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Working Bee Park, another Mission Greenbelt garden

This Friday, September 18, Mission Greenbelt Project,in partnership with Bay Natives, will plant another garden in the Mission. The garden is called Working Bee Park but it will be a temporary installation, for now. September 18 is PARK(ing) Day:

an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.

Working Bee Park will "showcase native, wildlife attracting plants [and] amuse passing bicyclists" and Mission Greenbelt organizers will "put the finishing touches on [their] Community Challenge Grant (CCG) application." If you are in the area, the project's needs are:

  • Park set-up at 7 a.m.
  • Work tables for sketching, couches, blankets & chairs for sitting, food snacks & drink for sharing.
  • New sites for Mission Greenbelt gardens in parks, sidewalks, planters, vacant lots & rooftops. Ask questions, take a Sidewalk Landscaping Permit application, choose a garden kit for bees, shady streets, butterflies, dry rock or grassland & sign on as part of the CCG for funding.
  • Wildlife - make music, perform for us, show your artwork and/or bring poetry to read.
  • Volunteer to build Mission Greenbelt gardens. For the CCG we need to document volunteer hours to match part of the potential funding.
  • Park break-down at 5 p.m.

Another Mission Greenbelt Project garden is the Garden for the Birds, a local ecology neighborhood nature making profile. The profile is located here and has been included below.

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Like Ivy Narrow Bird Preserve and CHIA, I participated in the making of the greenbelt garden at the Sangati Center in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. It's a Garden for the Birds.

A friend and I volunteered on the second work day of three: to break up the existing clay soil, remove debris, and mix in new soil.

The days and the Mission Greenbelt Garden project were organized by Amber Hasselbring of art-eco.org.

What's the mission of Mission Greenbelt Gardens? To provide habitat for local wildlife. Additional goals include "enliven public space" and to capture rainfall and stormwater runoff.

The Sangati Center greenbelt garden is located at 22nd and Mission. There's a second greenbelt garden at the Mission Playground Pool at 19th and Linda.

Since I only volunteered one day and not on the day of planting, I have not seen the planted garden. However, I was able to photograph some of the plants scheduled to be planted. Amber Hasselbring told me that the palette would include coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica), sticky monkey flower, two grasses (deer grass, Muhlenbergia rigens and purple needlegrass, Nassella pulchra [the California's state grass], ceanothus, hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea), grape, and wildflowers from seed.

Question: How will your community celebrate PARK(ing) Day?

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