Huntington Beach secret garden grows community spirit

It’s like Huntington Beach is writing its own version of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel “The Secret Garden.�

The story, echoed in the movies that followed, is about near destruction and eventual spiritual and physical renewal, all revolving around children’s interest in a secret garden that needs them as much as they need it.

Since October 2014, members of the nonprofit Huntington Beach Tree Society have been reviving the secret garden behind Central Park, a nearly acre plot filled will trees, succulents and other drought-tolerant plants.

Every Friday for the past 16 months, Tree Society members Shari Engel and Juana Mueller, and numerous volunteers from the community, have spent countless hours trimming back overgrowth, digging out stone walkways, ripping out weeds, planting new flora and otherwise renovating the site to restore its beauty.

The garden was installed in 1992 as a demonstration garden showcasing drought-tolerant plants. However, the economic downturn in 2008 forced the city to make cuts in every department, which meant less attention to maintenance of the garden, Engel said.

“The city didn’t have any money,� Mueller said. “This is a garden. You have to be in here at least once a week. It had just been let go for years.�

Mueller, a former president of the Friends of the Shipley Nature Center, said she was shocked to see the state the garden was in and was hesitant at first to help restore it. A large overgrowth of passion vines had covered nearly all of the garden to the point where it was impossible to see into the space. In one section laid remnants of a transient campsite.

“It was a jungle,� she said. “The passion vine had smothered everything. It had gone up 60 to 80 feet in those alder trees. There was just curtains of it.�

Mueller said she could not undertake a restoration project on her own. Engel, who has also extensively put in time at the Shipley Nature Center on the west side of Central Park, was also shocked by the poor condition of the garden but wanted to see it restored.

The two teamed up, with help from the Tree Society, the Woman’s Club of Huntington Beach, Boeing and the community.

Engel said the garden reminded her of the one from the novel “The Secret Garden.�

“In the book, a character left the garden for rack and ruin,� she said. “When we got here, it was the rack and ruin. So we decided to call it the secret garden.�

Though “secret,� finding the garden is easy. The plot is right behind the library and enclosed by a chain-link fence. The words “secret garden� can be seen printed on a white banner hung outside the southern entrance, opposite a sign bearing the Tree Society’s logo and name.

One Friday morning, volunteers from the Tree Society and elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were busy watering the xeriscape of young redbud tress, pride of Madeira and blue lupine.

Other volunteers were removing an old weed-barrier cloth that was tangled with the roots of a tree.

“There were bushes and tree branches up against the fences,� said Ray Rebolloso, a Mormon elder who has volunteered at the garden for about a year. “But little by little, we’ve just gotten in and trimmed everything up, and now there are pathways you can walk through.�

Huntington Beach resident Erieka Pimentel had brought her children, who are home-schooled, to the garden to do volunteer work and get hands-on learning. Pimentel and her family had stumbled upon the garden only the day before while biking at Central Park.

She asked a Tree Society member who was working there if the family could volunteer, and found out that people could help from 10 a.m. to noon Fridays and returned the next day.

“I try to teach myself and my children to be a part of your community,� Pimentel said. “It’s yours, so take ownership and do something.�

Said Engel: “By improving this garden, we’re giving an example of what all of this park could look like if we can get the volunteers, donations and the whole community behind it.�