PROGRESS SPROUTING AT GARDEN GROUP GETS OK TO SET UP HQ.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - More than two decades after its master plan was approved, the Conejo Valley Botanical Garden off of Gainsborough Road will finally have a building to hang its address on.

The nonprofit Gregor Mendel Botanic Foundation secured approval last week from the Conejo Recreation and Park District Board of Directors to bring changes to the 26-year-old facility, including developing a children's discovery garden and adding a gift shop, office space and a meeting room.

``We never had a headquarters - we never had a home,'' said Maryanne Lucas, foundation president.

``Now we have a place. We now have an actual address.''

Most significant in the plans is the construction of a children's interactive garden on a quarter-acre of land on the 33-acre site.

Thompson & Allen, the operator of the Ventu Park Estates and Villas in Newbury Park, is donating a 55-by-17-foot trailer for the garden to use as office space and a gift shop.

``We feel that for kids to make sound environmental decisions in the future they need to know more about nature,'' Lucas said. ``Kids today can go through the entire day and not touch the ground.

``We are trying to make a fun place where kids can come in and learn, not only about plants but how they, plants and animals interrelate,'' she said.

Lucas had no estimate of how much the new facility would cost. She said donors can sponsor pieces of the garden, which she hopes will be completed by the start of the 2000-01 school year.

The garden will have an ``FBI'' headquarters - which stands for fungus, bacteria and insects, all intrinsical elements of the environment, she said.

Other features include a butterfly house, a glass structure through which children will be able to view insects, a mock life-size beehive for children to enter to learn how bees communicate, and a hydroponics greenhouse to teach how plants undergo photosynthesis.

Lucas said the garden will be built piecemeal.

``Gardeners are not fund-raisers,'' she said. ``Gardeners like to work the earth. We have never been successful raising money.

``The way the garden has gone along and will continue in the near future is divvy up the garden into affordable pieces.''

``Hopefully, we will have the community build this garden, because it is a public garden,'' Lucas said.

The botanical garden with nature trails first opened in 1973, said Barbara Song, foundation vice president. < It contains more than half a dozen specialty gardens, including one that features drought-resistant plants and one featuring a rare fruit orchard.

Lucas said the garden has never counted the number of visitors to what she calls ``Conejo Valley's biggest secret.''

``We have lots of families visit,'' Song said. ``It's very appealing to families because there are quite a few trails to walk on, and as they go through the garden they can visit each of the specialty gardens.''