Oakland Gardens Branch Mulches and Weeds at Bowne Park (7/16/2025)

On Wednesday, July 16th, from 8:00am – 12:30pm, volunteers from AYLUS Oakland Gardens Branch, participated in a weeding and mulching event with Maureen Reagan at Bowne Park for their 173rd event.

We started the event by helping Mayita, a gardener for New York City parks, hand out materials for us to do our work with. This included small trowels, wheelbarrows, garbage grabbers, shovels, and pitchforks. We then weeded and mulched at Bowne Park, with some people cleaning up the litter on the floor. Our members worked hard and diligently, despite the harsh, dry weather, which just motivated them to work harder.

We weeded entire sections of invasive plant species in flowerbeds, and then covered those areas with mulch to help protect and keep the soil healthy for future plants planted in that area. In another section, there was a huge pile of mulch. Some members would toss pieces of mulch into wheelbarrows with shovels and pitchforks, and then another member would drive those pitchforks to empty plots of soil. We would dump the mulch on the ground, and use rakes to spread it out.

Mulch is good for the soil and plants, especially during the dry summer months, due to the fact that it gives the plants nutrients and helps retain the moisture needed for the plants to truly thrive.

At the end of the event, Mabel Law, from Con Edison, who sponsored the event, funded us and allowed Maureen Reagan to provide refreshments for us, and New York State assembly member Ron Kim came to Bowne Park to see the work we did.

Thank you to all of our members who attended our event today, for giving us your time and beautifying another park in our vast New York City. Thank you to Maureen Reagan for organizing this event and providing refreshments, and thank you Mattia the gardener for helping us with tools and showing us your profound knowledge. Thank you to Con Edison sponsor Mabel Law and assembly member Ron Kim for helping support AYLUS in our mission of youth empowerment and protecting our community.

Our Volunteers:

1.Sophia ShiHan You: 4.5 hours

2.Hong Hao Liu: 4.5 hours

3.Elina Lee: 4.5 hours

4.Ian Lee: 4.5 hours

5.Yujie Zhu: 4.5 hours

6.Ricky Song: 4.5 hours

7.Ivan Cao: 4.5 hours

8.Eason Lin: 4.5 hours

9.Dylan Chen: 4.5 hours

10.Zhiheng Zhou: 4.5 hours

11.Shi Hao Li: 4.5 hours