WOODLAKE-Have you ever wanted a place you could take a walk and get great ideas for your home garden?

What about somewhere you and your children could go to learn more about the different types of plants and flowers? Or how about a place where you could look at the agricultural diversity of the Great Valley?

What about a place you could do all of the above?

The Bravo Lake Botanical Garden is still under construction but the vision of bringing all of these things to a single strip of land along Woodlake's man-made lake is quickly becoming a reality. Project coordinator Manuel Jiminez, a 25-year farm advisor and research specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension, said the ultimate goal is to construct an ag museum and educational facility that reflects both indigenous and introduced varieties of fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, shrubs and trees of the Central Valley.

"See a picture of a fruit and smelling that fruit when you are walking through an orchard are very different," Manuel said. "We want people of all ages to be able to come here and learn about all the Valley has to offer."

The Botanical Garden stretches a quarter of a mile at varying widths between 80-100 feet along Naranjo Boulevard just east of Valencia Avenue. Manuel said eventually the garden will consist of three theme areas to emphasize plant biology, resource conservation, state-of-the-art agricultural technology and local agriculture heritage and history:

€ Agricultural Science includes a grape vineyard, citrus orchard, several deciduous fruit orchards, exotic fruit orchard, nut orchard, blackberry and blueberry exhibitions and several annual and perennial vegetable crop demonstration areas. There will be 15 varieties of berries and 100 different varieties of citrus. "Both kids and their parents need to understand where their food and the world's food comes from."

€ Ornamental Home Gardens includes an aquatic garden, rose garden, herb garden, cactus garden, rock garden, etc. This section will serve as an inspiration for the visitor's home garden, about what plants grow in the Valley and which share mutually beneficial insects. "This will be a beautiful place to talk a stroll and get ideas for your own garden."

€ Habitat Conservation includes environmental habitats such as low elevation chaparral, intermediate elevation oak forest and high elevation coniferous forest. There will also be cotton, wheat, barley, oats and other crops that are not commercially grown in the Valley but were native to the Valley. "The indians were here long before the rest of us and they lived off native plants that are only sparsely seen now."

Some of the attractions to the garden will be Concord grapes, which normally are not grown in California. A new variety, a seedless Concord grape called a Tomcord, will also be planted in Woodlake. There will also be dwarf varieties of apples, peaches and apricots, gooseberries and fuzzless kiwis.

Manuel said when the project is complete, he hopes schools will use it as an educational facility where they can sample different varieties and see what fruits and vegetables look like before they go to the store. "We hope to have kiosks and small stands that give information about each variety," Manuel said.

All of the work has been done through volunteers coordinated by Manuel's wife, Olga, and under the direction of his professional expertise. Almost all of the plantings have been done since April 2004 and already the garden is taking shape. It has evolve from being a seasonal garden to a year round agrcultural and botanical garden. Alfons Durer volunteers nearly full-time fixing fences, digging trenches, putting in irrigation line and other odds and ends. Manuel said most of the workforce is a core group of about six or seven volunteers who work year round.

"Most volunteers are from Woodlake but this project is for everyone in the Valley," he said. "It would be great to have volunteers from the other communities in the area."

But during the summer months most of the free labor force is comprised of high school students donating time to satisfy their graduation requirement of 85 hours of community service.

"The kids aren't here all the time but they are here whenever you ask them to be," volunteer Rusty Moran said. "It is really great to see the whole community get involved."

Maritza Martinez was 9 years old when her older brothers convinced her to be a part of it. Now, a junior at Woodlake Union High School, she is Manuel and Olga's right-hand man spending at least three hours five days a week there in the summer and four hours on Saturday during the school year.

"Originally I did it to get out of the house, but now I feel a lot of pride for this project," she said.

The Woodlake Boy Scout troop made five owl houses that line the walking path and encourage wildlife to come to the area. Manuel said wildlife is an important element of the ecosystem and will be a vital part of the finished product. You can already find nests of different types of birds and, as the nut trees grow, squirrels will most certainly flock to the area. Fences have been erected to keep people out while the garden is closed. The general public will only have access to the trail during daylight hours.

"It is unfortunate that we have to lock it up but there are people who are destructive." Manuel said some have come in the middle of the night to raid nests, break eggs, throw things at the owls and steal fruit, even entire baby trees.

The project began a little more than six years ago when the Woodlake Chamber of Commerce received a tree grant for city beautification. Manuel and then chamber president Rudy Garcia, decided to form the Woodlake Pride Coalition to plan a "modest beautification project" for the community of Woodlake and the surrounding area.

Modest may describe those who have worked hard, but hardly describes the scale of the project.

Since then, the City of Woodlake purchased the former right-of-way from the Union Pacific Railroad and received a grant to pave it. The coalition has spent $70,000 for architectural landscaping plans and fought the Department of Water Resources' Division of Safety of Dams to be allowed to plant light shrubs and plants on the banks of the lake, which is in essence a dam. All this has transformed an abandoned ditch and surrounding hard San Joaquin clay soil into the the beginning of a botanical garden.

But many more donations will be needed to complete the project. Manuel said they still need about a quarter-mile of 3-inch irrigation line, 3,000 feet of 1-inch irrigation line, 1,500 feet of conduit, and specific varieties of trees and plants that have not been represented in the garden. The project also needs money to pay for solar cellanoids to power the water and solar panels to power lights at the facility because there is no operating budget to continue maintenance on the garden once it has been completed.

The Woodlake Pride Coalition is organizing a run/walk around Bravo Lake to help raise money for the Botanical Garden. There is no entry fee but donations will be accepted and runners are encouraged to get sponsorships for the run. Bravo Lake has a circumference of about 3.5 miles, so it makes for good exercise, beautiful scenery and a chance to see some wildlife on the outskirts of Woodlake. The Run/Walk will begin at 7 a.m. on Saturday, May 7.

"I like people coming and admiring the place," Moran said. "I just love working and helping this project grow. I think it is really something nice."

For more information call Woodlake Pride, Inc. at 685-3303. Anyone who would like to be a member of the garden's oversight organization may send checks to Woodlake Pride, Inc., 350 Lemona St., Woodlake, CA 93286. Membership fees are $20 for students and senior citizens, $25 for individuals, $35 for a Family membership, $100 for Friend membership, $250 for a Benefactor and $500 for a Patron.

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