Guided by a rail, children with visual impairments stepped from plant to plant, reading the Braille descriptions and touching the various textures. This sensory garden entry won first place for Orange Coast College (OCC) horticulture students at the 2012 Spring Garden Show.
Dr. John Kabashima, environmental horticulture advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension, asked Jaimie Haver, a lease funding manager at PacTrust Bank and a former board member at the Santa Ana, Calif.-based Blind Children’s Learning Center, if they wanted the garden. After talking to the executive director, Haver said yes, they would love to receive it.
Kabashima immediately called David House, chief executive officer of Village Nurseries, the Orange, California-based wholesale nursery. After serving on several committees together, he knew House was committed to community service.
On the Friday before the walk, Village Nurseries delivered the plants, the Orange County chapter of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (OC CANGC) donated the soil and OCC supplied the gardeners.