Thursday, June 3, 2010

Mariposa Center Garden revisited

Last night Emily, Gina and I planned to work on the Mariposa Center Garden (Mariposa at Pennsylvania), planting the plants we got using our donation from The Godmothers.

We met at 6pm and weeded, then laid out the plants I bought last weekend and started digging into the rocky, dry dirt. Thank you digging bar! Gina had a flash of genius and went home to get her digging bar too - pretty soon we were getting into the swing of it: use the digging bar to loosen dirt, then the shovel to empty the hole, then back to the digging bar, and so on.

3 Dendromecon rigida (Bush Poppy - picture below)
4 Lupinus arboreus (Yellow Bush Lupine)
5 Cistus "Sunset"
2 Lavatera "Barnsley"
1 Rosmarinus (Rosemary)

(We have 9 Achilleas, and a lot of Dietes left to plant, and we need a few Bougainvilleas to cover the fence)


Lots of people driving or jogging by shouted encouragement. And after a little while we were joined by a young man who probably lived on the street, and maybe had a few... issues, but he helped us dig a hole anyway.

Another guy used the hole (pic left) in the middle of the strip's fence (often repaired, never for long. Note to self: Call Caltrain again to get it fixed) to access the railroad tracks while we were there, and I had to explain to him when he returned that the hole will soon be filled and he'll need to get down to the tracks by another route. He wasn't pleased.

Such is gardening work on the street! Always lots of interesting characters. We managed to get Ryan to come down and provide male presence (and dig some holes!) which was much appreciated - I think he was going to go to the gym, but he got a different sort of workout!. And as the sun started to go down Matt joined us and we planted the last plant and watered everything in until it was dark.

Today I'll be picking up some fencing supplies to protect the new plants - all donated by Center Hardware (thanks Brandon and co!). If you have fencing skills and can help me pound in a few posts and attach the fence, let me know! We also need to mulch the strip heavily and water it weekly for a while - if you live nearby, can you help?

Bottom photo shows, from left, Gina, Emily, Ryan and me. Go team!

2 comments:

  1. FYI - you can get free compost from Bayview Green Waste at 1300 Carroll Ave.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes - we have had about 55 yards delivered by them over the last year and a half! Great stuff :)

    ReplyDelete

Spammy comments will be deleted! Don't bother posting spam links - we won't approve them.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

 
page counter
Free Hit Counter