Ботанический сад Калифорнийского университета Нортрідж: описание и возможности.

The California State University Northridge Botanic Garden or CSUN Botanic Garden is located in the northern San Fernando Valley, in the southeast section ("quadrant") of the California State University, Northridge campus in the community of Northridge in Los Angeles, California. The site includes a botanical garden and approximately of nursery, shadehouse, and greenhouse zones. The botanic gardens were established shortly after the campus was established in 1959, as a Valley branch of California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). It has grown through the administrations of succeeding San Fernando Valley State College and the present day CSUN Biology Department.

The CSUN Botanical Garden is open for everyone without charge from Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:45 pm on CSUN's campus. The garden is closed on weekends and university holidays. In specific cases, management may also close the Botanical Garden on unexpected days or hours during cases of severe weather. The CSUN Botanical Garden is located in the southeast quadrant of California State University, Northridge. The location includes a botanical garden with a variety of unique plants, a nursery, a shade house, and greenhouse areas. Brenda Kanno is the Instructional Support Technician and Garden/Greenhouse manager for CSUN's Botanical Garden. Brenda has won a trophy from the Los Angeles International Fern Society annual show and sale at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in 2007 for Most Unusual Fern for the fern Elaphoglossum Lucidum. Ann Dorsey is the Instructional Support Technician Assistant and Garden/Greenhouse Assistant for CSUN's Botanical Garden. Ann has published a chapter on Flora and the ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains in 2007 for the Southern California Botanists' special publication in Fullerton, CA. The CSUN Botanical Garden department staff can be contacted by either Email or telephone. Individuals interested in finding more information about the CSUN Botanical Garden can contact the staff via email. Their telephone may be reached at (818) 677 3496. The department staff may also be faxed at (818) 677 2034.

The Botanic Garden is open to the public Monday to Friday, 8:00 a. m. to 4:45 p. m. It is closed on weekends and university holidays, and occasionally during extreme weather. The entrance is reached via parking structures off Nordhoff or Zelzah (depending on campus construction). The CSUN Botanic Garden has short courses on a wide variety of garden topics by horticultural experts for the public. It also sponsors 'CSUN al Gardening', a series of four free gardening themed classes a year. The gardens also gives K 12 school tours. Some fun public activities include the CSUN al Gardening. A free gardening class that is offered four times a year: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each class is themed for that season, an example is in Summer 2019 with a class called Orchid Mania. Arthur Pinkers taught the class various ways of how different orchid species could be taken care of and raised. To join the class early registration is required and must be emailed to the Botanic Garden. As of right now, there are no classes available to register for in the upcoming year 2022. Another activity available at the Botanic Gardens is tours that are offered to local schools from Kindergarten to College level at no charge. The tours can vary between 20 and 40 minutes and can be increased to be more in depth. Group sizes are best limited to 20 or fewer attendees per tour guide. To be able to schedule a tour for the garden, you can reach a host by calling (818) 677–3496. The tour needs to be planned far in advance because a minimum of 4 weeks is needed for the best tour date. Directions and parking can be found on the csun. edu website. Special arrangements will need to be made for buses. Groups arriving by car are encouraged to carpool as space is limited in campus parking lots. Parking fees are $6 (up to 4 hours) or $8 (over 4 hours) per car. As of right now in 2022 the garden is off limits to the public due to health concerns and tours are paused until further notice.

The Northridge Botanical Garden is maintained by facility staff and volunteers. Volunteers are an essential part to the garden in making sure the plants are taken care of and that bigger projects on site are completed in record time. Meetings are held on Thursday morning from 8:30 to 11:30 at the Greenhouse Complex. Registering to become a volunteer isn't required, but Volunteer Release forms need to be completed the first time a person joins the group. The rules are lax but for safety reasons, a volunteer needs to wear appropriate attire such as closed shoes and gardening clothes. Most of the tasks completed by volunteers are simple and light. Activities such as weeding, starting seeds, transplanting, soil mixing, propagation, minor pruning, composting, grooming of plant material, and repotting are often done. These tasks can be completed singularly or in groups. The benefits of being a volunteer result in long lasting abilities in gardening. Some aspects learned during the work sessions include taking inventory, labeling, record entry, seed collection, etc. Most use the volunteer work at the Botanical Gardens to learn how to care for plants before applying it on their own at home. It's encouraged to partake in plant trades between volunteers at the Botanical Garden. The main goal of the garden is to have a large diversity in the collection and it's in the best interest of the garden to have duplicates. If there was ever a chance that a plant was to be lost in the garden, another one can be located in the volunteer's garden. It's preferred to have named specimens that enhance the collection for class use. Surplus plant material generated by volunteer work projects is available for adoption by Garden Volunteers.

CSUN's botany garden has been featured in many articles, websites and media over the years. One of the most notable is the garden's feature as one of the 50 “most amazing” university gardens by Best Colleges Online. The garden has also been featured on the university own CSUN Today, highlighting the gardens history and commentary from the garden's manager Brena Kanno. The garden was featured in the Daily Sundial in 2022, as well as a hit feature in the LA Times in 2000. California State University Northridge offers a wide variety of courses surrounding the use of the gardens. These courses are available to students and facility. The garden itself is available for free access to all but the course allows students to generate research projects in biology, plant biology, plant morphology, plant physiology and entomology. CSUN Today has written the following about the Botanic Garden: "CSUN’s Botanic Garden is operated by the university’s Department of Biology and serves as a field site for botany, entomology, photography, painting and other classes. In addition to geographically themed plantings and a butterfly garden, the garden also features greenhouses where noteworthy botanical specimens are grown." The garden also offer free academic tours for K 12 and college students. Tours are typically 20–40 minutes, but can be arranged for a longer tour time. Group sizes are recommended to fewer than 20 peoples. The garden also is usable as an event site for weddings, private parties, filming for TV, commercial use, and music videos. Pricing is unknown, as well as features in any of these event areas.