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About The Garden
History
Learn more about Ruth Bancroft, the Mt Diablo Fruit Farm, and the history of the garden by visiting our History page. Read about The Garden's History.

Staff Biographies

Carol Babst, Folly Admissions and Sales Carol found The Ruth Bancroft Garden just a few months after moving to California and fell in love, started volunteering and participating in the docent program. In the past Carol has volunteered at Lyons Arboretum in HI, received her master gardener certification in Utah; revitalized and maintained a pioneer cemetery, designed, built, and lovingly cared for other gardens in her neighborhood while living in Park City, UT. She was educated in Maryland and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Loyola College, Baltimore. Her professional career was spent at Westinghouse Aerospace & Defense in Baltimore where she was liaison between Westinghouse and Boeing Aircraft Company. carol@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Gretchen Bartzen, Executive Director of Development and Events gretchen@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Phoebe Berke, Community Outreach Coordinator Phoebe Berke became the Community Outreach Coordinator in January 2012. After she received her B.A. in linguistics from San Francisco State University, she started an English tutoring service and became more involved with volunteering for the American Diabetes Association, whose bike ride she participates in every year. She loves being outdoors, and is thrilled to be able to work with so many like-minded people at this beautiful garden. phoebe@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Aisha Bouziane, Weekend Tour Host

Sophie Damerel, Education Director Sophie Damerel graduated from Saint Mary's College with a BA in Environmental Studies. Her passion for the environment has gone beyond classroom learning through her participation in environmental education camps, recycling programs and greenhouse gas reduction efforts. She is an enthusiastic supporter of education at every age and continues to learn each day she spends at The Garden. Having grown-up in the Bay Area, Sophie is pleased to be a contributor to the preservation of The Ruth Bancroft Garden. sophie@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Eileen Hansen, Office Manager After moving to the Bay Area from Chicago in August 2010, Eileen first came to the Garden as a volunteer in May 2011. She has a background in public history and archives management and has been working primarily on cataloging and arranging Ruth's papers, diagrams, and charts which go back as far as the 1950's. Her previous experience also includes being a teacher and working in flight operations management at United Airlines for nine years. She is currently working on completing her Master's Degree in Archives and Records Administration at San Jose State University and looks forward to being a part of the office staff. eileen@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Billie Hopper, Executive Director of Operations billie@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Brian Kemble, Curator Brian Kemble has been involved with The Ruth Bancroft Garden since 1980. He is highly regarded in the horticultural world and lectures in this country and in South Africa on the Agave family, Aloes, Bromeliads, the history of The Ruth Bancroft Garden and other horticultural topics. Kemble has a B.A. in Philosophy from Antioch College. His work has been in the area of horticulture since 1976, including garden design and installation, tree trimming and garden maintenance. Brian's work for The Garden has included hybridizing of aloes, agaves, and some South American cacti. Brian has traveled extensively in Mexico and South Africa, studying and photographing plants in their native habitats. brian@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Troy McGregor, Garden Director troy@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Andrew Wong, Head Gardener Andrew Wong is a Bay Area native and has been working at The Ruth Bancroft Garden since 2008. Andrew studied Horticulture at Merritt College with coursework in native plants, arboriculture, and soils. When he is not gardening, Andrew spends his time running ultra marathons, and has completed distances greater than 100 miles. andrew@ruthbancroftgarden.org

Walker Young, Nursery Manager Walker is a former nursery volunteer whose horticultural passion carried him to a staff position. In addition to running the Nursery, Walker assists Andrew in the garden, helps Brian maintain the Garden’s private collections, and propagates accessioned plant material for use in the Garden. Prior to his involvement with the Garden, Walker received his B.A. in History at UCLA and worked as an English teacher in Chile. walker@ruthbancroftgarden.org

To read the moving words of farewell spoken by our former Garden Manager, Charlotte Blome, click here.

Read the Biographies of our Board Members.

The Ruth Bancoft Garden Newsletter
The Ruth Bancroft Garden has gone electronic! To receive our monthly eBulletin in your inbox, sign-up on the right hand side. You may also pick up printed copies at the Garden office or request copies to be mailed to you.
June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013	December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 End of July 2012 July 2012 Mid-June 2012 June 2012 Mid-May 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

Ruth's Recipe Archive

Those familiar with the Garden's history know that Ruth chose not to finish her architecture studies when the Great Depression hit, getting her teaching credential instead. She taught home economics for a few years before marrying Philip in 1939. Just as she did with plants, Ruth collected and organized thousands of recipes, which means that we have easy access to them now! As part of the ongoing process of archiving Ruth's notes, we will be uploading recipes from her collection on a regular basis. Ruth said she enjoyed cooking more than baking, but her husband would come into the house several times a day to raid the cookie jar, and that section of her recipe collection is appropriately large. Some of the recipes were passed down to her by her mother, others were cut out of newspapers and magazines. She has a system for everything: a check mark remided her to cut it out of the publication it was in, an 'x' means a recipe is good, 'xx' means very good. Click here to access the archive. We hope you enjoy Ruth's recipes as much as her garden!

Membership

Become a member of the Garden or renew your membership.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Ruth Bancroft Garden, Inc. is to preserve this exceptional example of garden design and to continue to develop its collection of water-conserving plants for the education and enjoyment of the public.

Grant Funders

The Ruth Bancroft Garden would like to recognize the following grant funders:

The Quest Foundation for funding our Education Coordinator’s position

The Mervyn L. Brenner Foundation and The Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust for funding our directional signs

The California Horticultural Society for funding towards our restoration projects

The Bonita Garden Clubfor funding restoration and education projects

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