Volunteer day lite

Gorgeous! Emily's not
bad either ;)

Today's volunteer effort was surprisingly productive, given that aside from me and Emily and Matt, the only people working were Eliot and Carlin. No problem: all seasoned hard workers, so the results were great. Miyuki and her baby girl Mia came to hang out and cheer us on.

Carlin worked on cutting back all the Chasmanthe in the garden. It'll be back in December - for now each clump is taking a rest. She also cut back Cannas, weeded and was generally the Queen of the Hori-Hori as usual.

Since Matt and I both have injured right wrists in a bizarre coincidence, Emily turned the compost bins. One was ready to empty - filled with gorgeous dirt, loaded with nutrients. She spread it under the Fuchsia, all over a spot by the bench and a few other areas. What a totally rewarding feeling to have made such a great product for the garden! Eliot watered the bins, one of which is now full to the top with new garden refuse, one of them cooking last month's batch, and one empty and ready to fill. Watering and turning the bins each month has made a huge difference to how quickly they composted down - pats on the back all around.

Agave lophantha and
Artemisia "Powis Castle"

Matt and I worked on the area behind the wrong way sign. All the Lychnis got cut back (lots of seeds fell, so we'll have tons more hot pink flowers soon) and all the past-their-sell-by-date corn marigolds and best-before-last-week California poppies got pulled out. I gave the spot a thorough watering and it's good to go.

Matt also weeded out tons of grass from the middle back bed and prevented the Aptenia cordifolia ground cover from strangling everything in the middle front bed.

Lastly, Emily cut back the Glaucium grandiflorum (Orange Horned Poppy) - need to move that back in the bed in the fall, as it did so excessively well at the edge and got too big. Nice problem to have!