This weekend, I went to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden to volunteer at the Crescent Farm, a piece of land just under one acre in the Arboretum. It is called the Crescent Farm because of the land’s unique crescent shape. This plot of land is focused on California native plants and has some cool exhibits about soil health and bee shelters. John Latsko, the director of the Crescent Farm, invited me to volunteer alongside several high schoolers. I met Mr. Latsko at an Eagle Project at the Crescent Farm a few weeks before.

We went weeding around some Narsissus plants in a different plot right next to the Crescent Farm around a small lake, called Turtle Pond. We were by the trail pulling out all sorts of small grasses and sprouts. I was introduced to several new weeding tools, including the hori hori and the stirrup hoe. The hori hori is a small shovel that is meant to be stuck into the ground to get all the roots of a weed. It makes a small divot in the ground. The stirrup hoe just strips a whole layer of the ground off, taking away everything at the surface. It works best on really flat surfaces so I couldn’t use it much.

While weeding around the lake, I got to know Mr. Latsko and the other volunteers better. I saw several Great Blue Herons and Egrets come swoop down out of the sky to stand by the lake. There were also many large carp fish in the lake, who thought that I was going to feed them. We weeded for about two hours, taking several water breaks and filling up about six buckets of weeds. I was really surprised at how much we had accomplished and satisfied that the sides of the trails were really neat looking now. I brought my own leather gloves but they only lasted for about thirty minutes because they got wet from the dampness. I had to borrow two other pairs of gloves throughout the time just because of how wet the ground was.

I was really tired when we finished but I felt really accomplished knowing that the area was weed free for now. I had a really great time weeding with them and I think I will definitely come back soon!