An Empty Lot Becomes A Garden with Ketzel Levine
September 26 | 5:00-6:00pm
Tuition $15
Hoffman Center for the Arts | 594 Laneda Avenue | Manzanita
An Empty Lot Becomes A Garden
A 10-YEAR LABOR OF LOVE
It takes quite an imagination to look at today’s Wonder Garden and see a decade back to an empty lot.
Observant locals can do it, particularly the good souls who showed up in 2014 to spread the first steaming piles of fresh soil over what was newly bulldozed ground.
But what about the unsuspecting rest of us who now wander into the Hoffman Center’s unlikely botanical oasis and wonder, “what in the world IS this place? And why is there absolutely nothing in this garden telling its history?”
Yeah, well, about that. Turns out the scores of volunteers who’ve been tending this ten-year-old labor of love have been too busy to explore and share the backstory of the Wonder Garden, a story bursting its plantings beds and finally ready to be told.
Trigger warning: it could get dirty.
An Empty Lot Becomes A Garden is a joyful telling of the people and plants that have all played a part in making the WG what it is today. Among the program’s highlights will be the breaking news that of the many people who’ve given generously of their time and talent, all have happily survived their stints as garden volunteers.
On a sadder note, the same will not be said of the plants, scores and scores of which have given their lives to help teach us what doesn’t grow, shouldn’t be grown or is altogether too boring to grow in our amazingly benificent coastal climate.
Our speaker is Ketzel Levine, Horticultural Arts program lead at the Hoffman Center and the person chiefly to blame for the plant mortality of the last six years in the Wonder Garden. It’s unclear how long we can afford to keep her in this position, so we encourage you to come enjoy her wit, wisdom and passion for plants.
Ketzel’s talk is a lead-up to the annual Wonder Garden Plant Sale, which will be held on Saturday, Sept 28th beginning at 10am.
See you there!
