Sustainability Fair, Volunteer Days and more

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South Pasadena Flyer for Beautiful Garden Tour, Plant Swap & Sustainability Fair

Garden Tour, Plant Swap and Sustainability Fair.

Join us on Saturday, March 18, 2023 from 1 to 4 PM for an exciting event at the South Pasadena Nature Park. Swap plants, tour the park, and learn about sustainable outdoor practices.

Plant Swap

Come on down to the park to exchange one of your plants for a new one in the popular annual South Pasadena Beautiful Plant Swap. Bellefontaine Nursery and Barlett Tree Experts have generously donated additional native and California Friendly plants for the swap.

Garden Tour

Tour the nature park to see South Pasadena’s habitat garden and wildflower display. Enjoy the brilliant colors of California poppies, golden currants, bush sunflowers and more, take in the healing scent of wild sages, and discover the many birds, butterflies, lizards and other critters who find a home in our park. Visit the new Demonstration Garden for ideas on how to make your yard a California wildland. And learn from participating Girls Scouts and other volunteers how to garden for monarch butterflies in our Butterfly Waystation.

Friends of South Pasadena Nature Park volunteers have been tending this four-acre park for the past 17 years. We’d love to show you our progress and invite you to join us as we work to heal and grow the park.

Sustainability Fair

In addition to the plant swap and garden tour, environmental organizations will be stationed along the recreational path to provide information. The California Native Plant Society – San Gabriel Mountains Chapter and the Theodore Payne Foundation will be available to answer your questions on growing, learning about and protecting the state’s amazing flora. The South Pasadena Community Garden will help you grow luffa seeds and seedlings so that you can replace your plastic sponges with sustainable, biodegradable luffas. South Pasadena officials and commissioners will be available to discuss the city’s environmental programs. In addition, LA County will offer its Smart Gardening Workshops, along with discounted compost and worm bins.

Skip the hassle of parking and come join the Bike Shuttle to this year’s Garden Tour on March 18. South Pas Active Streets will host hourly, all-ages escorted bike rides to and from the event, with a bike valet watching your bike while you are there! Bike Shuttle meeting point: The Walking Man at the South Pasadena Gold Line Station

South Pas Active Streets, Bike Shuttle

March Volunteer Day

And if that wasn’t enough, we will begin the day with our regular monthly park cleanup. To prepare for the event, volunteers will help place signage, pull a few weeds, and generally spruce up the park so it shows its best! We may even have some time to work on the Demonstration Garden’s new temporary irrigation system. 

Where100 block of Pasadena Avenue in So Pas, east of York Blvd. Bridge
When: 3/18/23; 9 am – noon

Nature Park volunteers should: 
– Wear sunscreen, hat, sunglasses
– Bring plenty of water
– Bring gardening gloves and tools (weeders, trowels, whatever you use in your own garden), there are extra tools and gloves for those who need them
– Wear comfortable work clothes, including work shoes (sneakers or boots) and long pants
– Bring binoculars for birdwatching (optional)
(It is recommended that participants wear face masks. I use one in my own garden to help with allergens and dust.)

Children must be under adult supervision at all times. There is poison oak in the park that we will point out before starting.


The South Pas Nature Park is a four-acre habitat park along the Arroyo Seco. The entrance, marked by a small plaque on an attractive river rock wall, is in the 100 block of Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena, east of the York Street Bridge. There is plenty of on-street parking on Pasadena Avenue.

Volunteer Day
Volunteers plant the new Demonstration Garden in January. Click image video.

Upcoming Cleanups and Events

Volunteer Days are usually held on the third Saturday of the month from 9 am to noon. The Sustainability Fair will be held on Saturday, March 18 from 1 to 4 pm.

(Dates are tentative, please confirm on Facebook, WeedingWildSuburbia.com or email.)

Donate

If you would like to help grow our nature park but prefer not to get into the dirt, you can donate through South Pasadena Beautiful. Be sure to include a note specifying that the donation be applied to the Nature Park.