A New Community Space at Woodland Library

Today we are celebrating our second GreenTown garden, this one at the Woodland Branch Library. In collaboration with the Los Altos Library Endowment (LALE), we’re helping transform an underused outdoor area into a welcoming library terrace and native habitat teaching garden for South Los Altos. The new space officially opened with a ribbon cutting on August 15, surrounded by a wonderful fanfare of activities and attended by city and library officials, community partners, volunteers, neighbors and supporters. For years, GreenTown and our garden friends looked at this open space and wondered: What could this become?

We watched students pass through on their way to the library after school and neighbors stroll through on weekends, while our volunteers worked nearby to restore and maintain the drought-tolerant demonstration garden at the entrance to this back area. We imagined the additional open space becoming something more, a place for nature, learning, and community. Now that vision is beginning to take root.

A Garden Waiting for the Rain

Our native plant consultant, Nikki Hanson of California Sisters Landscapes, outdid herself working alongside our garden friends to prepare both the existing demonstration garden and our new habitat garden for the celebration. But we’re not finished yet!

For now, visitors will see a newly planted valley oak, surrounded by mulch and plenty of open ground. That is intentional. We’re waiting for the rains and the cooler planting season before filling the garden with California native plants. Over the coming months and into spring, expect several community garden workdays as we bring the habitat plan to life.

The Los Altos Public Arts Commission also plans to have the library wall alongside the garden painted to complement the overall garden design, adding another creative dimension to the space.

Young Artists Leave Their Mark

Already adding color along the library wall are a collection of wonderfully painted pots, and they have their own sustainability story. The pots were reused from the City and given new life by a group of students from St. Nicholas Catholic School in Los Altos Hills, led by Clara A. During the school year, the students designed and painted the pots. This summer, they returned to plant California natives in them. It’s a small but beautiful example of what we hope this garden becomes: a place where young people can create, learn and get their hands in the soil.

More to Come

The native habitat garden is only the beginning. Future plans include a milkweed nursery, a rainwater-capture feature, and other hands-on educational activities that will help visitors learn about native habitat, water conservation, and the natural environment around us. Most of all, we are excited to see an open space become a community space.

As we shared at the ribbon cutting:

• We looked at an open space and imagined what it could be. Today, it becomes a place for nature, learning and community.

• South Los Altos now has another place to gather, learn, enjoy nature and perhaps even get a little dirt under your fingernails.

• There is still more planting, learning, creating and growing ahead, and we invite you to be part of it.

Welcome to the Woodland Library native habitat teaching garden. Come visit, and come grow with us.