Friends of Golden West College Native Garden

12/10/2025

My favorite part of volunteering at GWC Native Garden are the People...No, its the Plants....Well, people AND plants!.

12/10/2025

Here at Golden West College Native Garden it is our Volunteers that keep things rolling along. Whether it is picking up leaves, watering new plants, light pruning, adding books to our two little free libraries, weeding, or even just cleaning the sidewalks or dumping trash. Its not always glorious but it keeps the Garden clean and attractive. Oh, and the coffee break is great! Thanks to all our volunteers past and present (and future!).

06/07/2025

A mosaic of the garden, April and May 2025.....

06/03/2025

Looking for that special CA native plant immersion experience? In between the aromatic Spice Bush blooms and the lovely California Poppies, how can you go wrong? Our newly re-opened GWC Native Garden features many plants representative of California's botanic diversity and abundance. Come check them out! (di)

02/28/2025

The Garden's Agave shawii is blooming still. Does not happen often but lovely and striking when it does.

02/28/2025

Well, a longtime Garden volunteer, Jan Klein, passed away last Friday and so today we had a pleasant little memorial at the GWC Native Garden. Temps were cool but sunny and stories were told about a person who for two days a week for over 15 years made the Garden more beautiful and brightened our days there. We got to touch base with some people we had not seen in a while, others who could not make it were there in spirit and we met some other friends of Jan's, too.

01/17/2025

L.A. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke feels equally grateful and guilty that his home in Altadena was spared as wildfire ravaged his neighborhood.

10/04/2024

It was roughly 14 years ago that Rod left us. He was the spark plug behind much of the GWC Native Garden. He would push and i would drag my feet until things were 'just right'. What a pair we were. I was more the plant guy and designer and he was the one arranging the paperwork such as purchase orders and much more. His organizational skills were next level but he really was great at anything people related as well as promotion of the Garden. He had sayings for almost every occasion, knew where to get the best martini in California, was an expert at mathematics, loved the history behind things, and really loved education and pushing oneself towards excellence in whatever you did. Years later i look at a tree he planted and think of him and how on rainy mornings he would say, "Come on Dan, lets get a cup." and off we would go to the cafeteria, shed our rain coats, sip a hot coffee, and talk about life. He was full of it-Life that is.

10/04/2023

It was on October 2, 2010 that Rod Wallbank passed. His work on the garden and large personality are fondly remembered. Rod was my workmate on the Grounds Crew at Golden West College and Co-Director at the GWC Native Garden for well over two decades. He was also a husband, mathematician, philosopher, adventurer/investigator of life, and a friend to many.

It is early morning and the rain begins to fall in earnest. The dark skies have been dripping of an on during the night but now there is lightning and thunder and I am near the Garden watching the rain drop, making the plants shine and knocking leaves from the sycamore tree that Rod and I planted. R...

05/05/2023

Many of the photos you are seeing on this page are taken and posted by Garden Volunteer, Dori Ito. Thanks Dori!

04/26/2023

Other shots of the garden per request from Susan Ossana Wong!