Winter Work Week

Lucky old me – I get a whole week off work at the holidays and I’m planning lots of gardening time! Which is great, because there is a LOT to do in the garden - I need some help.

If you would like to join me in the garden and work off some turkey, escape the relatives, or reduce your carbon footprint if you’re visiting SF for the holidays, please RSVP by emailing annie at psgsf.org and let me know what day(s) you’d like to come do some gardening. Available days are from December 26th to January 1st (our regularly scheduled monthly volunteer day) and we usually get started at 10am, though can start earlier or later.

Here’s a sampling of the sort of tasks we’ve got planned (and ones taken care of are crossed out):

• Pruning Artemisia californicas, Romneya coulteri
• Digging up Dahlia bulbs
• Weeding the red bed, dog area, and pathways thoroughly
• Mulching – trip to the mulch depot!
• Potting up cacti that are being saved for the terraced slope project
• Weeding the cactus wall
• Planting some cool new plants we recently got
• Removing diseased Cannas
• Digging out old concrete on the back border and planting Calandrinias
• Weeding the Mariposa Center Garden
• Move Ceanothus from red bed, and Salvia mellifera from bench area, to dog area
• Remove Vinca from back border
• Plant lavenders in lavender hedge, and Clivias behind bench
• Defoliating rose bushes, then pruning them
• Severely edit the front border - naughty nasturtiums are back!

And here are the days that people have RSVP'd for so far (will be updated as we go):

• December 26th (Annie, Nate)
• December 29th (Annie, Jes)
• December 30th (Annie, David, Emily, Riley) 
• December 31st (Annie, Emily)
• January 1st (Annie, Nate)

Update Dec 26th: Nate and I potted up loads of cacti, defoliated the roses, planted Clivias, rearranged the three Pericallis lanata by the bench, and weeded the paths.

Update Dec 29th: Jes and I thoroughly edited the front border, removing three wheelbarrows full of nasturtiums and corn marigolds and cutting back the floppy Gaillardias. I planted three Society Garlics (Tulbaghia violacea) in the middle back bed, deadheaded all the flowers there, and cut back the aster "Bill's Big Blue." I also planted a Hibbertia astera by the bench.

Update Dec 30th: Emily, Matt, David, Riley and I cut back the Romneya coulteri and Artemisia californica, planted Calandrinias on the back border, removed diseased Cannas, dug up all the Dahlias for storage, weeded some of the red bed, moved the Salvia mellifera to the dog area and various other tidying.

Update Dec 31st: I turned a Ceanothus "King Sipp" into a living hedge by tying it to a twig border with twine, and trimmed up the Agave americanas by the info sign at the front of the garden. Emily joined me and we planted a Phlomis purpurea by the top arch, weeded, and then went down to weed about half the Mariposa Center Garden.

Update January 1st: Nate and I weeded the paths quite a bit after successfully pruning all three roses. Later on I planted three Dudleyas and four Pelargoniums. I tied our Coprosma x Kirkii "Variegata" to the woven twig border next to it (hoping for living edging!) and found two rooted branches - moved them to the twig border too. Lastly I took a division of a Salvia leucantha and planted it in the front border.

Planting session

Emily and I went out to plant our weekend haul this evening at 6pm. One of the things about weekday evening planting is that a lot of people walk their dogs and chat  at that time of night, so we enjoyed some idle banter with Gina and Tank, Jim, Carrie and Kelly, and Donna and her two dogs (thanks for the donation!)

We did manage to plant a few things too!

3 Scabiosa atropurpurea "Ace of Spades" - these are awesome! (Left, in front of the yellow lupine)
1 Crassula coccinea in the Moby Dick bed.
1 Agastache pallida x rugosa "Globetrotter" in the front border.

1 Aquilegia chyrsantha "Yellow Queen" in the left bed to replace the stolen one. Sniff. (Left, in front of a Mexican feather grass)
1 Nicotiana alata x sanderae "Crimson Bedder" in the red bed.
2 Knautia macedonica in the red bed - also moved another from the left bed to join them. Also awesome. (Below, on the corner by the bench that has been looking ratty for a while)
3 Pericallis lanata by the bench.

We watered too. Man, I am sick of hauling that hose around! In order to reduce hose time, I told Emily we are calling a moratorium on new plants and moving plants until the fall rains come, like sensible people. Of course we need new stuff for the front border but after THAT...! Nnnnngh!

Shopping spree

Today Emily, her mum and I went to Berkeley Horticultural Nursery and Annie's Annuals.

Annie's was having a 20% off sale. Berkeley Hort is darn expensive but they have loads of nice plants. Between the two places we bought a lot of stuff!

Berkeley Hort:
4 Convolvulus cneorum (Bush Morning Glory)
2 Asclepias curassavica (Butterfly Weed) "Silky Gold"

Annie's:
2 Knautia macedonia
1 Lupinus perennis (Sundial Lupine)
3 Scabiosa atropurpurea "Ace of Spades"
3 Pericallis lanata
1 Crassula coccinea
1 Aeonium nobile
1 Agastache pallida x rugosa "Globetrotter"
1 Aquilegia chyrsantha "Yellow Queen"
1 Nicotiana alta x sanderae "Crimson Bedder" (Emily's impulse buy)

We also got free pots at Berkeley Hort ;)

So we all retired to our homes to eat, then Matt and I went out to do some garden work. We did about 3 hours of work:

Deadheaded Gazanias, Arctotis, Nicotiana, Kniphofia, Aloe.
Watered as much as possible.
Planted 4 Convolvulus cneorum (Bush Morning Glory) by the steps.
Planted 3 Oenothera stricta and 2 Asclepias curassavica (Butterfly Weed) "Silky Gold" in the left bed.
Staked up the Verbascum olympicum.
Divided up an Aloe maculata.

Didn't get any photos cos it got pretty dark when we were done around 9pm.

Weeds: 0. Dog peeps: 1,000,000

Today was the first Dog Owner's Invitational event at P. Garden. In other words, I leaned on a few regulars to come help me weed the dog area ;) And I have to say, it was a massive success! Pic below shows (from left) Rick and Alison (with Peekaboo, who didn't stay for the pics sadly), Matt, Maile and Eddy, and Gina (with Tank) who all cheerfully joined me in completely obliterating the weeds up in the dog area.

You can see from the pics that the area looks completely different now - and much larger! Many piles of poop were picked up, and probably 10 wheelbarrow loads of weeds, including the impressive pile of weeds Ron made in the last couple weeks (thanks Ron!) went onto the compost heap. Amazing job everyone!

We also discussed plans for that spot, including:

a) Fresh woodchips (I'll look into getting them delivered)
b) Additional biodegradable dog bags and signage.
c) A bench (to be built by Gary with funds raised by us all)
d) A fence for the dog area to allow off-leash playtime (paid with funds from a grant probably)

Everyone seemed into those things. Got comments? Send 'em in!

Also happening in the garden today included Emily's work on the area behind the bench: planting many Florist's Cineraria (Pericallis cruenta), a donation from Leah. She also planted a Trachelium caeruleum (Perennial Blue Lace Flower) "Hamer Pandora" and moved a Mexican Sage (Salvia leucantha) into a sunnier spot.


Matt also did a number of jobs today:

1. Smelled the Bladderpod (Isomeris arborea) - apparently it's pungent!
2. Moved an Aeonium "Sunburst" from the cactus wall to the Moby bed.
3. Pruned the outrageous cardoon
4. Moved a Mexican Feather Grass
5. Moved an Agave parryi out from under the Bladderpod

6. Pruned the Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri)
7. Corralled some naughty Vinca major into submission
8. Pruned a Euphorbia rigida


All this in only 2 hours. As Eddy pointed out, the weeding alone would have taken me 8 hours to complete on my own. This is quite possibly the exact reason why it hasn't been done til today! ;)