The central meadow region of the Botanic Garden, looking north
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is a 26 ha (65 acre) garden, containing over 1,000 species of rare and indigenous plants.1 It is located in Mission Canyon, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
The purpose of the Garden is to display California native plants in natural settings. There are approximately 9.2 km (5.5 miles) of hiking trails within the garden. Mission Creek flows through the premises, and includes a rock dam which was constructed in 1806 by Native Americans (mainly Canaliños) under the direction of the Spanish padres of the adjacent Mission Santa Barbara. From now until 2007, the Garden is home to Patrick Dougherty's latest sculpture, Toad Hall, a two-story tower and a maze of pathways and chambers made of twisted and woven willows.
The Garden was founded in 1926 and designed by noted landscape architect Beatrix Farrand.2 By 1936 its focus had narrowed to plants native to the California Floristic Province (which includes a bit of southwestern Oregon and part of Baja California, as well as most of the state of California). The Garden became a Santa Barbara County Landmark in 1983 (the dam on Mission Creek was already designated as a State Historic Landmark).3
