MAN'S VOLUNTEERISM A CULTIVATING EXPERIENCE.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

Bill Griffiths figures he can grow anything at the Conejo Valley Botanic Gardens.

To commemorate the death of his wife 11 years ago at Christmastime, he took a walnut intended for eating and planted it in the Botanic Gardens. The nut has grown into a healthy, leafy walnut tree thanks to Bill's nurturing.

Bill freely spends several hours a day, seven days a week at the 35-acre garden, where hundreds of varieties of plants are cultivated, including 150 fruit-bearing trees or bushes. ``I'm the only one here seven days a week. I turn on whatever has to be turned on to water that day,'' Bill explained.

He also does small repairs to the sprinkler system, weeding and pruning. Not long ago, he finished a substantial weeding project. It took four trash bins to remove the weeds.

Bill's a willing guide through his domain, glad to point out the types of plants to visitors. A self-taught gardener, Bill proudly says, ``I can reel off about 95 percent of the plant names.'' He will also expound on the types of animals that roam the area, like vultures (he calls them ``garbage detail''), roadrunners, gophers (they've been busy digging up fig trees), and 42 varieties of birds.

The Botanic Gardens has not been his only volunteer gardening. In 1992, Bill helped stimulate interest in a portion of the Los Robles Trail as a hiking trail for the disabled. He calls himself the ``godfather'' of the project, where guide wires and Braille signs have been hung.

For 10 years, he worked as a volunteer docent for the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in the Santa Monica Mountains.

``I walked the blind and handicapped,'' Bill explained. And he has also volunteered for Meals on Wheels.

``I worked with my dad in his garden,'' Bill said of his days in Pennsylvania, where he first acquired his interest in horticulture. A resident of Newbury Park for the past 27 years, Bill cultivates many plants. Roses are his favorites, followed closely by chrysanthemums. (He's got 300 of them in his yard.)

``You can fool chrysanthemums. Don't plant them when they're supposed to be planted. You can have them all year long if you plant them intermittently,'' Bill advised, adding that the same is true for other plants.

Bill's relationship to nature also includes animals. Each morning around 5, Bill goes out hiking about 10 miles. He brings along apples for himself and his animal friends.

A friendly possum waits expectantly - ``He sits up like a little dog'' - and a family of three deer come for their morning apple.

Bill says he grew up poor in Pennsylvania.

``I started as a coal miner, 600 feet underground, in on my belly loading 40 tons of coal a day,'' he recalls.

Earning only $6.43 a day, Bill said to himself, ``This isn't for me,'' and he went to school. Although he didn't acquire the sheepskin, as he calls it, he became an engineer for Martin Co. and Litton. In the 1960s, he set up Titan missile sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base and other places around the country.

Now retired, the 78-year-old has enough energy to pursue many projects. He paints in oils, plays the organ, photographs and is writing an autobiographical love story about his marriage, and a children's story, ``Peter Butterfly.''

``People my age say, `I don't have time for this.' But I'm a little bit of everything,'' Bill reflected.

MEMO: Victoria Giraud welcomes comments and suggestions for columns. Call her at [phone].

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Photo

Photo: Volunteer Bill Griffiths looks for ripe fruit during a morning in the garden at the Conejo Valley Botanic Gardens in Thousand Oaks.

Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News