March, 1915, before it was turned over to me to plant and also to 

 maintain until the end of the year. I found on commencing my work 

 that the grading had not been completed, the sprinkling system had 

 to be changed in many places and the walks had not been made at 

 all. It was necessary to complete this work so that it was sometime 

 in May when the actual planting of the garden commenced. 



In the plan, I had provided for a sycamore grove, an oak grove, 

 a redwood grove, a big tree grove and a grove each of Monterey and 

 Torrey pines. These were the first to be located, the trees being 

 planted in such a manner as to form a natural group. The planting 

 of the other trees followed; then the shrubs, perennial plants and 

 bulbs and last of all the sowing of the annual wild flower seeds. Every 

 species had its zone, so to speak, growing in thick masses then thin- 

 ning out with scattered specimens and gradually merging or inter- 

 mixing with other kinds. The wild roses drifted across the path 

 following through a portion of the ground just as they would in the 

 wild state. The bracken ferns grew in clusters under the redwoods, 

 and the sticky monkey flowers came up from beside the wild cherries. 

 The main groups of trees were planted about the intersections of the 

 walks and many open spaces were used for masses of wild flowers, 

 thus giving much the appearance of a piece of natural landscape 

 thru which walks had been cut. 



The sprinkling system which I recommended for this garden was 

 an underground automatic disappearing sprinkler. This is like the 

 ordinary lawn system except that when the water is turned on the 

 sprinklers rise up about 18 inches above the surface of the ground 

 and drop back again when the water is turned off. This is an ideal 

 sprinkler for such a garden because when in use the sprinklers are 

 well up above the flowers and out of sight again when not in use. 

 For some reason the County authorities had this only installed in one 

 section of the grounds, the remainder being an ordinary underground 

 lawn system. In the summer of 1917 the Park Department changed 

 to an over-head Skinner system, which to my mind was not as de- 

 sirable, and which detracted greatly from the beauty of the park. 



The ground for many years previous had been uncultivated land 

 and was full of weed seeds. During the summer and early fall months 

 the sprinklers were kept going, thus starting the weeds to grow. The 

 ground was then cultivated and a little later again watered, starting a 

 new crop and then cultivated again. In this way eight crops of 

 weeds were destroyed before the wild flower seeds were sown. 



By the end of 1915 the laying out of the garden was completed 

 and it was then turned over to the City Park Department. 



In order that the best results should be obtained it was necessary 

 to do some hand weeding and this was made possible by the generos- 

 ity of some public spirited citizens who furnished the necessary funds 

 for this work. 



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