Thank You for a Beautiful Garden

This is an informal thank you to all those who contributed to the fantastic effort that transformed the hillside into a lovely neighborhood garden. Without Project Orange Thumb and the forward thinking people at Fiskars, it would have taken months to come this far.

Lowe's was also a big part of the make-over. They supplied the materials and even sent a team of volunteers to assist with the hands-on gardening.

The San Francisco Master Gardeners sent a team of expert helpers. They were instrumental in overcoming some of the more challenging aspects of gardening on such a steep slope.

Without the guidance of SF Parks Trust, GNG would not have become as well organized or focused. We joined their organization as a Parks Partner in January this year. They provide us with fiscal sponsorship and give our group direction in areas such as fundraising, grant writing and project management. Thanks to Maria, Kiersten, Jasime and Julia, who worked hard on the that hot sunny day.

Liz Lerma and the folks at DPW assisted Fiskars and GNG with choosing appropriate trees for the hill. They made sure in the days preceding the event and during that waste and compost were discarded. Thanks to all those DPW people who worked and celebrated at the ribbon cutting ceremony. The garden received a special native blessing with burning sage.

Before and after the event Louis sculpted the terrain to help create a garden that GNG will be able to maintain for years to come. We are extremely grateful to him and his crew. They brought in power tools to break the rocky, clay-like topsoil that is prevalent in the Portola. No easy task!

If it weren't for the consistent effort of all five contributors at GNG, the hill wouldn't have been on the map. Laura, thanks for your tireless networking. Trish thanks for being the backbone of our administrative and communications needs.


Mikki, is not only a gracious host to most of our meetings, she is our SAFE Neighborhood Watch captain and generates a huge amount of support from her family and friends.


Paki, without your diligence in watering the hill, those wonderful plants would have wilted by now. Thank you too for bringing your family members (and photographer of the slide show to the right). Lastly, the blogger, Cybil. I'm just happy to be a part of such an amazing group of ladies. Thank you, GNG!



Along with the following photos of friends who helped on August 26th, the following link will show photos from the Fiskars website. There is also a time-lapsed video of the entire event! Again, thank you to everyone who made it happen!