Mr. Lerach’s Garden

A broad walkway lined with art work leads from La Jolla Farms Road into the six-acre enclave.

If Bill Lerach’s estate had not been included in this past Saturday’s Secret Garden Tour of Old La Jolla, I’m not sure I would have gone.  The tour is one of the most expensive of the almost two dozen spring garden events in San Diego; only the Rancho Santa Fe garden tour commands a higher ticket price. The La Jolla tour benefits an organization that’s near to my heart (the La Jolla Historical Society), but I’m still not sure I would have committed the $45 or the time necessary to drive between the six stops spread out between La Jolla Farms and the Village, had Lerach’s place not been included. Lerach, however, is worth an estimated $700 million, and he employs 5 full-time gardeners whose mission is horticultural impressiveness. The mansion is located just blocks from the preserve where I take folks on my San Diego Insider Tours Surf Culture Safari. How could I resist?

Indeed the manor at 9776 La Jolla Farms Road eclipsed all the other stops. My tour buddies and I spent a full 90 minutes gawking. It’s been a long time since I’ve visited the Hearst Castle, but it seemed to me Chez Lerach competes with it in showiness. The location — on the clifftop 400 feet above Black’s Beach — is at least as dramatic, and like William Randolph, Lerach has imported architectural elements and artworks from all over the world: a Provencal fountain, a 1000-year-old Middle Eastern Olive press, wooden figures from New Guinea and Shona statuary from Zimbabwe.

Lerach, who made his fortune and reputation filing shareholder lawsuits (and more recently completed a 2-year sentence in federal prison for the illegal manner in which many of those lawsuits were mounted), was on hand when we arrived not long after 10 a.m. He seemed a jolly fellow, quick to pet his Italian whippets and chat with some of the visitors. He also apparently didn’t mind the tour-goers wandering into at least the first floor of his mansion, even though the event was supposed to be all about gardens.

As for the gardens, they seemed beautifully tended and fantastically showy, filled with seemingly millions of flowers in bloom. For the most part, the plants were familiar ones: geraniums, roses, hydrangeas, fuchsias, lilies, and the like. Perhaps the most unusual aspect was how many fruit trees and vines had been crammed into the grounds.  “Huge blackberry and raspberry gardens ramble over their own seaside treilliage,” gushed the tour brochure. “A blueberry hill produces enough buckets of berries to supply a muffin factory.” We sneaked a berry or two off the latter plants and found them surprisingly sweet.  We hoped if the owner didn’t eat them all, someone did.