Our Local High Line

The High Line in lower Manhattan is a huge success.  Property owners, strollers, joggers, lunchers, garden bloggers, and gardeners adore it.  It functions beautifully in a number of ways. 
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(Wikipedia photo by Beyond My Ken)

We have our own modest local High Line, of sorts.  It is not up in the air.  It is a former rail spur that serviced the citrus orchards which once flourished in our area, before the land owners stopped growing oranges and started growing houses. 
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The most-used part of many parks are the trails--so when there is very little space, why not make the trail the whole park? 

Between a street...
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and a culvert...
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...is a 60 foot wide shady trail, lovely to walk.  It lacks the glamor of NYC's High Line...
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...but doesn't require air travel to visit (well, for me, anyway).  And it isn't so crowded, though it is well used.
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There are flowering trees...
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...and wind-break Eucs left over from the days of the orchards.
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The plants are water-thrifty and are showing their dry season colors.
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There is irrigation, but it seems to be there more to help the plants get established, than to regularly water them. 
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Though the trees are not choice selections, their shade is very welcome for a summer walk:
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Neighboring homes offer botanical beauty...
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...botanical interest...
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...and botanical abuse.
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Along the trail was an obvious gardener's home--through the fence was visible a shade-house, and three 30' (9 M) Brachychiton rupestris (I think) were growing on the other side.

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They were blooming!
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The culvert acts as a water feature of sorts.  Drainage ditch or not, the sound of splashing runoff is as musical as that produced by a lavish marble fountain.
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Dog friendly...
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and shoe friendly.
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The trees were selected to be water-thrifty and very fast growing.  They include some that were existing before the land was dedicated as a park, and some that were planted afterwards.  The trees include Eucalyptus, Lophertus,  Brazillian Pepper, Acacia, Melaeleuca,  and Calliandra(?).   Native oaks would be magnificent.  Could I slip in some seedlings when no one is looking?  Probably not.  The park is fairly well maintained.  The DG (decomposed granite) trail surface was in excellent condition and there was no trash any where (except, in my opinion, some of the trees). 

There was a plaque.  Apparently one person can and did make a difference. 
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A wise use of otherwise unusable space.  In that respect, it is every bit as fine as the glamorous Manhattan High Line.

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New Yorkers are now free to scoff, or make a rude gesture, should they have the space to move their elbows.

Comments

  1. So informative. Your knowledge flabbergasts me.

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  2. The last comment about New Yorkers has me rolling! The "newer", sprawled SW to So Cal cities really get dissed from the more crowded NE and Midwestern cities, starting in Denver. We have many gems all over worth preserving - even if many of us have to drive a few miles to get there.

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  3. Wait. Your blog is gorgeous. I just found you via Googling "buy roses." Who ARE you? Why have I never seen your blog before?

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  4. Thanks Danny! Thanks Danger!

    Thanks Desert--we do have gems worth preserving out West. Your blog posts on the wonderful back roads of the southwest help to do a few of them justice.

    Thanks LPC--I'm a former software analyst--my career went to someone in India who makes in a month what I used to make in an hour. It's the New World Order, ain't it?

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  5. Well, hats off to Florence J. Paul! Brilliant use of an old railway easement. Long Beach is planting community gardens in parts of a railway easement, but I really wish usage could be contiguous, like a wildlife corridor.

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  6. Well put. I guess we are just hicks. Like the last quote also. Sorry about the India thang. It's great when you have to talk to customer service in India and his name is scotty. come on. doesn't even know what beam me up means?!?

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  7. Enjoyed your "Low Line" project. I like the way it invites you to experience it by moving through space and rewards you each step of the way! As they take up rail lines all over it's striking how some of the locations make great parks. Personally I've waiting for freeways to be turned into long, rolling parklands with some of the best view opportunities anywhere.

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  8. Very nice! I, too, especially enjoyed the last line.

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