Work for Beauty

Improvements in Our Parks

What does that mean? It means that our Beautification committee and other neighborhood groups are hard at work beautifying our neighborhood. In the past few weeks, more than a dozen rhododendrons were planted on the hillside in Koshland Park, and a new layer of mulch lifted a bucket at a time onto the hill. The newest addition to the Park is another truckload of bark chips, lifted into place also a bucket at a time by volunteers from the neighborhood and beyond.

Volunteers make a difference at Koshland Park

Rebecca Bozelli and Suzi Paladini, along with Hayes Valley Neighborhood Parks Group Director Barbara Wenger, have taken the lead in improving Koshland Park. The second Saturday of each month there is a workday at the Park. February and March saw our area gardener and others from Rec and Park, volunteers from Neighborhood Parks Council, Walden House, International Schools, HVNA and more doing everything from digging holes to pulling weeds. It was interesting to watch HVNA Board members Jim Warshell, Richard Johnson, Ed Bedard and Paul Olsen load buckets of mulch, one shovel at a time, and then lift those buckets to other volunteers on the hill. No one needed a trip to the gym that weekend! The March workday in Koshland Park has just passed, but more fun in the park is scheduled. See the calendar for the specific dates, including a pruning day in May, guided by Friends of the Urban Forest.

Students from the International Schools hard at work during March workday at Koshland Park.

Photo: Suzi Palladino

Green Space at Hayes Valley Playground, Too

Gail Baugh has been helping coordinate workdays at Hayes Valley Playground as well. Check the calendar for dates to help in that effort. Last year kids in the neighborhood grew strawberries and sunflowers (among other efforts) at the Playground, and the excitement as they came toward harvest was electric.

Please email Jim Warshell, Beautification committee chair, at beauty@hayesvalleysf.org for more information on efforts in the neighborhood. We can use your help, and your ideas, and you will meet some terrific people, too.