In and Around the Garden

This month the local garden club, of which I am a member, visited Boething Treeland Farms, a huge wholesale company about five miles south of my house on a remote, rollercoaster road that most people would refer to as the boonies.

Past the security gate, a small office sits above 360 acres of mostly trees, plus shrubs, ground covers, vines, and annuals. Although 100 greenhouses are on site, they aren’t visible among the surrounding vastness of vegetation. Looking out over the land in every direction, you immediately suck in a deep breath of ahh, hold it, and then let out an air of disbelief. Miles of rolling hills dotted with green vegetation appear to be an endless ocean of vertical waves from low surfs to colossal tides.

The company started in 1952 by John and Susan Boething on 32 rural acres in San Fernando Valley. Boething’s mission was to “enhance the quality of life through trees by supplying them to landscapers, architects, developers and other industry professionals” such as Disney World, Florida.

Eventually, Boething added shrubs, ground covers, vines, and annuals, and ultimately seven other farms throughout California. The Clements’ farm where we were visiting is the largest.

First stop was the propagation house. Although the economy has brought business down about 30 percent, Boething employees propagate 20,000 trees and plants per day. November through February, California natives are propagated. Early spring through summer, they propagate annuals and roses. Ninety percent of Boething’s products are grown from their own seeds.

Next, we piled into three vehicles and rode around the farm past waves of trees and shrubs as dusty dirt roads opened to our caravan. (I felt like a child of Moses in the parting of the Red Sea). The farm is divided into labeled sections each managed by a supervisor. One section contained enormous piles of different types of soil (large enough to quality as pyramids) used for planting.

For a small, home gardener like me it’s hard to image using so much soil. Planting thousands of cuttings and transplants, watering hundreds-of-thousands of vegetation (paying the water bill), checking all those drippers, and the brainpower behind organizing every aspect of building and maintaining a 58-year-old business is unimaginable.

Garden-hats off to John and Susan Boething, now deceased, whose passion for trees and commerce allowed them to grow, and then pass the business onto their four daughters now running the Boething Treeland Farms.

Who says you can’t make it big in the boonies.  

The area in the photo above was to the right as you enter Boething Treeland Farms. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a photo of the vast areas of trees that I rode through.