July 12, 2024 | Fountain Walk Plants Are Not Up for Grabs

Friends and neighbors:

If you’ve strolled along Fountain Walk the past few years, you’ve seen how the lower part of the Walk has been transformed into a lovely garden with an amazing variety of plantings that provide greenery and bursts of color year-round.

That transformation is largely the work of Walk neighbor and Friends of the Fountain and Walk volunteer Wendy Wells. After FOFW, city parks staff and members of the Berkeley Path Wanderers teamed up a few years back to renew the barren planting beds on either side of the concrete pathway, Wendy took the lead in finding, planting and caring for the garden beds. While FOFW helps underwrite some costs (including a new drip irrigation system) and aids with weeding, digging and cleanup, Wendy has put a significant amount of her own time and money into keeping the Walk beautiful.

We want you to know this because recently, Wendy reports, some of the plants she has purchased and nurtured have been dug up and removed – stolen, we assume. Perhaps the thief thinks the plants, being on a public path, are provided by the city and up for grabs. They are not. When they are taken, the cost to replace them is born by Wendy and FOFW.

Fountain Walk is meant to provide a pleasant pathway for everyone walking through Northbrae. Please help us and Wendy continue to make that so. Feel free to stop and admire the plants — and say hello to Wendy — but please don’t take them. Thanks.

–Board of Directors, Friends of the Fountain and Walk