IHS Markit team and the battle of the weeds!

Women getting ish done

Julianna from IHS Markit emailed me a while back looking to do a VTO day at the gardens for her team. We're always thrilled to show new people why the garden was started, and hopefully get them excited about drought tolerant gardening. or at the very least squeeze a couple hours of hard work out of them!

Sadly, we didn't have a drop of rain in February but HAPPILY that made for a wonderfully warm and sunny Friday for Julianna's team to visit PG and do battle with the emerging horde of weeds we have there.

Before and after

Ten of the finest IHS Markit team's people assembled at PG, and Matt and Josh described the day's duties. Suitably prepared for the job with gloves and tools, the team headed to the top of the garden to eradicate weeds and uncover plants - a lot of them recently planted - who were trying to compete with all the new growth.

In just two hours they cleaned the whole area, and I know that not only will dog walkers be very grateful, but the new plants we put in there will not have to compete for light and nutrients now and will grow on much better.

Compost hero!

Matt also asked one of the team to turn our newly filled compost bins. This is a pretty good workout for whoever does it, and our brave volunteer managed to turn TWO bins into one, which massively speeds up the composting process. It's a tough job, so it's especially wonderful when a volunteer tackles it.

All in all, the IHS Markit team was a joy, an we can't wait to have them back to visit us. Go team!

VIPKid makes a difference

Go team VIP Kid!

On Friday we had a really wonderful VTO day with the outstanding team from VIPKid. Based in SOMA, they zipped over to help us prepare PG for winter.

I was joined by PG regulars John, Carrie, Matt and Josh as my volunteer coordinators, and we got a LOT done with so much help: go team!

Tasks we dove into included cutting back Salvia leucantha, Salvia canariensis, Leonotus leonurus, Chasmanthe and all sorts of plants that will spring back as soon as we get rain.

Timber!

One volunteer even cut down a dead Pittosporum tree, which was fun to watch. We will need to remove the branches over time, but at least that dead tree is more or less gone. And no we can replace the tree with something much, much cooler… maybe a Cussonia?

Thanks to all the work done at PG this year, very few weeds are in evidence there, but we still managed to fill a dozen big paper bags with green waste, and a few big plastic bags of trash too. John led a team at PRG to pick trash as well, an area that seems to collect a lot of waste.

Loads of green waste for 311

At the end of the day I’m always shocked at the impact a group of volunteers can make on the gardens: we cannot maintain the gardens without the help of these groups, so if your company want to join us, or even better you want to come to a Saturday workday, remember we’re out there rain or shine on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm.

Thank you VIPKid: you rocked it!

Genentech Brings It Again!

Astounding team!

Every year Genenetech has a volunteer week where they show up at various nonprofits and help out. For the last few years they have worked with us, and Friday was their big day. We're always excited to have Genentech-ers at PG because they work darn hard!

Mandala

I packed up my trailer with a couple dozen extra tools and three additional wheelbarrows from the SF DPW yard, coolers full of chilled beverages, and of course all our usual hand tools, gloves and so on (and on!) and headed to PG for noon.

As I was unloading, I saw a woman creating a lovely flower mandala for the solstice. We don't encourage flower picking, but this was for a very unselfish reason, and we had a nice chat about it.

New gravel path

At 12.30 I was joined by volunteer coordinators Carrie, Josh, Mikey, Matt and Gina. Around that time, Bayview Greenwaste arrived to deliver 10 yards of wood mulch for the paths.

And then the Genentech volunteers started showing up! We had about 13 this time around, and we quickly split them into teams to do the work required.

Josh took one team who set about removing the last of the gravel from the street and clearing and renovating the pathway to the composters.  Josh also weeded the nearby beds, and the whole area looks fantastic now, and is MUCH more functional.

Weeds - gone!

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew set about weeding the paths in preparation for wood mulch. This was a pretty fast job - we've been keeping up the paths pretty well. However, we still filled 10 leaf bags with green waste for Recology to pick up - no mean feat. A fair bit was cut back Euphorbias and Romneyas from the bottom pathway, too.

Then the huge job of shifting 10 yards of mulch started... and it ALL had to be moved away from the street by 3.30pm, so I was a bit stressed! I'm always a bit stressed about leaving material in the street, obviously, but somehow we usually make it happen...

Mulch pile - gone!

Incredibly, we finished early - by 3pm all the mulch was GONE and the team was giddy with exhaustion and (I think) joy, at finishing early.

Thank you Team Genentech for helping us with one of our biggest tasks of the year, with unrelenting good humor and energy!