: This Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. is the community tour at Cal Poly Pomona's Center for Regnerative Studies. Parking and admission is free. Click on visitor information here for directions to the Center's parking lot. This will be informative and kid friendly, and if even a handful of us attend, it could be a starting point for grassroots efforts to make Pomona more green and liveable.

Thanks to Ren for creating today's visual: a re-use of the deserted gas station at Alvarado and Garey. Click on the photo to blow it up. The imaginary "Pomona Council Compost" is home to communal composting, a virtual community garden and a flyer-starved cork bulletin board. Hey that's the Goddess of Pomona van parked out front. Don't worry, I promise not to park there longer than 72 hours at a time :0 The planters may look familiar to regular readers...they've been Greenlee-ized.

Imagine how many Lincoln Park residents would get out of their cars and walk to the local Stater Bros., if there is actually a community scene at that corner. And wait, Ren will soon be creating a cyber frozen yogurt shop slash virtual coffee house in the vacant restaurant across the street.

My Pomona native friend A told me that the restaurant and gas station at Garey and Alvarado have been vacant for at least 15 years. It's been five years that I have been fantasizing about the possibilities each time I pass by. The California property boom has come and gone, yet these two vacant corners remain at one of the most visible and promising Pomona intersections.

Over the weekend, I got the chance to speak with Justin, the son of the owner of the gas station property. He explained that his father purchased the property about four years ago with the intention of opening up an auto repair shop. He said that neighbors were against the shop opening up due to noise concerns. He said that the City would not allow the shop, so the property has sat vacant. Justin said that the property is currently on the market.

I spoke to Justin about the idea of a community garden there, which would be a win-win situation -- making the property more attractive and thus more valueable. Justin was very understanding, but I got the feeling that dad would be a hard sell. Justin took my number and agreed to speak with dad about the idea. To his credit, dad can often be seen cleaning up trash from the empty lot.

Perhaps it would be more worthwhile for dad if he was offered rent money for lending his property to the community good. Maybe working with Cal Poly, we could get a grant for a sustainability project there -- obviously some project that would be safe on land that previously housed a gas station.

In any event, I hope to see you on Saturday.

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Inside Pomona's Secret Garden

For the past week, I have done my best to keep a secret. Yesterday morning between 10 o'clock and noon, Pomona's secret garden was open to the public. I didn't post about it on the blog, as it was unclear to me if it was my place to do so. For the same reason, I removed address information from my initial post about the garden.

Yesterday morning's misty weather was especially well-suited for a trip inside a secret garden. As I walked along the meandering paths, I saw some familiar Pomona faces. David Allen of the Daily Bulletin was there with reporter's notebook in hand. Mickey Gallivan, the force that is the Historical Society of the Pomona Valley, was there to check it out and put it on her list of places worth saving should someone ever try to bulldoze it. There was even a spotting of Pomona's most famous regen Josh Connole, but maybe it was the wrong guy. Richard E. Nunez made it inside, and took today's photographs to prove it. Also present was a woman in a nursing smock and purple crocs who had driven all the way from Santa Monica just to get a peek. Another man taking photographs described himself as a "historian working for myself." That was a little ominous. And then there was me, a mere goddess of Pomona.

Absent physically from the secret garden was the Grass Guru himself, John Greenlee. His friend Simple? Also a no show. Well okay, so according to Greenlee's able assistant Carlos they never planned to be there in the first place. But I still got the feeling John was watching from nearby. John and Simple's presence was felt throughout the garden -- from painted mermaids on a naked house, to a book made out of stone, to a dead tree "reused" as a vine holder. Live trees double dutied as hanging plant holders.

Visitors could peak in the empty but woodsy bungalow. More than one person could be heard quietly telling another person to make sure they saw a room at the back of the house where all the walls were collaged with ecologicallly-minded magazine and newspaper clippings. One of the items in the collage was a Daily Bulletin headline that read, "California drought officially over." Evidence of another time.

I can not describe all I experienced as I walked through the secret garden, only that it did feel like a Pomona secret partially revealing itself. Partially. At one point, I was tempted to pick a small orange from one of the trees, but the fruit seemed strangely forbidden.

Near the end of my time there, a man wearing a newspaper boy's cap walked in and could be seen taking it all in. The man had a positive vibe to him, and I was not suprised to learn that he and his girlfriend will be the new tenants there. Andrew is in Cal Poly's landscape architecture department. He looked appropriately smitten with his new digs. So for now, with the exception of some plants that will be moved to another Pomona garden-in-the-making, and lots of sculptures which have already been moved there, John and Simple's secret seems quite safe with Andrew.

For those who didn't get in yesterday, Andrew loves the idea of opening up the garden to the public once a month. And he's down with the community gardening in Pomona as well. So the garden is a secret that will continue to be shared among friends.

Enjoy the photos. Other than the photo of Andrew, the stone book, shots of the interior of the bungalow and the locked gate, the other photographs were taken by Richard.
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Thinking Green(lee)

About three weeks ago now, I got an email with the subject line, "Here to serve my goddess." Since my family has not had a working bathtub for six months, I opened the email with visions of free plumbing work in our future. Turns out that the services being offered were photographic in nature. Specifically, photographs of any place, or anybody, in Pomona. And so it came to pass that Richard E. Nunez, most westward Second Street artist and life-long Pomona resident, has been doing his part to keep the blog pretty -and pretty active- with a regular stream of photographs.

Today's photo was his idea and creation. Here's the complete credits:

Art work and creative/ technical direction - Provided by Richard E. Nunez

Original Photography - Shot by the Goddess of Pomona

Styrofoam cup (look close on the right hand top corner of the sign) - Donated by a Pomona homeless person

Black and White "plant a meadow" poster inset - Ripped off (I mean recycled) from John Greenlee

Groundcover - Courtesy of John Greenlee (it's his trademark ornamental grass)

Fence- made possible by the City of Pomona Historical Ordinance (please give me about 4 blocks leeway for this one to work)

Dream - made possible by readers like you, alongside members of Covenant Methodist Korean Church

The update on the Towne Avenue garden project is that I am in communication with a Cal Poly Pomona landscaping architecture student, one of the same guys who did the Tri City garden. For whatever reason, it took a long time to actually get his contact information in order to get in touch with him. He was excited about the project and agreed to check on the site and give us a break down of how and what we should plant there. When I told John Greenlee's assistant Carlos about the project, he offered to donate plugs from their nursery. Slowly, but surely, it's coming along.

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