Weeds and things

Hardenbergia violacea

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours weeding and picking trash at PRG. Things are looking good there since I moved the dumped chair to the top where poor Mariposa Center Garden used to be (city appointed developers ripped it out without consulting SFDPW or SF Parks Alliance), alongside the bath tub someone left there last week. 

Aeonium

Also left at PRG last week was a dozen 16' long 6"x2" fence boards, wrapped in tarps and plopped down on top of some Santolinas. I got rid of those within an hour by posting them FREE on Nextdoor Potrero, and someone was delighted to have 'em. However, the bath and chair are not as attractive, so I installed the free 311 app on my phone and uploaded a photo an service request this evening.

Chasmanthe floribunda

Back at PG, the Hardenbergia violacea is flowering up a storm way down at the back of the terraces, as well as the yellow Chasmanthe floribunda in the left bed (two clumps), and the Aeoniums are growing strongly. Bulbs are coming up, weeds are easy to pull, and all that remains this week is to secure a wood chipper for the volunteer day next weekend so we can get rid of the unsightly pile in the dog area!

Yuck

Similarly, whoever has been systematically hacking apart the big agave at the front entrance... What is wrong with you?

Cordyline forest

Matt and I planted 4 Cordylines and a Coprosma "Sunset" in a very quick trip today.

The Cordylines went in as a group in the brights bed and are:

• Red Sensation 
• Torbay Dazzler
• Coral
• Sundance

Three more to move/plant and our multicolored Cordyline forest will be complete! Time for rain please :)

Work day chop!

John and Bob clearing
out shrubs

Today's workday had an energetic crew: Janna, Matt, Emily, Bob and John convened on the garden to make a mark on the plants that have died of drought.


Janna got to work turning the compost and the rest of us cleared a huge amount of dead material to the now HUGE pile in the dog area. Today the plants that got removed were two Kunzea baxteri who, despite having survived the drought were too floppy in form to live where they had been planted. Our Cytisus scoparius (Scotch Broom) had died too - a volunteer who had been cheerfully providing a splash of yellow for a few years, but is now as dead as a dodo. It joined the others on the heap.

Janna all smiles
taking a break form the compost

We also lifted the canopy of the nearby Hakea suaveolens and Berberis linearifolia, cut back the Salvia leucantha (Mexican Sage), Salvia canariensis (Canary Island Sage) and Plectranthus argentea severely, and gave the Watsonia bulbs a haircut.

The whole brights bed looks really different now with only one big tree left, and a determined pair of taller plants: Cussonia spicata and a Berberis linearifolia who needs to be cut down to size...

Before

In the meantime, Matt went and fetched a large Agave "Green Giant" from PRG as it was buried under a Malva. It came up to join the other big Agave of the same cultivar by the wrong way sign. I cleared out tons of overgrown Pelargoniums in the area, and we moved a Coprosma "Evening Glow" to the left bed, and a clump of Watsonias to where the others are. All we need to do there now is add a few grasses and the area is transformed.

After

After all this, Matt and I went and bought some new plants to replace the dead ones - plants we know are tougher than tough! We got 5 Cordylines and a Coprosma, all thanks to a great donation by Christopher Johnson of Mississippi Street!

Planting and moving

The Phormum "Alison Blackman" grew from a lovely little girl into a boisterous teenager pretty quickly, and she was taking up too much space at the edge of a path, as you can see in the photo to the left. 

Today Matt and I moved her to the brights bed. She will have a lot more room to flop around and be surly, and I used all the removed leaves as mulch (my new policy with Cordyline and Phormium leaves, which don't compost well and therefor make a great weed suppressant!) After that Matt planted some Euphorbias around the base of the clump.

Then after that we moved an Agave weberi from the "wrong way" sign area to the bench area, to create a focal point. We added six Bulbinella robusta plants, and moved a variegated Dietes to where the above-mentioned Phormium used to live.

Circle complete!

After that, we weeded the front bed and created some spaces to plant six Agave filifera in two groups.