January work day wrap up

Our park's benches - especially those near the restroom and basketball courts - have been described as unappealing. One person said they looked like they were sinking into the mud. 

The benches are mounted into asphalt, so it wasn't so much a matter of benches sinking, as it was that dirt, weeds, and trash were creeping up and around them. So on Saturday, our gardeners began working with neighborhood volunteers on an excavation. It's an important and timely project, because this area of the park will soon receive capital improvements - but the benches are expected to stay.

At the monthly work day Saturday, park volunteers spread in two groups. While I worked with one group in the east end, a group of students in the fourth grade at the SF Day School took to caring for the playground - spreading new soil into the Kevin Collins Children's Garden, and raking leaves from the sand in the playground.

Happy New Year

May we be blessed in 2011 with plentiful rain, blooming trees, and visits to the park. 

Brown conical mushrooms sprout yesterday in the park under a cherry laurel

The large cherry laurel just east of Masonic is a real survivor. Our park has quite a few laurels, but none like this. From time to time, people leave trash in there and cut into or gouge the trunk with metal and glass. When I visited the park yesterday, I saw that one of its large branches was pulled down to the ground and the branch was cracked. That was hard to see. 

It cheered me up to turn around and find mushrooms sprouting from wood chips we spread around the tree in February. 

Panhandle Project Selected for Implementation

Ready for change?

Great news yesterday: Our proposal for capital improvements in the area between the playground and basketball courts has been selected for implementation!

The plan repairs a key area in our big neighborhood park while leaving the current design intact. It will fix broken pathways between the playground and basketball courts, replace degraded turf while modernizing irrigation and drainage, and place small-stature, moisture-loving native plants in a small area. It will also build a seating wall positioned close to the basketball courts, and installs bike racks. To protect the area from harmful impact of heavy vehicles, it re-routes service vehicles to get them in and out of the park more sensibly. And it builds a walkable wood-chip path to improve access to the Kevin Collins Children's Garden surrounding the playground.

Project overview. Drawing by Holly Kuljian

SF Rec and Park Department will get this work underway soon - hopefully in the first months of 2011. We have an immediate opportunity to ensure the project is fully realized -

- park outreach to let even more park users know about the project

- visit neighborhood associations and tell them about the project

- become acquainted with the work team and document the project through photos and videos

- organize the day when neighbors will take part in planting as part of our volunteer match

- learn more about the plants chosen and lead tours of the project

- organize a park celebration - before and after project

- propose creative reuses for any materials being removed from the park

- make a financial contribution to help us reach our match

We'll need lots of help to make these things happen. Looking forward to working with you on this in 2011!