From Mansion to Vacant Lot to Thriving Climate-Appropriate Garden, Learn How Arlington Garden Came To Be

Once the site of a 17,000 square foot mansion called the Durand, Arlington Garden has come to represent the importance of urban forest cover and climate appropriate habitat in Pasadena. 

After the palatial residence was torn down, the garden site sat forlornly for decades.

“It was torn down and everything was sold at auction,” Arlington Garden Executive Director Michelle Matthews said of the Durand. “And then the empty lot sat vacant for over 40 years. There were about seven trees and a few palm trees on the site. It was apparently used as a parking lot and a trash dump.”

When Betty and Charles McKenney moved next door in 2003, Steve Madison, who was in his second term as City Councilmember for District 6, approached them about transforming the empty lot into a community use. 

They ended up coming up with the idea of a garden. 

Working with Madison and former City Manager Cynthia Kurtz, the McKenneys formed a nonprofit, Arlington Garden, in 2005. Then they started putting a layer of mulch over the lot and worked with Mayita Dinos, the garden’s designer.

Dinos, along with Matthews, will be in a panel discussion on Sunday, October 9, “The Transformation of Place: Arlington Garden in Pasadena,” one of the first events kickstarting Innovate Pasadena’s ConnectWeek 2022.

“We’re going to really kind of focus on the story of the garden. The fact that it’s only 17 years old, It was a labor of love and a strong partnership between the city of Pasadena and our nonprofit, volunteers and a lot of sweat equity that was able to transform the garden,” Matthews said. 

“We want to talk about the power of place in regards to the importance of open space,” Matthews continued, “the importance of street trees, urban forest, nature in cities, and native and climate appropriate habitat, especially for water savings. Trees and plants are really one of the best technologies that we have to fight climate change,” Matthews said about the topic of discussion for the event on Oct. 9. 

More than anything else, Matthews said that by participating in Connect Week, they hope to encourage more people to visit Arlington Garden and see for themselves how the garden has evolved as a climate-appropriate botanical garden in the Pasadena area.

The climate appropriate garden practices water-saving irrigation and other sustainable systems that people can learn from when they visit, Matthews said.

Arlington Garden is also in favor of removing lawns and instead opting for an environment-friendly and climate-appropriate native garden in Pasadena’s homes and public parks. 

Matthews said lawns are “the number one irrigated crop” throughout the nation, and requires too much water for such an environment as in California.

“Because we have a severe drought and lawns don’t provide habitat, we need a lot more native habitat for our birds and our beneficial pollinators and native leaves and insects,” she said. 

Matthews and Dinos will also talk about the past, present and future of land stewardship on Sunday. 

“Nature is everywhere we are. And Arlington really demonstrates those principles,” Matthews said. “We saw with COVID how open space and green space is really beneficial to our wellbeing, to our health, to be able to go into a space for 15 or 20 minutes, a couple of times a week, a natural space… it’s very beneficial for our health and well-being. So I think it’s just really having more of an appreciation for the natural flora and fauna or the native flora and fauna of Southern California.”

The “Transformation of Place” panel with Matthews and Dinos is from 10 to 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9.

To RSVP and for more information, visit www.connectpasadena.com/event/the-transformation-of-place-arlington-garden-in-pasadena. 

ConnectWeek, Oct. 9-15, is seven days of in-person and online tech, science, art and entrepreneurship events happening in Pasadena. 

Innovate Pasadena started Connect Week in 2013 and since then, along with its “collaborators,” has been producing annual events that cover design, science, technology, and entrepreneurship for the broader Los Angeles community.