Narrator: Somewhere along this circular pathway, linger. You can look out and admire the Bowl Garden. Here, though, notice the trees around you. They’re crepe myrtles, a deciduous kind; they lose their leaves in winter. They get pink blooms in summer. Look up and notice how sunlight filters through their branches. Imagine how kinetic these trees would become if a breeze blew through here.
[SFX: leaves rustling]
Imagine what it’s like here when it rains.
[SFX: rain on trees]
Imagine what it’s like at dawn, or at midnight. Then consider how everything about this moment will change.
Ron Finley: When I started gardening, it became my meditation; my passion. Going through the Central Garden, I thought, “why isn’t this everywhere?” We should have beauty everywhere. What we have to get to is, training our culture to see this and embrace this.
Narrator: Ron Finley is an urban gardener from South LA.
Finley is on a mission to change disparities rooted in differences of class, income, and community. His solutions are all about gardens: quality food, clean air, natural beauty, calm. The Getty Garden, for its exclusive location alone, may be the antithesis of the small gardens he cultivates. But he also considers what’s universal.
Ron Finley: We are all gardeners. Everything about that garden, replicates what we are. If you look at a garden—and I like to say, “a leaf falls for a reason in a particular season”—it’s by design. That leaf is not just a leaf. It’s photosynthesizing to feed the plant. And then when it’s finished, it falls to the ground. now it’s a mulch. After a season goes, it turns into soil. Nothin’ dies, ever; it’s an energy transfer.
Narrator: Head over to that opening in the line of Crape Myrtles. You’ll notice a sloping gravel wall there; the back of the Central Garden. Its enticing to glimpse over it. Turn around, and you’ll encounter one of the grandest views of the entire Getty—and the Central Garden—before you.
