March 18th was the annual 'spring cleanup' for this collection of some 35 4'x8' individual plots given out free-of-charge to local residents by the Rotary
Club of Menlo Park. As has become a welcome and wonderful tradition, a passel of energetic M-A students joined our Rotary volunteers to lend a hand, weeding and cleaning the pathways and the small fruit orchard in the back corner. This winter's more-than-abundant rains, it turned out, had favored not only that pesky crabgrass, but also a bumper crop of fruit: these organic oranges, for example, were - we dare to say - the best to be found anywhere! Those lucky local 'farmers', preparing their plots, are looking forward not only to their harvest of comestibles, but to meeting their friends, and making new ones. As they know: feasting with friends is perhaps topped, in the Pantheon of human delights, only by actually growing it.
In 2014 our Club spearheaded the development of the Belle Haven Community Garden. Collaborating with City of Menlo Park employees and Belle Haven neighbors, Menlo Park Rotary leaders identified a suitable garden location and coordinated initial landscape development. Facebook and Greenhart were major contributors to financing the garden, while the City of Menlo Park, particularly the facilities department, provided logistical support. Presently 35 garden beds, provided free of charge, are being cultivated by Belle Haven residents. Importantly, the process has also brought neighbors out of their homes, to meet and work together in a lovely, peaceful setting embedded in their own community.