Sonoma Garden Park

This project was funded by Whitney and Janet Evans, local philanthropists who wanted to bring some of the joy of gardens they shared with their children to the people of Sonoma. The Children’s Discovery Trail currently consists of three locations and interactive panels meant to inspire and educate children about butterflies, birds, and bees.

An initial shade structure at the Garden Park was designed by long-time Sonoma Ecology Center Restoration Project Manager Mark Newhouser and built out of salvaged decking with volunteer labor in 2008. Soon after that, we began work on a state-of-the-art greenhouse, built mostly by volunteers over three years and finished in 2012. The Sonoma Native Plant Nursery, which now grows most of the plants for Sonoma Ecology Center’s restoration work, was funded by numerous sources, including Sonoma Rotary, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, MGP, nursery funds, Americorps labor, Audiss Electric, Boden Plumbing, Berger Concrete, Impact 100, and the City of Sonoma.

A Conservation Easement, established through Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (Ag+Open Space), protects the land and provides exclusions from certain types of development on the land, in perpetuity. Land must be maintained as publicly-accessible open space for recreation, agriculture, and habitat conservation purposes. The easement established eligibility for Sonoma Garden Park to receive funding through the District’s matching grant program, and has funded two phases of infrastructure development to date. Projects in those grants included the completion of an ADA pathway network, new signs, drinking water fountains, oak woodland restoration, and a native plant nursery garden.

\The City of Sonoma funded a pathway system in 2007. A more permanent set of pathways, incorporating the old pathway as a foundation, was completed with funding by Ag+Open Space district’s matching grant program. These ADA pathways mean our park is a place everyone can enjoy.

Sonoma County Water Agency funded a project to provide a demonstration of LID infrastructure. These design features manage stormwater runoff so that it stays on the land, and infiltrates and recharges groundwater. Water also filters through vegetation and gravel to remove sediment and chemical pollutants before it enters streams and other bodies of water. Managed stormwater can also be stored and utilized for landscape uses. The project is intended to inspire, so that others might adopt these practices as simple, economical features that landowners can build or easily retrofit themselves.

Sonoma Garden Parks second Master Plan, after significant input from the wider community and our partners, was formally approved by the City of Sonoma and Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. This plan will guide development of the park for years to come and bring improvements to the park, including the inclusion of the “Grandmother Tree” and the old homestead area, an education office and classroom, and public restrooms.You can read more about the Master Plan here.  

Sonoma Garden Park’s tagline, “It Takes a Community” is exemplified in this newest feature—in addition to the financial support of the Wedekinds family, the Children’s Play Area was made possible by volunteer Mark Gonzalves, who designs nature-based play spaces through the lens of children, and donated hundreds of hours of his time and effort to the project.

Today, Sonoma Garden Park shows the fruits of our labor in every sense. Beloved features at the Garden Park include the seasonal Saturday Harvest Market, Native Plant Nursery, community garden plots, community workshops, and the many longstanding youth education activities such as school field trips, EnviroLeaders and Summer Science Camps.