The gardens promised to be the centerpiece of an elaborate remaking of the Colorado Street entrance to Boulder City as a public space, with a hundred trees, green houses, a healing-in ground, and an art and horticultural center in the elegant old filter plant.
For the past six years, the Boulder City Community Gardens have flourished, providing greens for summer salads, brilliant displays of flowers and cactusand free dinner for the city’s wild rabbits. It’s important to note that the original layout of the raised beds takes the shape of the Chung-Fu hexagram from the Chinese I Ching philosophy system. This figure, known as “sincerity,” refers to inner peace and stability, which is what the gardens were meant to inspire. It also warns of the ruin that personal and political deception brings.
Community spirit is a fragile thing, however, and it needs encouragement through projects like the community gardens. But the gardens are in danger today as the city council considers selling the filter plant and its grounds to a private individual who will uproot the gardens to build an expensive private home.
Sponsored by the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum
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