Anna and I rode our bikes up Grand Avenue today to visit the Rose Garden. Many of the roses have been pruned for the winter but there were still a few plants with some roses hanging on. The garden is quite an oasis, and the neighborhood surrounding the garden is nice — sweet looking, well tended houses and apartment buildings.
The rose garden grounds were being tended by a couple of guys from the Oakland Parks department but it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to handle all the pruning and weeding themselves. This is a big rose garden. If you have time today (January 5, 2009) the friends of the Rose Garden are having a volunteer work party where you can help with the pruning, weeding, soil amending, and such. There are also events on Saturday the 9th and a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. on the 18th.
This garden looks like it’s the place to be in the spring, and we’ll definitely be heading back later this year. There’s another rose garden over in the Berkeley hills were we spent a bit more time when we lived here before. It’s across the street from Codornices Park where there’s a big cement slide that snakes down the hillside. We went there with my parents when we were kids and took our boys there when they were little. What a great slide.