Adopt-A-Flowerbed in City Park!

A garden with many different plants and trees


A green sign with the words join cpfa

Amy Mancini & Brooke Baydon & Friends, Ida’s Garden Team

ADOPT-A-FLOWERBED IN CITY PARK LAUNCHED:

 

Well over 50 volunteers responded to the call for help in maintaining flowerbeds in City Park this summer. Eleven teams of 5-8 members from neighborhoods surrounding City Park have been formed with Captains heading each team. Participating neighborhoods include Whittier, South City Park, South Park Hill, North Park Hill, Congress Park  and Mayfair. Teams are assigned to the Rose Garden, the Cordova Rock Garden, the Sopris Garden, the Burns Garden, the MLK Garden and Urns and Ida’s Rock Garden.

Adam Smith, Denver Parks and Recreation Superintendent of the East District that includes City Park, gave two orientation/trainings for volunteers at the pavilion in mid-May. He thanked everyone for pitching in at a time when staff and funding have been halved in City Park. Horticulturists, Miranda Davide and Aaric Stark were on hand to provide demonstrations. Miranda demonstrated proper rose pruning methods and pointed out the products she uses to protect and feed City Park’s roses. Aaric pointed out the methods he uses for maintaining the Sopris and nearby Burns Gardens. Miranda also led a group to Ida’s Rock Garden where she voiced particular concern about the invasive bindweed taking over some sections. She pointed out that plants like Rose Mallow could take root and crowd out the bindweed once it was weeded from the area. City Park Horticulturist, Debbie Gallegos was not present at the initial orientations but provided welcome support after the event.

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Adam Smith gives Orientation to volunteers

Maria Flora, Parks and Open Space Chair of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc, Georgia Garnsey and Marcia Doty from City Park Friends and Neighbors and Patty Cordova from City Park Alliance are all moved and gratified by the huge neighborhood response to the Adopt-a-Flowerbed initiative. We all love City Park and look forward to establishing flowerbeds and gardens that will profoundly delight the diverse visitors to Denver’s City Park, known affectionately as the Peoples’ Park from its early history to the present day.

Several Adopt-a-Flowerbed teams have already started work on their assigned flowerbeds and are transforming these areas, in particular the Cordova Rock Garden, Ida’s Rock Garden and the Rose Garden opposite the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It’s not too late to join us in beautifying City Park and getting to know City Park’s dedicated Horticulturists and Maintenance Crew. Email info@cpfan.org if you are interested in becoming involved.

 

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Ida’ Garden perks up!

 

 

Color Field FAREWELL

A sign in the grass that says " take home some. Celtorfield stores for your garden ".


 

                                         Color Field Farewell:

What had been a sad and lonely part of City Park became awash with shimmering color and life delighting park-goers over the past year. The Color Field art installation south of the DeBoer Canyon was the brainchild of Denver artists, Sarah and Josh Palmeri. The installation was the recipient of a grant from Denver Arts and Venues under their “P.S. You Are Here” program, a neighborhood revitalization effort. With the help of volunteers, Sarah and Josh planted 6000 painted gardening stakes into the seed beds of the Lily Pond, south of the DeBoer Canyon and created in 1924 by landscape architect Saco de Boer. The artists had painstakingly painted the stakes in different colors on both sides so that as park-goers walked around the beds they would get a sense of movement as well as luminous color. The colors were inspired by the colors of Monet’s water lily paintings, the original inspiration of Saco de Boer.

 

The A green sign with the words join cpfaPalmeris discovered the abandoned Lily Pond as they explored City Park, across the street from their home near 17th Avenue Parkway. Sarah was fascinated by the obloid shape of the seed beds and the mystery surrounding a spot that seemed to have been a focal point in the past. She researched the origins of the 1924 Lily Pond and found old photographs of Victorian ladies in flowing dresses and picture hats strolling under their parasols by a willow-lined pond glowing with the color of floating lily pads. Sarah was hooked. She became determined to restore the Lily Pond to its former beauty and wonder. Teaming her skills as an abstract artist with her architect husband’s spatial visioning, the two conceived of a space echoing Monet’s lily pond paintings and also bringing attention to an area that had been long abandoned. Sarah and Josh hoped that through art they could build momentum for restoring the area.

On May 7, Sarah and Josh gathered at Color Field to de-install the exhibit. The sadness of dismantling what had become such a beloved landmark for park-goers was offset by the steady flow of people coming to retrieve free stakes to reinvent Color Field in their own landscapes. Park Hill neighbor, Louis Plachowski will be featuring the stakes in his garden, one of the gardens featured on the Annual Park Hill Garden Walk. Others will use their stakes to create their own artistic vision. Denver artist, Darrell Anderson, a City Park Alliance (CPA) board member, plans to fashion artworks that will be sold to benefit City Park at the CPA Golf Tournament in June.  Fellow CPA board member, Lawren Cary, plans to make picture frames out of his stakes.

So Color Field lives on. Two artists, an abandoned Lily Pond, and a pandemic weary public came together to create a sense of joy, wonder and community in City Park as strollers marveled, children played hide and seek, picnickers chatted, bench-sitters day-dreamed by a miraculous work of art that transformed us all.

City Park Friends and Neighbors was the proud Denver Arts and Venues sponsor of Color Field and contributed funding along with Denver Arts and Venues, City Park Alliance, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Zoo.

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People and Pollinators; Adopt-A-Flowerbed; CPFAN Annual Meeting

A woman standing in front of a field full of sunflowers.


April 27, People & Pollinators Program to launch
CPFAN Annual Board Meeting:

CPFAN’s Annual Board meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 27 this year, instead of on our usual first Tuesday of the month due to unforeseeable problems. The meeting will begin with a program presented by Joyce Kennedy, Chief Coordinator for People & Pollinators Action Network (PPAN), a vital new organization in our community dedicated to protecting people and pollinators through sustainable practices.

According to their website (peopleandpollinators.org):

“OUR MISSION: People and Pollinators Action Network (PPAN) is protecting people and pollinators by advocating for healthy and safe pollinator habitats, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and new safeguards for public health, and working to sustain biodiversity in our environment across Colorado. We believe that community awareness and engagement are necessary for the transformation of public policy based on best practice recommendations in the use of chemical pesticides and pollinator habitat management.”

Since the 2018 City Park Master Plan Update makes many references to possible propagator gardens for City Park, the PPAN presentation should help educate us about best practices for these types of gardens to thrive.

Following the program, the Annual Meeting will take place and all CPFAN members are urged to attend. The Nominating Committee will present its recommended slate of Board Members two weeks before the meeting in a CPFAN Mail Chimp to members on April 13. Members can make nominations from the floor at the April 27 Board meeting as well. Members in attendance at the Annual Meeting will vote for seven Board members. A registration link will be included in the April 13 Mail Chimp.

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