This is the 69th event held by the AYLUS Gardens Branch. On Saturday, May 4, 2024, AYLUS Oakland Gardens went to the Meditation Garden in Kissena Corridor Park to weed the garden beds, mulch, and cut down invasive trees that had taken up residence there. The day was quite sunny with warm sun rays and the smell of spring flowing in the air.
The members were split into two groups. One group had middle school and younger members weeding the garden beds, while the other group with high schoolers was tasked with cutting and removing the invasive Cottonwood trees across from the garden beds.
The middle school and younger members were shown methods of removing weeds. The purpose of weeding the garden beds was to take the weeds that were blocking nutrients from getting to the flowers and bushes. This way the flowers and bushes can thrive and grow. The removal of the weeds also made The Mediation Garden look more presentable because the garden beds were no longer overrun by tall grass and the flowers and bushes were now visible to the public. Anthony Deng, the event coordinator, used a shovel to get under the weed plant to make the removal easier. Since the weed was a type of tall grass, the members found it much easier to grab the grass by the stem and pull. The members split up the work where half members of the group would weed the garden and the other half would put the weeds into garbage bags. As the weeds would get everywhere, some of our members would use brooms and rakes to clean up the weeds scattered on the sidewalk. Then the members mulched around the flowers and bushes, being extra careful to not damage anything, to prevent the weed from growing back.
The high schoolers were led by Wyatt Garrett, from Partnerships with Parks. Wyatt Garrett gave instructions to cut the young cottonwood trees as they are an invasive species and we didn’t want them to grow and spread further. The members used small hand-held saws and large gardening shears to remove the trees. The high schoolers had to be very careful and aware of their surroundings to not damage any of the native flora as well as for safety purposes. This is due to the fact that the tools used were very sharp, and the falling trees could injure someone if we weren’t careful. The members had to make sure the trees they were cutting were cottonwood and not another tree that was supposed to be in the area. The high schoolers asked Ada Mata, a Park worker, what trees needed to be removed. Ada responded that all the small trees in that area needed to be removed, as the removal of the small trees were necessary due to them being invasive. The small trees were taking up the nutrients that the grass in that area needed to flourish. The removal of trees will also make the field feel more open, as growth of the small trees were clustered in one spot in the field.
In the middle of the event, City Council Member Sandra Ung stopped by despite her busy schedule. She viewed the event as something beneficial to the community, giving us words of encouragement, congratulating our effort in bettering our environment. Our members also thanked her for providing generous public support for the bettering of our park as without such support, there will be a harder time in making this event happen.
Towards the end of the event, Ada brought more mulch to fill a path that had a lot of loose rocks, increasing the possibility of someone getting injured. Our members worked like a conveyor belt, moving the mulch towards the end of the path. The mulch was used to smooth the path and make it safer for people to walk on. At the end of the event we cut 50 trees, used 40 garbage bags, and used 6 cubic yards of mulch.
We would like to thank Council Member Sandra Ung for the continued support of our cause, to make an impact in the community. Thank you to Dorothy Woo, a co-founder of Kissena Corridor Park, for bringing us water and her support as well. Thank you to Anthony Deng and Wyatt Garett, from Partnerships for Parks, for inviting us to help out our community’s park and guiding us through the process of everything with their patience. Thank you to Jazmine Mitchell, park supervisor, for coming and making sure that everyone was safe. Thank you to Ada for helping to transport the tools, and thank you Park members that came and helped with the event. All 100 volunteers, including adults, came to the event to improve the community and Park.
Our volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu: 3.5 hours
Hong Hao Liu: 3.5 hours
Stephanie You: 3.5 hours
Sophia You: 3.5 hours
Sunny Lau: 3.5 hours
Jasmine Lau: 3.5 hours
Ivey Lam: 3.5 hours
Alice Chen: 3.5 hours
Ling Yu Hao: 3.5 hours
Ziheng Jiao: 3.5 hours
Charles Chen: 3.5 hours
XiLin Huang: 3.5 hours
Vicki Lin: 3.5 hours
Anthony Lin: 3.5 hours
Sophia Li: 3.5 hours
Alex Lu: 3.5 hours
Rex He: 3.5 hours
Bowen Chen: 3.5 hours
Kaisa Wu: 3.5 hours
Lucas Lin: 3.5 hours
Zhen Xie: 3.5 hours
Angel Li: 3.5 hours
Elina Lee: 3.5 hours
Ian Lee: 3.5 hours
Brandon Lin: 3.5 hours
Aiden Lin: 3.5 hours
Ethan Lin: 3.5 hours
Patrick Guan: 3.5 hours
Ryan Wu: 3.5 hours
Sunny Chen: 3.5 hours
Darren Wu: 3.5 hours
Carolyn Zhao: 3.5 hours
Alecia Zhao: 3.5 hours
Long Lin: 3.5 hours
Ioklee Lin: 3.5 hours
Iokseng Lin: 3.5 hours
Ioknor Lin: 3.5 hours
Darren Li: 3.5 hours
Leslie Saquipulla: 3.5 hours
Tyler Siegel: 3.5 hours
Cindy Siegel: 3.5 hours
Zhiyan Zeng: 3 hours
Kobe Zheng: 3 hours
Xiyan Zeng: 3 hours
Abby Zheng: 3 hours
Mo Yu: 3 hours
Siqi Chen: 3 hours
Chong Chen: 3 hours
Hangxu Yu: 3 hours
Nerissa Xu: 3 hours
Paxton Xu: 3 hours
Sophia Gao: 3 hours
Sabrina Gao: 3 hours
Derrick Gao: 3 hours
Aaron Shi: 3 hours
Queena Li: 3 hours
Nina Yang: 3 hours
Grace Lin: 3 hours
Evan Zhu: 3 hours
Matthew Lin: 2.5 hours
Jiaheng Yu: 2.5 hours
Jolin Pan: 1.5 hours
Aaron Pan: 1.5 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Cui Fang Li (Fannie): 4.5 hours
Teng Fei Liu (Faye): 4.5 hours
Hsinhui Liao (Karen): 4.5 hours
Report written by: Vicki Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
