Garden
Cultivation, Care and Maintenance
“A garden is a planned space usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation or enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature, as an ideal setting for social or solitary human life.” (Merriam-Webster’s Student Dictionary)
- As stewards of the sacred grounds of Mission San Diego, we continue to plant, cultivate and preserve the gardens. This new section of our history website is being designed to give a history of the land from pre-contact to present day.
Chaparral - the original landscaping
For thousands of years, the indigenous population cared for their lands. The Kumeyaay people knew, respected, and preserved their land. They were not an agrarian people, but they knew well how to propagate the plants that nature provided. There is a school of thought that if we employed the cultural burning techniques that had been used by the Indigenous people, we would not be experiencing the wildfires so common today.
Riparian Area Along San Diego River
Riparian land provided different plants not found in the chaparral landscape. The branches of willow trees that grew along the riverbanks were used to build the Kumeyaay éwaa (house). Willow was also used for many other things such as medicine and clothing.
As the mission developed and crops were planted, water was critical. A dam was built along the San Diego River.
•Located six miles to the East in present-day Mission Trails Regional Park, the dam was built in the early 19th century to provide water to Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
The mission dam was the first major irrigation system in California! It is a National Historic Landmark!
