After suffering through years of drought, the lawn at Los Angeles Fire Department Station 29 is getting a well-deserved makeover in honor of the station’s centennial. The station, at 4029 Wilshire Blvd., will celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony of its new drought-tolerant garden on Saturday, May 12, at 9:30 a.m.

Los Angeles Fire Station 29 will soon have a new garden that features drought-tolerant plants native to California, a dry streambed and boulders. (photo courtesy of Lyn MacEwen Cohen)

The station is actually 105 years old, but the new garden is a gift from the community of Hancock Park to the firefighters in honor of the station’s 100 years of service – which the station rang in five years ago on April 16, 2013. At the time, the station’s front lawn had deteriorated. Weeds had taken root, and the grass, parched from the California drought, was sparse.

“It was bleak,” said Lyn MacEwen Cohen, president of the First-In Fire Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting community residents with their local firefighters.

The project has only just come into fruition after years of designing and waiting for city approvals.

“It has been a very long and arduous process,” Cohen said.

Thanks in part to the First-In Fire Foundation, as well as landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA, which helped with the design, and the Hancock Park Garden Club, which aided in the fundraising for the garden, May 12 marks the first time the garden will physically come together. Other donors and sponsors of the project include the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, the Windsor Square Association, the Fremont Place Association, Loveland-Carr Properties, Nature-Scape and Councilman David Ryu, 4th District, who will all be a part of the groundbreaking celebration on Saturday.

After the ceremony, the plot of land will go through several weeks of weed abatement and preparation before shovels hit the ground in early June. The First-In Fire Foundation expects the lawn project to be finished and celebrated with a dedication ceremony between July and September, depending if any issues, such as irrigation, emerge.

When completed, the garden will feature a dry streambed, large boulders and drought-tolerant plants native to California, such as large century plants of the agave family, all in a patriotic red, white and blue color palette. The hope is with the native flora, the lawn will attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies to further support Southern California’s ecosystem.

“We want a handsome garden for the firefighters,” Cohen said. “It’s really a great opportunity for the general public to see how a drought-tolerant garden looks.”

Despite the lengthy wait for the garden, the firemen are thrilled with the project. LAFD Chief of Staff Graham Everett is grateful for the update to the landscape because “the fire station serves as a focal point for the community.”

“We’re really glad that it falls in line with our drought-tolerant goals as well,” he added. “The garden will also really bring a sense of pride to the firefighters at the station because that’s where they live and the look of the building really raises morale.”

The groundbreaking ceremony falls on the same day as Fire Service Day, when fire stations across the city of Los Angeles are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for people to walk through and interact with firefighters.

“I absolutely love the garden idea,” LAFD Deputy Chief Phillip Fligiel said. “The groundbreaking ceremony, it’s a good tie-in with Fire Service Day, when we’re open to the community, and [in turn,] the community is giving something back to us with the garden.”

After working years on the garden design and fundraising, Cohen remains excited about the project and believes it will be more than just decorative.

“Creating this space for the community connects local citizens to their local station – which is right on mission for the First-In Fire Foundation,” she said. “It helps develop relationships long before an emergency occurs.”