Gardener’s Plot of Land Will Remain
A homeless man’s arboretum on the banks of the Santa Ana River in Anaheim was saved Wednesday from being bulldozed after a county water agency took heed of the emotional pleas from supporters to keep the garden.
Richard Dumke’s 2-decade-old garden will stay, the Orange County Water District board of directors said, but its trees will be thinned and a fence taken down for greater public access.
“I’m happy the garden is going to stay,” Dumke said after the nearly unanimous decision. “I thought it was going to get plowed under.”
At the meeting, the soft-spoken, 60-year-old former biologist had urged the water district not to destroy the garden but use it as an example of a water conservation project. Tina Locklear, Dumke’s attorney, called the board’s decision a victory for Dumke and a “good solution” for the water district.
The board stopped short, however, of calling the site a park, opting to declare it a “landscaped trail feature” to limit the district’s liability.
Wednesday’s vote came after lengthy debate. It was the second time the board has taken up the issue of Dumke’s garden, and many board members have visited the site. The water district’s staff had recommended that Dumke be evicted and his garden removed over a four-month period.
Directors expressed reluctance to lease the garden to Dumke under the auspices of Dumke’s church as proposed, saying such an entitlement would set a precedent. Director Wes Bannister also said he wanted proof that the church’s $1.5-million insurance policy included workers’ compensation and liability in Dumke’s name.
Several board members, and Brett Franklin in particular, expressed dissatisfaction with the liability discussion and the time the agency has taken dealing with a solution to Dumke’s garden.
“I’d rather we spent our time eliminating arundo” than this, said Franklin, referring to a nuisance weed that plagues creek beds.
When the board reached an impasse, Director Phil Anthony suggested a motion the board could finally agree on. Anthony urged the board to consider Dumke’s “highway of plants” as an extension of a nearby public trail and have it opened to the public.
Anthony then looked at Dumke, who sat in the audience, and said: “That’s what he wants anyway.” Anthony’s suggestion was the one that eventually won approval.
Dumke’s battle with the water district began in October, when a district field supervisor discovered he was living in a shack on the property, which has no sanitation facilities.
His garden, a 20-by-200-foot strip, contains about 250 trees, shrubs and exotic plants. It also features a koi pond.
Last fall, a local church that expressed an interest in preserving the site arranged for Dumke to receive a used motor home and provided him with a place to park it. Friends took him to a DMV office to renew his driver’s license.
Supporter Eileen Zulkowski praised the board for letting the garden remain: “Richard’s garden needs to be seen as a thing of beauty.”
