Gardeners Get Their Day In the Sun

The first signs of spring: a blooming rose and greening leaves. Adrian Alvarez offers another image: the hands of a gardener.

“Even out here in the park, it’s not just nature,” said Alvarez, as he pointed to the tall trees and green grass surrounding him at Griffith Park. “Yes, you need the water. Yes, you need the sun. But that alone won’t give you the plant. You need the working hands to give it life.”

Families gathered at the Los Feliz park on Sunday--the first full day of spring--to salute those working hands as part of the first “Dia del Jardinero,” or “Day of the Gardener,” sponsored by the Assn. of Latin American Gardeners of Los Angeles.

The day is not just meant to celebrate the work that gardeners do to beautify the city, said organizers, but also to counter the image perpetuated during the leaf blower controversy two years ago.

The 1997 city ban of gasoline-powered leaf blowers pitted homeowners, who complained of the noise and pollution caused by the tools, against gardeners, who countered that such a law would significantly slow their work and hurt their livelihood.

Gardeners were seen as anti-environment and a “nuisance,” said Alvarez, who is not a gardener himself but serves as president of the gardeners’ association. “We want people to recognize gardeners are artisans of everyday life. They make this city green.”

Although gardeners lost the battle to stop that ban, their vocal and persistent demonstrations, including a hunger strike outside City Hall, helped win modifications to the regulation. The penalty for violators was reduced from $1,000 to a maximum $270, and the six-month jail term the proposed ordinance originally carried was thrown out.

That’s also when the Assn. of Latin American Gardeners was started. The group, with a membership of 500 gardeners, now offers landscaping classes to help gardeners obtain state contracting licenses.

The group has also established health care benefits for its members, and, hopes to create a cooperative which would make gardening equipment available at low prices.

The mood of Sunday’s event was festive and family-centered, but there was talk too of the difficult job gardeners do.

Some people “just expect their property to be clean and nice and beautiful,” said Luz Cabrera, whose husband, father and two brothers are gardeners. “I’ve gone with my husband a couple of times, and believe me, when it’s hot, it’s very, very hard.”

It’s hard work, and it’s also “honest work,” said Jaime Aleman, who helped found the gardeners’ group. The 37-year-old added that he gets great personal satisfaction from his job.

“I work outside, I work with nature,” he beamed. “We help to clean, we put plants in to make the city nice and clean--that’s what I like.”

Organizers said they hope this is the first of many annual celebrations.

Glenda Gonzalez, for one, likes the idea.

The 16-year-old daughter of a gardener said people in other occupations, like teachers and presidents, have a day to celebrate their work, so gardeners should too.

“They are equal,” she said. “I’m proud of my dad.”