The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt needs your help. It has been open for nearly twenty years, and is, frankly, looking a little long in the tooth and worn at the edges. Some things need replacing. Benches have rotted from long contact with water. Drip nozzles in the irrigation system need to be replaced by more efficient nozzles to reduce water consumption. Somethings need to be upgraded such as pathways that can flood from rain. Finally, extended use has demonstrated that some new things are needed to improve the overall operation of the garden. A new pathway is in the plans, and installation of weed cloth will help reduce the need for manual weeding. A complete list of needs is given in detail on the garden website.

Fulfilling all these various needs and improvements is an ambitious project called the Garden Revitalization Opportunity or GRO for short. All this takes money, an estimated one hundred thousand dollars to be exact. Crowd funding is hoped to generate the necessary funds and can be accessed by clicking on the giving button on the web site. A recent tabulation on the web site indicates that GRO has met a little more than a quarter of the needed funds, but still has a long way to go. You can help by donating to the fund. Any amount would be appreciated. Let’s do our part as club members to make GRO become a reality. GRO ensures that the garden will continue to be there for our education and enjoyment long in the future.