As spring arrives in Thousand Oaks and flowers start to bloom, the joy of being outside attracts many locals. On May 17, the Thousand Oaks Botanical Gardens hosted the Matilija poppy festival. The event included a master gardener guest speaker, as well as a walking tour of the main gardens where guests could see the matilija poppy and other plants up close.
Monica Barton, garden president, is in charge of arranging the time slots and locations for the volunteers at the poppy festival.
“We have about 65 volunteers and the garden is run totally on volunteers,” Barton said.
Although Barton observes that there has not been as many poppies this year due to the heavy rain and heat, she appreciates the festival for bringing together the community.
“It’s a nice community event. You see a lot of families that are here, and the Matilda poppies bloom for a period of about three months every year,” Barton said.
Terry Garman, master gardener speaker, taught two classes in the botanical garden to educate the public such as container gardening and composting.
“Whether you’re growing vegetables, herbs or flowers, or a combination of all those in container gardening, [it] is really, really popular and significant because anybody can do container gardening. […] Regardless of whether you live in a place that has a lot of space outside or if you have a little bit of space outside, container gardening is applicable,” Garman said.
Garman enjoyed her experience speaking at the festival and would be happy to return next year.
“I thought it was a great turnout and a good group of very engaged people that were attending the class,” Garman said.
As a long time volunteer at the poppy festival, Jean Reiley, guest greeter, has a history with the festival and enjoys coming back every year.
“I also worked with the lady to design and set up this kids garden, and my responsibility just today at the festival is to greet, […] but prior to that I’ve been president for 13 years and other board positions,” Reiley said.
She also emphasizes the backstory behind the site itself and, more specifically, the kids garden.
“[The] history of this particular garden was it was at one time just a storage area for the parks department to hold different soils that they used at the baseball fields, and then one of our volunteers realized that it was still part of the botanical garden […] so she designed this whole kids garden as an educational [area] for children,” Reiley said.
Like many of the other volunteers, Barton values her role in supporting the Thousand Oaks environment while spending time in nature. Just as much as visitors enjoy their experience at the poppy festival, those donating their time to make the event happen also share memorable moments at the botanical garden.
“We love the view, and you know, nobody is paid, but we get paid in just the joy of being outdoors. It’s such a good feeling. Most of us are retired, there’s some of us that are not, but it’s a great place to be to give back to the community,” Barton said.