Civic Beautification
The Berkeley Garden Club channels the expertise and passion of our members into projects that benefit the broader community — from school gardens to neighborhood gleaning.
Over the years, our Civic Beautification Committee has participated in numerous civic beautification projects. It all began in 1935 with planting of Fremontia Park (now the site of North Berkeley Fire Station No. 4). Read more about our recent projects and plans to fulfill this important Club mission.
2026-27 Civic Beautification Projects
Berkeley Tech Academy
In the 2025–2026 school year, the Berkeley Garden Club began a new partnership with Berkeley Tech Academy on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The school already has a remarkable edible garden — managed by a dedicated garden teacher working part-time with far more on her plate than hours in the day.
Our role is to provide knowledgeable, enthusiastic support: tackling tasks that benefit from some garden expertise or that are simply too cumbersome to weave into lesson plans. Our volunteers have cleared overgrown areas, weeded around a wine cap mushroom patch, pruned vines encroaching on the street, and deadheaded plants in preparation for seasonal transitions.
This year we also donated shade-tolerant, low-growing perennials selected for year-round interest in the shadier parts of the campus. The partnership has already been renewed for the 2026–2027 school year.
BGC Gleaning Project
During World War II, the Club's focus shifted from home gardening to gardening for the war effort. Inspired by that spirit, the Civic Beautification group launched a modern-day "victory garden for others" in October 2024, and the results have exceeded every expectation.
The idea is simple: many fruit trees in the Berkeley area produce far more than any one household can use. We harvest that surplus and donate it to local food pantries. This past year (September 2025 to August 2026) - we donated 351 lbs of fruit bring the total to 781 lbs since the initiative was started in October 2024!
Gleaning has introduced our volunteers to an extraordinary variety of trees across the East Bay including persimmons, pineapple guavas, oranges, plums, apples, lemons and more.
If you know of any folks who have more fruit than they can eat, give away, or even just want to minimize fruit drop for unwanted critters - please send them our way! It really works out beautifully all around!
Another successful year of gleaning satsuma plums from a BGC member's garden
Some great Valencia oranges from a monstrous 2 story tree in El Cerrito
What a nice looking haul - ready to unload at the Berkeley Friends Church for the Berkeley Food Pantry
Apples, apples, and more apples from a community member
Apples and pineapple guavas - super tasty!
This batch of hachiya persimmons from a BGC member was almost 50lbs!
Some ginormous lemons (donated by a BGC member)
The most productive fruit tree! A pear tree that was only 8ft tall but managed to produce 79 lbs of donateable fruit!
Navel Oranges from a BGC member's garden
Berkeley Arts Magnet School
Saturday, January 27, 2024
The sun was out and we were able to plant raised beds at the Berkeley Arts Magnet School on Lincoln Street. Many thanks to our Civic Beautification Committee for coming with garden gloves and trowels in hand!
We planted 4+ raised beds with 35 plants: plants for making dyes, plants for a ‘sensory’ garden and pollinator plants. We will continue to maintain the raised beds and plant additional CA native Monarch butterfly pollinator plants in spring. This is all in coordination with BUSD planting coordinator, known to her students as ’Miss Cat’, who not only enabled us to do this, but provided us with encouragement, snacks, tea and a valuable link to the school district.
Many thanks to all who participated, and especially to Adrienne for the initial idea and connections with Miss Cat, and for Ben doing the chop and drop of the existing vegetation to prepare the beds, going nursery shopping (East Bay Nursery, Oaktown Nursery, and Annie’s Annuals) and doing the majority of the compost/soil top dressing preparing the beds for planting. Also thanks to East Bay Nursery for giving us, at a very deep discount, the 15 cubic feet of compost.
August 24, 2026
This past year, we expanded the palette with drought-hardy additions like red flowering buckwheat and California fuchsia, alongside double-duty dye plants: Oregon grape (spectacular in March bloom) and yarrow. A striking stand of Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' lit up the garden in June.
A highlight of this year was the installation of new interpretive signs co-created with the school's garden teacher. The signs explain the natural dye and pollinator garden to passersby — and include our club logo and a QR code linking directly to this page.
Red flowering buckwheat in June
Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' in June
The Oregon grape flowering in March