Earth Day Bike Ride - GreenTown Los AltosGreenTown Los Altos

May 2017

Suzanne Kasso teaching us about Oak School’s Living Classroom with her two dogs, Splash and Snickers

Linda Ziff describing how the rocky swale is used for rain water capture at Foothill Covenant Church

GreenTown loves bike rides and the Lawn-Be-Gone bike ride this year was held on April 22, Earth Day, and for a change of pace, we visited the south side of town.

We started at Oak School and heard about the amazing Living Classroom demonstration park and garden from the program’s LASD garden manager, Suzanne Kasso. This was the first Living Classroom project and it shows. It is truly amazing and the signage that describes the plants is so helpful for anyone planning to replace their lawn.

The next stop at Foothill Covenant Church showed a brand new project, only six months old. There is a lot of empty space, but the plants will grow and spread. We’ll have to come back and check it out.

Six more stops at private homes allowed us to see the wide variety of styles that are possible. The homeowners were all pleased and excited to tell us about their projects.

Anky van Deursen enjoys the color this time of year, and appreciates that her yard is “always a work in progress.” Barbara and Kevin O’Reilly also enjoy working in their yard, but Barbara did comment that putting in 1500 individual plugs of red fescue to create their native meadow just about finished them off!

Our ride ended at Woodland Library to hear about a Gold Award project to install a Demonstration Garden. Girl Scout Alyssa Robins created a plan that includes drought tolerant plants, a garden wall, a rain garden, interpretive signage and reference material in a kiosk in the library.

It was fun, and we’ll be back next year for another bike ride.