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Throop Learning Garden

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Throop Memorial Church  •  300 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena

Throop Learning Garden is an example of how we can transform our environment through community. We worked together to found a garden based on permaculture principles. We began with Bermuda grass and hardpan clay. We now enjoy a garden that includes a raised bed food garden, a fruit tree food forest, a drought tolerant native garden, demonstrations of water harvesting techniques, soil building, uses for “urbanite” and other recyclables, and comfortable places to congregate. We also host a wealth of birds and beneficial insects, including praying mantises, many moths, and butterflies.
Garden work days are most Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 10:30.

~ 2013 Pasadena Green City Award for Urban Nature ~


Notes from the Garden

12/6/2012

 

Our Garden Blooms in Winter

We near the winter solstice; the shortest day and longest night of the year. It is a time for introspection, being quiet, and being patient. The hard work of summer and fall have passed. The harvests grow smaller, but remain abundant. It is a time for resting in gratitude for what we have accomplished and what is, with a thought for visioning what could be.
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We celebrated the garden dedication on November 16. We enjoyed our 100+ attendees, especially the cross pollination, as people from diverse arenas met and conversed with one another. Ideas were shared. New alliances were forged. New projects began to take shape. And people just enjoyed themselves.

We have been less active in the garden since then; planting a few winter crops, cleaning up after the marauding raccoons that visit nightly, pausing to reflect on how to move forward in the new year. I am partial to the pausing just now; maybe sitting on the beautiful bench Greg Marquez built for us and savoring the riotous splendor of the culmination of labor, community, and nature. The bench is a perfect vantage point to regain perspective, recharge the weary body, and retrieve the sense of beauty and wonder often lost in the shuffle of daily life.

Rev. Tera Little of Throop Church emailed me this tangible bit of evidence of the impact of the garden:
“Each week Nancy and I notice more and more people choosing to stroll through the garden, often with a little one in tow. They walk slowly, taking a look at all the lush plantings, reaching out to touch an eggplant, a basil leaf. The moms (so far I've just seen moms) talk to their child about what is growing, how things grow. Sometimes they will take a break on the bench, breathe in and look around. Nancy and I love to watch these journeys through the garden…”
Our harvests have been bountiful this year, measured by bushel and heartspace.

Thanks to all who helped make this manifest.
— January Nordman

    Garden Co-Managers

    January Nordman
    Michael Kelley

    History

    Beginnings
    Creating the Vision
    Transitioning a Lawn
    Dedication Ceremony
    National Day of Service 2013

    Photo Gallery

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    Previous Posts

    June 2017
    September 2016
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    October 2015
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    November 2013
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    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

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