by Timothy Rutt
Cody Howard, stealth gardener.
Operating sometimes under cover of darkness, Howard worked to transform a weedy, blasted stretch of Altadena Drive near a sound wall into a drought-tolerant garden -- an effort that earned him a Golden Poppy Award from Altadena Heritage on Sunday.
What started it was that Howard -- a horticulturalist who works as a conservation technician with the Huntington LIbrary and Gardens in San Marino -- lived in an apartment and couldn't actually grow a garden of his own. So he decided to create one in a place that everyone else ignored.
The practice is called guerrilla gardening. Howard says that it was a movement that started in England, where people would take neglected plots of land and turn them -- without authorization or permission -- into flower or vegetable gardens. The motivations of guerrilla gardeners range from those who want to simply transform an area of ugliness into beauty, to gardeners who are promoting radical ideas of land reform. The guerrilla gardening movement has spread widely, and there is an active movement in LA.
But Howard -- a horticulture graduate of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville -- just wanted a patch of dirt to plant a garden. When he saw the area on Altadena Drive south of Canyon Close -- a county-owned stretch of packed dirt and weeds -- he knew that was the spot.
He started on Thanksgiving Day, 2010. At first, Howard said, he wasn't sure how the project would be viewed, so he did his digging and planting "at the dead of night."
As he grew more confident that he wouldn't be arrested, he began working in daylight. After awhile, the neighbors started noticing him, and some "have actually donated things," Howard said. It was while he was working in the garden that he was contacted by Altadena Heritage, which gave him the award.
Howard, who is an expert on cactus and succulents, chose plants that would thrive in hot, dry conditions -- except for a few trees he's planted as part of the project, everything else is watered by Southern California rainfall.
"Almost everything lived," Howard said. "It shows you don't need water."
After working on it for a year and a half, Howard visits the garden every two to three weeks to weed and water the four plants that require it. He's sure the garden will survive when, later this year, he goes to Namibia to research plant tissues for the Huntington and as part of his planned Ph.D.
It may be an under-the-radar activity, but Howard's garden has its fans. In giving the award to Howard, Altadena Heritage President Mark Goldschmidt said, "we need more guerilla gardening."
