Help us harness stormwater, restore the land, and build something beautiful — right in our own backyard.
Picture this: during the heavy rains this winter, a surge of stormwater raced down a gully from Pasadena Avenue, barreled all the way to the bike path, and poured straight into the Arroyo Seco channel — carrying pollutants and precious water with it, wasted.
We can change that. At our next volunteer day, we’re not just weeding and watering the new micro-forest — we’re going to build a rain garden that catches that water, coaxes it into the soil, and feeds the very plants around it.
The secret? Slow it. Spread it. Sink it. By sculpting the land with rocks, boulders, and gentle grading, we’ll create a lovely intermittent streambed that puts stormwater to work instead of letting it escape. Less runoff. More life.
Why it matters
Urban stormwater picks up oils, debris, and pollutants as it rushes across pavement and into our waterways. A rain garden slows that flow, filtering water naturally through the soil and replenishing groundwater — turning a flood problem into a community resource. Every raindrop counts.
What to expect: There will be a variety of activities including weeding, watering, pruning, and gentle grading of the soil to form the rain garden. New to gardening? No problem! We’ll have experienced volunteers on hand to guide you. Come ready to work, connect with fellow nature lovers, and help our park grow.
A Report on the Micro-Forest Planting
A splashy rehash of the Micro-forest Planting Party on 2/21/26. Created by Katherine Pakradouni, Micro-forest Leader, Seed to Landscape
As you can see from the video, it was a party! With loads of kids, young adults, older folks, and golden oldies like me, the group was rocking. We planted over a hundred plants, spread mulch and watered them in. Katherine and volunteers Lucy, Fernanda, Maria, and Angelo demonstrated good planting technique and then watched over the sixty or so participants who put our micro-forest in the ground.
The following pictures show the process.
The afternoon before the planting, Katherine (right) watches as we place colored flags where the plants will be planted. The flag colors represent the type of plant: green is for trees, orange for woody shrubs and pink for smaller non-woody plants. Flags were placed, first the trees (5% of the total plants), then the shrubs (30%), then the perennials (65%). Trees include oaks, walnuts and elderberries. Coffeeberry, currants, and sugar bush are a few of the shrubs that we are planting. Among the smaller perennials are buckwheat, sage, and heartleaf penstemon. The following day the plants are set out in the three groupings and we demonstrate how to plant. The volunteers arrive on Saturday morning. Here Fernanda demonstrates the planting process. The silver nets are to protect the roots from gophers. The wire is delicate so that it decomposes (rusts out) within a year or two as the plant’s roots extend outward and downward. Lucy demonstrates how to use the gopher netting to protect the roots from the voracious gophers in the park. Maria demonstrates the proper depth for each plant to the scouts in Pack 7. Novices often plant too deep, burying the crown – a sure way to kill a new native plant!Angelo shows a youngster how to gently remove a plant from container.As you can see, we had a big crowd but everyone was focused on the job at hand!I rarely post pictures of myself, but here I am getting down and dirty! After the plants were put in, the volunteers replaced the mulch, surrounding each plant, but carefully keeping the base of the plants clear. We then watered them to allow the soil to settle and hopefully prevent root shock, especially given the hot weather predicted for the following week.
Where: South Pas Nature Park, 100 block of Pasadena Ave, east of York Blvd Bridge. Street parking is available on Pasadena Ave for the upper entrance, and in the parking lots near the golf course by the lower entrance. Meet in the park near the lower entrance, next to the recreational path.
Nature Park volunteers should:
Wear sunscreen, hat, sunglasses
Bring plenty of water
Bring gardening gloves and tools (weeders, trowels, whatever you use in your own garden), there are extra tools and gloves for those who need them
Wear comfortable work clothes, including work shoes (sneakers or boots) and long pants
Face mask is recommended – helps with allergies and dust
Bring binoculars for birdwatching (optional)
Children must be under adult supervision at all times. There is poison oak in the park that we will point out before starting. Also, if you are expecting a group of 10 or more, please email us at hello@southpasnaturepark.org so that we can have enough tools.
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