This is the 85th event hosted by AYLUS Oakland Gardens. It was a warm evening, and we spent 2 hours of it working for Crocheron Park’s Garden Bed.
We would like to thank Jessica from Friends of Crocheron Park & John Golden Park, for helping and teaching us about the plants. She joined the nonprofit group during the pandemic, which was especially important as during that time it would be harder for the plants to survive. She joined when there were only 3 people in the group making her one of the first people to join the group.
In this event we watered the plants and learned about many plants and bugs. We learned about a flower like the Black Eyed Susan, a pretty flower that looks like a little sunflower. She also told us that the Black Eyed Susan has something of a relative in the flower world, the Brown Eyed Susan. Instead of being a flower with a black center, the Brown Eyed Susan has a dark brown center with reddish petals commonly found with edges of yellow around the red petals. But even with these differences people still fail to tell them apart. Some people call the Brown Eyed Susan the Black Eyed Susan and vice versa.
Then she told us about bugs. Like the Boxelder bug, which is mostly black with orange stripes. This bug was all over the milkweed. However, Jessica told us this bug was native meaning it wasn’t invasive. Then she told us about the White Spotted Lanternfly which unlike the Boxelder bug was invasive. It was all over the plants. As they were invasive, Jessica grabbed two leaves to kill all the Lanternfly she could right now, to lessen the amount of them.
When we watered the plants we had to use the hose nearby. However, it didn’t work very well as the pipe connecting the water hose to the water supply was too small, thus causing water to leak out. Due to this, one of our members had to go push the hose down to make it fit a little more. Since there wasn’t enough water pressure for the hose to operate properly, members went down the hill to fill up buckets and wheelbarrows with water to bring back to water the plants. This had a similarity to the nursery song, Jack and Jill.
In the end, with the help of Jessice, we managed to water the garden and remove any weeds. Due to this, the garden is prospering day by day, becoming healthier than before.
Our volunteers:
Iokting Lin: 2 hours
Ioklee Lin: 2 hours
Ioknor Lin: 2 hours
Iokseng Lin: 2 hours
Hong Hao Liu: 2 hours
Jia Qi Liu: 2 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 2 hours
Stephanie ShiRan You: 2 hours
Matthew Lin: 2 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Teng Fei Liu: 2.5 hours
Hsinhui Liao: 2.5 hours
Cui Fang Li: 2.5 hours
Report Written By: Stephanie ShiRan You
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu