Located at 926 Railroad Ave, Santa Paula, CA

If you’re headed to the Heirloom Expo this September, which is coming to Ventura this year, you’ll want to pay a visit to the county’s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula. It is just about 20 miles or 25 minutes from Downtown Ventura and during the drive, you will pass many avocado groves, citrus, and other small farms along the route to the town of Santa Paula.

What goes into an Agriculture Museum?

This one holds some farm equipment such as tractors and discusses some of the history of farming in Ventura County. One of Ventura County’s first crops were walnuts, grains, and then eventually citrus, and avocado. Many of the farms in Ventura County have been held by the same family for several generations.

The museum discusses some elements of farming such as the vital bees that aide with pollination. The have a beautiful mural of bees, flowers, and the importance of pollination and a live colony of bees under glass for observation.

On this day, there was a special traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian Gardens and Institution with museum displays called “Pollination Investigation – The Essential Role of Pollinators in the Natural World.” There were graphic placards explaining the process of pollination and their relationship of plants and insects.

But perhaps the best reason to visit the Agriculture Museum is to view their beautiful backyard garden. The garden is divided into three main sections, a raised bed vegetable growing area, a native garden, and another display and seating area for tractors and large equipment with succulents.

The raised bed vegetable area has many examples for garden growing such as an herb container garden, raised beds, gardening with trellises, and using cloches to cover sensitive plants. They also have a compost area and signs regarding composting and vermicomposting.

The native garden is nicely landscaped with native plants such as buckwheat, mallow, sages, sunflower, and verbena along with several trees including a palo verde. It serves as an example for landscaping with natives and utilizing low water plants.

The final section of the garden is part seating area and extra space to store several larger farm equipment. To make the area more interesting, heat tolerant succulents were planted in this area and a farm equipment is used as a unique planter.

Interestingly enough, even with Ventura County’s extensive citrus growing, I only spotted two citrus trees in this garden, two small dwarf lemon trees in pots.

The use of the entire space was so well thought out, I could see it being utilized in any home backyard on a smaller scale, without, of course, the large farm equipment.

Agriculture Museum website: https://venturamuseum.org/visit-agriculture-museum/.