Strip stripped!

Last May we planted sunflowers on a strip of land opposite Center Hardware - down the block from P. Garden. The sunflowers looked pretty good for a while but needed water and in the end, they're just annuals anyway.

I thought this area needed some tough, low maintenance perennials. I enlisted the help of two great gardeners (Emily and Denise) to help me with the project too, as I thought they might really enjoy it. We discussed plans and plants, and I send off a street parks applicaton and planting plan to DPW, who reposonded very favorably!

I asked DPW and Caltrans who owned the broken fence behind the strip, and Caltrans said it was theirs but they have no plans to fix it. We will just ignore the hole in it!

Last in the planning was materials. I figured that since Center Hardware will benefit from the view of the plants, we might hit them up for a donation. I went over and met with Brandon from Center and he authorised $100 in store credit for the project! WOW! Thanks - this means we can get compost and maybe make a little fence around the plants to protect them.

So now it the time to get planting - we have rain! Yesterday Emily, Denise and I ripped the sunflowers out, and a whole lot of weeds too. We got help from Eli and Alex too! It took about 2 hours and we stopped when it got dark. Still a bit more to go, but the dirt there has improved greatly thanks to the 4 bags of compost and loads of mulch I added last May, and the weeded parts look fantastic and clean.

Pics in this post are by Emily. Next up: getting plants, and planting them!