Fallbrook horticulturist's garden featured in club tour

By: BETTY JOHNSTON - Staff Writer | Thursday, May 31, 2007 7:47 PM PDT ∞

"I believe that a garden should be a personal statement." The speaker was Patrick Anderson, interviewed in his garden on the western "rim" of Fallbrook, in an uncrowded area that still hosts avocado and/or citrus orchards.

Anderson's will be one of eight gardens open to the public on Fallbrook Garden Club's June 9 Garden Tour.

Known as a horticulturist, Anderson is also a volunteer at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena who also lectures on the subject of drought-tolerant gardens.The garden has been featured in "Designing With Succulents," by Debra Lee Baldwin.

Anderson is a 19-year Fallbrook resident; he and his life partner, Les Olson, bought their home here in 1988.

"It was the only property in Fallbrook that was rock-free," Anderson commented. He had wanted rocks. "There literally was not one rock on this property ---- every rock had to be imported."

There are a lot of rocks in the Anderson/Olson garden. Some are boulders ("We had to have those moved in"), some are as small as pea gravel. Some create short flights of garden steps; some line garden paths. Some help to create a waterfall. Anderson did all the rock work himself.

Growing among the rocks is a myriad of succulents. Anderson's plants are international ---- he has specimens from Africa, Asia and Australia, from the Mediterranean, and from the American Southwest. Among them is an extensive collection of aloes from South Africa and Madagascar, as well as numerous agaves and assorted cactuses from North American deserts.

"There are also several varieties of shade-giving palm trees," he added, but they are desert palm species, not the tropical varieties that would require extensive watering.

Walking through his extensive garden on a recent warm, but overcast, morning, Anderson pulled up the occasional weed, moved a hose or two about, and eyed his plants questioningly as he walked by. His two dogs followed or danced in front of him. "That's the trouble with having dogs," he observed as he picked up a blooming spike that had been broken from one of his plants. He has paid help come one day each week to help him maintain his two-acre property.

Born in Los Angeles, Anderson has lived in Southern California all his life, he said. He was raised in the San Gabriel Valley and lived in Pasadena before coming to Fallbrook. He retired early as the human resources director of a Los Angeles firm, and "moved to the country."

Discussing that transition, he said, thoughtfully, "I've been interested in cactus and succulents all my life." As a child, he said, he had a collection of potted plants of that description.

When he and Olson bought this property, Anderson began to remake the garden into something friendly with the warm, sunny and mostly dry Mediterranean-type climate.

When they bought it, "this property was a lime grove," he said. "We do have a few fruit trees left ---- five avocados, a dozen or so orange trees, and two limes."

Other trees, such as eucalyptus and pepper trees, he planted himself, now nearly two decades ago.

Located here and there in the garden, amid the succulents and the rocks, are large metal sculptures. One, a whimsical Eros, Anderson said he bought from a Sun Valley, Idaho, artist. Another, an assemblage of rusty machine parts that make what appears to be an oversized locust or cicada, he bought in Encinitas.

Asked to comment on his water bill in Fallbrook's climate, Anderson said it "totally varies according to the time of year." The monthly range is from under $50 to more than $100.

"I do water the garden some," he said, "but the only regularly irrigated areas are immediately around the house."

Anderson is enthusiastic about low-maintenance, drought-tolerant gardening. He likes the opportunity garden tours give him to show what can be done. "We've had the garden open numerous times before," he said, adding that he will welcome the participants in Fallbrook Garden Club's coming tour.

Contact staff writer Betty Johnston at (760) 731-6720 or (760) 451-5009, or by e-mail at bjohnston@nctimes.com or bettyj@tfb.com.

Fast Facts

What: Third annual National Garden Week Fallbrook Garden Club Garden Tour

When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 9

How: Start at Village Square, corner Alvarado and Main, downtown Fallbrook

Tickets: $20 each; two for $35. Tour is self-guided from map. Proceeds will benefit the Fallbrook Garden Club Scholarship Fund and other community projects.

Contact: (760) 723-3783 or (760) 723-0367.

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