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October 2022
Dear Volunteers,
We have many updates for you in this newsletter and many reasons to celebrate! If you have not yet had a chance to sign up for October volunteer opportunities, please log into your Volunteer Portal. If you don't have your personalized link handy, visit this page to obtain your link. If you run into any issues, please let me know.
Also, it's that time of year! With fall upon us, we are updating our schedule. Effective October 1, the San Francisco Botanical Garden began closing at 5 pm. The next closing change will be the first Sunday, November 6, when we go to 4pm closing. Also, the Japanese Tea Garden will begin closing at 5 pm on November 1. Please keep this in mind as you plan your days at the Gardens.
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Join our Bookstore Team!
Are you interested in joining our Bookstore team? We currently have openings to begin training as a Bookstore volunteer. This is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys chatting with our many visitors, loves being in a fast-paced environment and feels comfortable multi-tasking. If you're intersted in joining our tiny and mighty Bookstore, please let me know so that I can introduce you to our Retail Manager Whitney Ochoa. Bookstore volunteer assignments typically run from 10 am - 1 pm or 1 pm - 4 pm, Sunday - Thursday.
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Volunteer Spotlight Lisa Erdos, Green Team
Lisa Erdos has volunteered with Ben's Green Team since the summer of 2021. A Master Gardener, Lisa also helps at other SF gardens, but says she really appreciated the effort that SFBG made to stay open to visitors and volunteers during the pandemic closures, and wanted to help. She enjoys working in the South Africa and New Zealand area, and says, "Every week, I learn something new about a plant or an area of the Garden." Lisa particularly enjoys the morning Garden visitors, "especially the school kids, who sometimes stop and ask what bugs or animals we've seen. A class of very young students sat down near where we were working, took out their sketch pads, and started drawing flowers - they were so cute and enthusiastic!"
We're grateful to Lisa and all of our Garden volunteers who help make our "living museum" a wonderful place for visitors of all ages to explore and enjoy.
Our Green Teams are still in session until November 18, 2022 and they will be on pause for winter break until January 24, 2023. If you are open to joining the Green Team this fall or in 2023, please let me know so we can find a time for you to meet horticulturists before your first assignment.
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Strategic Plan Community Survey Results
Thank you to the many volunteers and community members who completed our public survey this summer!
Between June 21 and July 8, the Gardens of Golden Gate Park worked with Civic Edge Consulting to launch and promote a survey intended to garner meaningful public feedback and community input in the organization’s strategic planning process.
We were excited to receive 3,340 total survey responses—more than three times the initial goal of 1,000 responses. Key takeaways from the community were about prioritizing conservation and the frequency of public programs and education opportunities:
- 96% of respondents said prioritizing conservation is very or moderately important to them
- 90% of respondents said increasing the frequency of public programs and education opportunities is very or moderately important to them
Emphasis on plant care and maintenance was also heard loud and clear from the community. When asked how to prioritize aspects of the Gardens of Golden Gate Park, respondents ranked the following as their top and almost top priorities:
- 94% Plant care and maintenance
- 62% Accessible information about the plant collections
- 57% Signage and wayfinding
Community feedback from the survey responses will help the Gardens of Golden Gate Park identify priorities within its Strategic Plan for future efforts and services, while protecting these important resources and improving the visitor experience.
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Nursery Update
Ryan Guillou, Director of Collectors and Conservation shares an update on the status of our New Plant Nursery.
Many thanks to those of you who have contributed to the new nursery campaign. We are still seeking donations to help us cross the final finish line. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Brooke Bedingfield at bbedingfield@sfbg.org. If you have been eagerly looking over the construction fence into the New Nursery site can see that a lot of progress has been made this past year. Both the headhouse and greenhouse have been erected, a new fence has been placed around the reservoir, and the area around the nursery facility has been graded. As with most construction projects, once the structures have been built a great deal of unseen work begins such as electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and installing all the mechanical equipment to make the space an operational growing and work facility.
Our goal to have the nursery operational this fall will unfortunately be delayed, and this is due to a multitude of factors. Challenges with accessing material due to supply chain delays have slowed down work, and this has in turn created challenges with permitting and inspections. Every piece connects to another and when multiple approvals get delayed, they add up to larger delays over time. Discovery of several unknown large pipes in the ground require time to investigate before moving forward, and nesting birds in the building prevent work until hatchlings are fledged.
Once we are signed off for occupancy, the next phase of work begins. We will need to furnish the facility with cabinets, tables, and tools, and make sure that all of our climate control systems are working properly. This will take time, and we will then need to start work with developing our growing grounds. Finally, we still need to hire two new staff members to operate the facility, one from the Recreation and Parks Department and the other from the nonprofit.
Our new projected date to open the New Nursery is Summer 2023, and we cannot wait to welcome volunteers back to the support the Gardens’ collections and engage visitors with our diverse plants for purchase.
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Slices of Joy
- Congratulations to the Japanese Tea Garden team for a wonderful Pagoda unveiling ceremony and celebration last month! The Japanese Tea Garden’s towering pagoda, one of the few surviving structures from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, has been revived to its former glory following a meticulous restoration. The Pagoda looks amazing and landscape work around the Pagoda will continue this month. Learn more about last month’s event by reading San Francisco Chronicle coverage here.
- School programs have started up again at the Gardens! To prepare for this fall, 22 children’s walk guides participated in an enrichment program in September. Thank you to all of our Children's Walk Guides and Docents for welcoming our student groups!
- Thank you to everyone who made Flower Piano 2022 a magical experience! With more than 20,000 people in attendance on Saturday, September 17, alone - September 17 joins last year’s Flower Piano weekend dates as one of the highest visitation days in recorded Garden history!
- The New York Times recently featured two familiar faces from the Gardens in their interactive piece discussing San Francisco's illustrious fog.
- This past September we celebrated the artists featured in our From Sand Dunes to Forest exhibition. Fifteen talented artists joined us along with over fifty guests to enjoy good food, conversation, and artwork. Many thanks to everyone who helped with this event! Please stop by the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture when you get a chance so that you can see the exhibition.
- In addition, we're hosting two Litquake events in the Botanical Garden this month! Join the Garden on Saturday, October 15 at 2 pm in the Redwood Grove to learn more about Girls Who Green the World: Thirty-Four Rebel Women Out to Save Our Planet. This all-ages event will center around journalist/author Diana Kapp, in conversation with author Leslie Roberts. Together they wlll explore the best ways for young people to make a difference. On Sunday, October 16 at 1 pm in the Garden of Fragrance novelist Greg Sarris will discuss his memoir Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees and Ancestors.
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Wishing you a warm and wonderful fall!
Best wishes,
Crystal
Crystal Lee Stone | Volunteer Program Manager
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Gardens of Golden Gate Park
P (415) 661-1316 Ext. 400
9am-5pm, M-F
clstone@sfbg.org
P.S. Did you miss an update? Catch up by viewing past newsletters on Volunteer Central.
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