Saturday scenes and scenery: Howard/Langton Community Garden

As I wandered about South of Market with my camera while Walking San Francisco, a friendly local invited me to explore inside the fence.

According to a timely Earth Day article at Hoodline:

It’s hard to believe this space used to be a parking lot. The property was purchased by the city in 1970 and turned into a playground. But over time it came to be known as “Needle Park”—a site where unsavory activities took place. In the late 1980s, Langton Street residents arranged for Friends of the Urban Forest to plant trees in memory of a neighbor who had died of AIDS. Today, the mature flowering fruit trees line the street along the garden. This was the first step towards neighborhood greening.

The area is divided into garden plots, but, as I often am, I was attracted by the garden's idiosyncratic artifacts.

The Buddha is peaceful, but this Guardian less so.

Not all the victims of the SFPD are human.

Someone has hung a hat.

And someone has hung a bat.

In a corner, the inevitable ceramic frog.

You can see for yourself off Howard St. between 7th and 8th.