Call for Volunteers at 'Pollinator Garden' on Earth Day

If you'd like to see more butterflies, bees and birds in Rockridge, the Oakland Landscape Committee has a possible role for you to play on Earth Day, April 20.

Since 2008, the committee has maintained what it calls the "Broadway Garden" at Broadway and Keith Avenue on Caltrans land next to Highway 24 in Rockridge.

Recently, the group decided to make the football field-sized plot into a "pollinator garden" to attract butterflies, bees and birds, said organizer Gordon Piper, a North Oakland Hills resident who helped develop similar gardens at the North Oakland Regional Sports Center near the Caldecott Tunnel's western entrance.

The committee has put out a call for volunteers to help on Earth Day.

"We would like to invite you to join in the garden development effort either by volunteering in the workday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in which we will be adding hundreds of new pollinator plants in the garden and helping to spread amendments around the new pollinator plants, or by making a tax-deductible donation that will allow us to purchase and plant some attractive flowering trees such as magnolias and dogwoods," according to a notice posted in an online community forum.

Those who wish to make a tax-deductible donation can make the check out to an affiliated nonprofit Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation and mail it to the Oakland Landscape Committee, 33 Hiller Drive, Oakland, CA 94618.

The Oakland Landscape Committee was able to have access to the plot through the Caltrans "Adopt a Highway" program, which allows use of state highway right-of-way property, Piper said.

"We'd like to have more residents of Rockridge partnering and helping with the planting," Piper said.

The goal is a beautiful, local public garden that can be enjoyed by "residents as well as the butterflies, birds and bees," Piper said.

The garden is located on a triangular piece of land bordered by Highway 24 East, the highway's Broadway off-ramp, Keith Avenue and Broadway. The entrance on Broadway, on the northwest corner of its intersection with Keith.

--------------------------

Don't miss any news from Rockridge Patch. Get the day's headlines and events – plus any breaking news alerts – by subscribing to the Rockridge Patch email newsletter.