Flower Power

Volunteers Needed To Keep City Park In Bloom

By Maria Flora

GPHC Parks and Open Space Chair

Will you join us to keep City Park blooming and beautiful?

With its staff halved in the pandemic, the Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) maintenance crew and horticulturists at City Park need our help as volunteers with gardening tasks and projects. In response, the Parks and Open Space Committee of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. is teaming up with City Park Friends and Neighbors and City Park Alliance to implement DPR’s Adopt-A-Flowerbed program for City Park.

This program has been successful at other parks throughout the city. Volunteers at FANS of Cheesman Park have maintained their park’s rose beds for many years, and FANS of Washington Park volunteers helped install a propagator flower bed in their park last year. Both of these groups report great satisfaction creating beauty in their parks and building community among their volunteer participants.

The Adopt-A-Flowerbed program begins with an on-site orientation with City Park’s horticulturist. Responsibilities include watering, weeding, pruning, audits, design and planting flowers. Park horticulturists and maintenance crew may participate and oversee volunteers’ activities. Adam Smith, the East District superintendent with offices in the City Park pavilion, recommends forming crews of six volunteers per flowerbed or gardening area so that maintenance can continue seamlessly from Spring to Fall.

Please email me at mjflora@msn.com if you are interested in joining this effort. Indicate the time commitment you want to make and whether you have friends or neighbors interested in volunteering, either individually or as part of a six-person team. When we know how many community members are interested in Adopt-A-Flowerbed, we will collaborate with DPR to make the program come to life.

Let’s keep City Park blooming!