Garden workdays are fourth Saturday of the month from 9-11 am. 
All levels of gardening knowledge are welcome.
​Join us!  

Hope for the Earth

Throop Learning Garden is an example of how we can transform our environment through community.

The garden was founded on permaculture principles, beginning with Bermuda grass and hardpan clay, and now includes a raised-bed food garden, fruit trees, a drought-tolerant native garden, demonstrations of water harvesting techniques, soil building, uses for "urbanite" and other recyclables, and comfortable places to congregate.  The garden hosts birds, butterflies and beneficial insects as well. 

The Throop Learning Garden is a joint project of Throop UU Church and Transition Pasadena.

Get to Know a Gardener 

George Patton

At the age of three I helped my mom take care of sweet peas. I had my first garden when I was twelve, with instruction from the noted organic gardener, William Palm. He explained how to turn under the weeds to feed the earthworms and micro life. Read George's full bio.

Michael Kelley

During the 1990’s, I became a committed do-it-your-selfer and started learning about carpentry, electrical, plumbing and landscape work while fixing up the family home. I think of myself as a builder. ​Read Michael's full bio.

David Drum

I have pleasant boyhood memories of flower and vegetable gardens. My maternal grandfather was a retired mechanic and rural mail carrier who raised cut flowers. He farmed maybe two acres of chrysanthemums in Maize, Kansas. Read David's full bio.

Vahe Simonyan

I’ve always had a fascination with plants and a strong preference for fruit trees, but I was never much of a gardener prior to my introduction to our Throop garden.​ Read Vahe's full bio. 

Sylvia Holmes

I’m a garden activist, water harvester and mulch and swale advocate. It all started because I took a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course in 2010. And I’ve been using it ever since. Read Sylvia's full bio.

Thom Hawkins

Every spring the grizzled old man drove his two-horse team down our St. Paul street to the vacant lot he would plow to start his vegetable garden. After the first freeze in the fall, he would abandon the lot, leaving behind frostbitten vegetables. Read more from Thom.

Clara Aburto

I planted my first urban garden before I turned four. A neighbor gave me a small handful of radish seeds and helped me prepare the soil. I was in love, from the very first, with the magic of tiny, dull-colored dots becoming round, red orbs that bit back on being tasted. Read more from Clara.

Therese Brummel

When I destroyed my ankle in the Kings Canyon wilderness in 2003, I decided that if I would not be hiking in my beloved mountains anytime soon, I had best bring the mountains to me.
Read Therese's full bio.