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BALDASARE FORESTIERE'S UNDERGROUND GARDENS

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA

Briefly stated, the Underground Gardens are a series of subsurface chambers excavated by Sicilian-American immigrant Baldasare Forestiere over the course of about 40 years, using just hand tools and muscle power.

Many of these chambers were created to shelter trees and other plants below the surface, hence the appelation "garden". Forestiere was particularly skilled at grafting. Some of his trees bore multiple species of fruit from a single trunk: one of his citrus trees, for example, at one time produced seven different varieties of fruit.

This remarkable structure cannot be pigeonholed under a single subject heading -- it is a garden and it is underground, but it is also a number of other things: it can be viewed as a superb example of vernacular architecture, as an original approach to horticulture in a difficult environment, even as an example of passive indoor climate control.

Modern visitors to the Underground Gardens should remember that during Forestiere's life, this was his full-time residence and received constant maintenance. It remains a very demanding structure to preserve. Some sections of the Underground Gardens described in the articles and websites that follow may be periodically closed for repair.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LINKS

SITES OF RELATED INTEREST

The preceding information was derived from the backfiles of the San Joaquin Valley Information Service.
We hope you will find it useful, both as an introduction and as a guide for further study.
Please consult with your local public library about obtaining copies of the works cited.

Revised 10/2000 DJD

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