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69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 13, 2005 Josef Halda of the Czech Republic is in Southern Oregon this month to design and build a two-acre rock garden at Pacifica, a botanical garden and nature center in Williams. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Rocking the garden A rock garden now under construction is the first step in a project highlighting horticulture and the local environment By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune WILLIAMS — One of the largest rock gardens on the West Coast is taking shape on a sunny knoll in Josephine County. The big boulders look awkward and out of place right now, surrounded by bare clay and fresh bulldozer tracks. By the time Josef Halda finishes his work, the stones will look like they’ve always been there. "The slope is basically perfect," Halda said, looking across spring-green pastures toward the snowy heights of Sugarloaf and Grayback on the southern horizon. "I think it is the most beautiful place I ever built a rock garden." Advertisement Halda, 62, came from the Czech Republic to build the rock garden for Pacifica, a nonprofit organization that’s creating a self-supporting botanical garden, nature center and school of practical horticulture on 422 acres in rural Josephine County. The rock garden marks the first formal work on a project that has been seven years in planning and organizing, and will be decades in the making. "It’s exciting," said Peg Prag, who helped found Pacifica with her husband, Ray. "But to be honest, it’s scary." Prag said Pacifica’s board of directors wants to create a place that will foster appreciation for the natural world and create jobs in the horticulture industry. She noted that nursery plants are a huge part of Oregon’s economy, but "there’s hardly any (plant nurseries) in Southern Oregon, and there’s no reason for that. "The climate (for growing nursery stock) is really better here (than the Willamette Valley)," she said. Pacifica’s gardens will be planted on the old Simon Messinger homestead, which dates to the 1860s. More recently, the ranch was owned briefly by musician Steve Miller and then by former Josephine County Commissioner Rebecca Brown. The ultimate goal is to plant as many as 10,000 species of plants and trees from around the world. The foundation of the collection of plants and trees will come from Forestfarm Nursery in Williams, founded by the Prags in the 1970s. Halda’s old ties to Southern Oregon made him a natural choice to build the rock garden. As a teenager he began to correspond with Lawrence Crocker, one of the founders of Medford’s Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery. Their mutual interests fostered a friendship, but they did not meet until 1986 when then-communist Czechoslovakia first allowed Halda to travel to the West. During that trip, he met Phyllis Gustafson of Central Point at a rock garden conference in Colorado. She brought him to Southern Oregon when she learned of his desire to meet Crocker. He has built several dozen rock gardens in the United States and produced eight books, including treatises on peonies and gentians. Halda has been placing rocks as large as 17 tons on the hillside, aligning their faces to mimic the way they would be exposed in nature. "It’s like a puzzle," he said, leading a visitor through the newly set stones. "There’s a lot of thinking. You have lots of possibilities for how to make it." The botanical gardens will be a boon to Southern Oregon, attracting visitors and providing a source of information and inspiration for local gardeners, said Bonnie Bayard, a Medford landscape architect. "It will give us a chance to see plants living in the ground rather than looking at a picture in a book," she said. "For me as a designer, that will be invaluable." "It’s going to be a great place to visit," said Phyllis Gustafson. "You won’t have to go to (a garden in) San Francisco or Seattle or Vancouver to get a feel for what you can do on your own property." Rock-garden workshop: Josef Halda will lead a rock-garden-building workshop at Pacifica at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 21. Halda will demonstrate how to choose, align and set stones. The registration fee is $25. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and work clothes, bring good leather gloves, and pack a lunch. To reach Pacifica from Medford, take Highway 238 past Jacksonville and Applegate to Water Gap Road. Turn left (south) and continue to 14615 Water Gap Road. For more information, call 846-1100. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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