Seed of Tranquillity : In Thousand Oaks, a Garden for Reflection Is Sprouting From Class Project

It’s not often that a simple class project has the opportunity to brighten a community and give people peace of mind, but for Rita Basu that was the point.

For the past five months, Basu and a cadre of about 30 fellow employees from Amgen Inc. have been clearing away thick brush, paving paths and planting trees, bushes and native flora at the summit of a hill in the Conejo Botanical Garden for her Japanese tranquillity garden.

“When this is all done, we hope people will come to get back in touch with themselves,” Basu said. “We’re always so caught up with work and other things going on in our lives and I thought this would be a good way for people to take a step back and think about their lives.”

The project is funded from a grant by Amgen. Basu, a market analyst for the company, marshaled a group of volunteers in November to carve an area for personal reflection out of the scrub. The board of directors for the Conejo Botanical Garden agreed to let Basu use the land for her garden.

Daryl Hill, in charge of Amgen’s quality control and compliance division, approved the funding, because the garden embodied the kind of community projects the biotechnology company enjoys supporting, he said.

“For years Amgen has wanted to support worthwhile programs in the community,” he said. “Here was an opportunity that just needed a little nudge from us to get off the ground.” In addition to the views of the mountains and valleys east of Thousand Oaks, visitors can relish the horticultural diversity of the half-acre plot.

Lining the narrow stone paths built by volunteers are the recently planted small Japanese black pines, wild oats, western red bush, Santa Cruz cypress and wispy Asian grasses. Nestled in the corners of the garden are small stone benches embossed with Japanese script with a dry, shallow creek running through the center of the garden.

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Basu designed the garden as part of an assignment for a class that she took last year. The class, “Curriculum for Living,” asked students to design a community-oriented activity. While most students came up with onetime charity drives, Basu envisioned something lasting that embodied spiritual wholeness.

The class is a seminar sponsored by Landmark Education, a private organization.

“I really wanted something peaceful,” Basu said while pruning leaves on a waist-high pine.

“This was unique because it will be permanent and, hopefully, people will be able to use long after we’ve all gone.”

Basu adds that she also wanted the construction of the garden to have meaning in the volunteers’ lives and hoped the process would be as healing as the finished product. “It was also about bringing people together and having the perseverance and patience to bring it all together,” she said. “I think it’s been a vehicle for everyone to grow.”

And for her co-workers who have spent their weekends digging holes, spreading mulch and laying stone pathways, the project has been fulfilling.

“This is so therapeutic,” said 43-year-old Krys Miller, a research scientist at Amgen who has made the garden project into a family affair by including her husband and son. “There hasn’t been a moment of disappointment or despair.”

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Miller, like Basu, hopes that when the project is complete, people will find the garden soothing.

“It’s wonderful here,” Miller said. “You can come up here and meditate or just smooch with your husband.”

While the fledgling garden is now dominated by black sprinkler heads and wood chips, Basu said that within a year the plants will begin to fill out and grow. She said that, for her, one of the most valuable qualities of the garden is that, no matter how many times one visits, it will always be new.

“We envisioned it as a changing piece of art that would be around long after us,” she said. “I think that’s the best part.”

Amgen employees and botanical garden volunteers will help in the upkeep of the garden.

The garden will be dedicated at 1 p.m Sunday during the Conejo Valley Botanical Garden’s Arbor Day celebration at 1300 Hendrix Ave. in Thousand Oaks. After that, the garden will be available for those looking for some quiet solitude or just a good view. “Hopefully, people will come to the garden to find some peace and harmony or just to relax,” Basu said. “All I want is for people to enjoy it.”