Memories Project

The Arboretum and Putah Creek has always been my escape strategy. As a photographer I find the ever-changing shades and seasons to be of endless inspiration. 

On this summer day in 2025 while biking through the Arboretum I noticed a great blue heron perched on the concrete divider right in the middle of the creek. I rushed to get the camera out of my bag in time. Amazingly it stayed in place, allowing me enough time to frame it against the reflection on the surface of the water behind it, providing a golden aura to the bird. Apparently, according to some Arboretum regulars, the birds’ name is Norman...

Practical joker friends of my father's put a sign up in the middle of what is now Lake Spafford on Picnic Day around 1968. Later Lake Spafford was officially named for my father back in 1991.

The Arboretum is a special place for my family. Though a Spafford does not live in Davis, the Arboretum is where we go to reflect on our past in Davis.

David Wilson, my American Studies professor and nature enthusiast, walked us through the Arboretum and told us all about the native plants. My aunt was a friend of Emil Mrak so I'd heard stories of the area. Flash forward to 2012 and my husband started a native garden at our school site and he planted bushes sixh as Red Bud that are at the Arboretum!! I remember it was a meditative and restful place.

This UC Davis Arboretum memory is from that 1976 bicentennial summer 50 years ago.

We lived in Orchard Park. It was a magical place where children of students from all over the world grew up learning and playing in a safe setting where everyone was accepted. Jason was a friend we met there through Alex and Billy (two brothers from Chile). Jason was born in Hong Kong and we thought his father looked and talked like Roger Moore. Orchard Park and Davis was the perfect setting for young adventure: people who looked and spoke strangely and seemingly endless bike trails for 12 year olds to explore and venture miles from home like the boys would in ET or Stand By Me..

I don’t remember who found the Arboretum first. It might have been my older brother David. Anyway, it became one of the ways we would alleviate our weekend boredom if we got kicked out of Pay N Save at University Mall for playing the Pong demo for too long. Yes, Star Trek was on every day on Channel 40 but Star Wars was a year away from changing our lives the following summer.

We enjoyed riding through the Arboretum along Putah Creek for several reasons but the one that sticks out to this child was that it was one of the few places in flat Davis where we could ride downhill as fast as we dared. Scraping together pennies, dimes and nickels we rode to the boat house and rented sailboats or canoes. My big brother Dave rented a sunfish because he had the most money. He delivered The Davis Enterprise until I took over the following year. Jason and I pooled our money and rented a canoe for an hour. While Dave and our other friends capsized and realized how shallow and mucky the murky water was around the boat house, Jay and I paddled up Putah Creek chasing some ducks who sped up just enough to stay out of reach. We admired the flora and fauna and imagined we were exploring the Upper Zambezi River in Mozambique. As I impatiently paddled in front to go faster, I would end up splashing Jay. Accidentally of course. He responded with several well aimed slaps on the surface that sent a few dirty green cups of the creek onto my back and pants. As the creek narrowed, the trees closed in around us. We paddled faster as we stretched our necks to see what dangers lurked around each bend. As we debated whether Bigfoot was real we approached a culvert that we called the low bridge. It was maybe 10 yards long and the corrugated steel ceiling was less than a yard above the water. We paddled into the tunnel when disaster struck. Somehow one of us (probably me) raised his paddle and got it wedged in one of the metal grooves above us. The paddle was maybe four feet long and was pointed ahead of me at about a 70 degree angle. I think I must have been switching sides because the bottom of the paddle got wedged on the floor of our canoe. As our momentum carried us forward the stuck paddle moved toward a 90 degree angle and pushed our canoe down to the point that water spilled over one side and swamped us.

The sounds of our cries echoed through the tunnel and frightened the ducks into flight. Somehow we backed up and managed to escape without capsizing. We grumbled all the way back blaming each other for our white sneakers getting permanently stained algae green.

My brothers and our other friends continued to laugh at us as we rode back to Orchard Park, dripping all the way. Although we were well versed at cooking up stories, we had a hard time explaining why we were wet from the waist down to our parents when we got home. While old Orchard Park, University Mall and the Graduate are gone, the arboretum is still there. Oh, to be twelve again!

I moved to the Capay Valley in 1989. I brought all my begonias from Santa Cruz. They immediately died and I realized that this climate was very different than Santa Cruz. I discovered the Arboretum and the Ruth Storer Garden and her hardy beautiful plants and thought this was the answer. These were drought tolerant plants especially selected for this hot dry summers and cold winters. I fell so in love with them that I started Cache Creek Nursery and sold plants at the Davis and Marin Farmers markets It was fun and helped support my husband and I for 27 years. It was a wonderful experience and all inspired by the UC Davis Arboretum.

Brought my kids & husband to campus for the first time to experience Picnic Day.

When my first wife and I got married we decided to do it at the Arboretum. We met on campus, we dated and fell in love on campus, so it seemed logical that we should get married there. It was a wonderful event, we even had a large party of wedding crashers (ducks). In the end, things didn't work out, but after ten years, when we decided to move on, we went back to the Arboretum to have a private separation ceremony. We returned our rings to each other, thanked each other for the lives we shared, and gave each other "permission" to move on.

I came to Davis in 1973 with my mom to see if UCD was for me. Once we walked down to Putah Creek running through campus, I was sold. I came, graduated, worked at UCD, got married at Putah Creek Lodge. Later, we spent countless hours walking around the Arboretum while I was pregnant with my three kids, and later came to enjoy so much time when my kids were growing. Now, my kids and all my grandkids get together at the Arboretum whenever we can get together; such a great spot for families! I come back to Davis whenever I can to talk and walk around the Arboretum. I am a new UC Master Gardener in Napa County, and recently gave a talk to my class about the wonders of the UC Arboretum. We may take a field trip someday soon! Thanks so much for making it such a wonderland.

I took a hidden path in the arboretum and it lead me up a hill and at the top were a group of young horses. I played guitar for them and they seemed to like it so I came back and played for them several more times. It was very peaceful to sit with them in a time when hanging out with other people was risky.

We have truly enjoyed being gardeners at the wonderful Arboretum since 2009. We've had excellent leaders (Ryan, Mary, Stacey) who have told us each time exactly what/where to do our gardening. And we've spent time in numerous areas of the Arboretum and beyond which has also been our pleasure. We also became volunteer stewards several years ago (in addition to our regular volunteer gardening duties); so when our team was not together, we could garden by ourselves. Again, it's been a true pleasure to serve as gardeners at the marvelous Arboretum!

In addition, many times we've also served as plant counters at the plant sales....again, we truly enjoy everything!

The Arboretum has been a constant for me throughout the different seasons and changes it goes through and was a sanctuary to me during the first year of the pandemic. I remember showing up to class without checking my email announcing class was optional due to concerns over COVID-19 and being confused at the primarily empty class during finals week. Since I was already on campus that day I went to the arboretum so I could simply sit, be still, as well as enjoy the lush greenness and ducks. Every time I visit I enjoy being at the arboretum as if it were my first time and it always feels so peaceful and serene. In the fall of 2021, I found a card with a handwritten encouraging message for anyone who found themselves sitting on that bench in the arboretum and it completely validated the warm aura I always receive from the arboretum and those who frequent it.

I bicycle/bus to work (on Campus) from Sacramento; I arrive at 6am, alongside The Arboretum. A tedious commute melts away as I catch glimpses of magic; shimmering leaves hang on delicate branches to frame forested paths guarded by massive pines poking up at the pre-dawn sky, and ducks. Gaps between the vertical trunks are scenes; trunks are the frames; a moving picture is created as I glide along, piquing my interest of what's Nature doing over there?

My now husband Doug had planned a picnic for us at the Arboretum, I had no idea what was about to happen! He picked out a cute little area for us to eat and while he was laying the blanket out he stayed down on one knee, reached in his pocket and brought out the ring! He was so nervous! We have always loved spending time there so it was the perfect place! We still like to go and enjoy the beauty of the area!

After being away from UCD for approximately one and a half years, it was great to return this past September. I live in Sacramento and drive to/from school several days a week. Since I park my car near the Robert Mondavi Institute, and my office is in Voorhies, I walk through and enjoy the Arboretum at least twice every time I'm on campus. This past quarter, even though I was very glad to be teaching in person, the busyness of commuting, grading students' papers, and holding office hours began to wear me out in November. And that's when the weather started to get cool, foggy, and gloomy. In mid-November, I was in need of an emotional pick-me-up. As I strolled through the Arboretum on the afternoon of the 16th, sunshine streamed through the clouds, the foliage on the trees around Lake Spafford glowed brilliantly, and the ducks frolicked happily. (I'm pretty sure they were frolicking. In any case, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.) It was wonderful. The Arboretum is absolutely my favorite place in Davis.

Three years after retiring, I finally signed up to be a UC Davis Arboretum volunteer.  On our first day of training in January this year, we introduced ourselves.  Every person shared stories of tender connection to the arboretum; riding bikes with their kids; walking with family and friends; discovering new plants for their own gardens.  I didn’t know these people. Yet, in the warmth welling in my stomach, I felt an immediate web of connection to them, wound with strands of love for our shared place.

For one of our training sessions we learned to prune woody plants. I was excited to learn this skill, as my fear of harming a plant makes me a timid pruner.  Stacey, our teacher, demonstrated on an overgrown flannel bush that our group would later prune together.  Her technical knowledge and practical experience were impressive.  But most striking was how Stacey seemed to connect to the plant’s spirit, past and future, as she explained where to make pruning cuts that would best support the plant...

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