Happy 2018!

Aditi is always smiling :)

Fun workday today! The sun was out after some rain, so the weeds were ready to go nuts. Matt and I met Hilary, Chris and Aditi at PG and noticed a couple things. Things that didn't make me very happy at all...

First of all, someone had hacked at the beautiful Agave weberi on the front border, taking off about 1/5th of the leaves on one side. The plant probably won't look good again for 5 or 6 years, if that. This really upsets me, as it was a gorgeous plant... if you see someone destroying plants in the garden please call 911.

We also noticed that the homeless encampment down in the back of the garden has returned - and it's twice as big. I took a quick photo an posted it to the 311 app right away, very worried about what to do as these camps can get out of control fast, and the mess is already horrific..

Chris whacks a Lavatera

We headed down to PRG to start clearing the pathway, which has become very overgrown. Everyone got started picking up trash (oh, there was a LOT... including 20 needles I picked up, and a huge number of dog poos in bags, or loose...) and also cutting back plants along the pathway.

The plan is to get some bids from garden maintenance companies to come down and replace some of the decomposed granite that's washed away over time, making the path more level again. We'll do that after the rainy season, but getting the paths cleared now is a step in the right direction.

Hilary hard at work

We pruned back some trees, cut the Lavateras that were spreading on to the path, as well as the Santolinas, Calandrinias and other overflowing plants.

A huge number of fennel plants and other weeds got whacked too, and a giant pile of trash accumulated. About halfway through the day I saw a DPW truck going down the street, and managed to catch up with it to ask if they were there to clean out the encampment.

Matt can dig it!

The driver, Ina, was very friendly and came back up the street to look at the encampment. She said it might not be a DPW job to complete the work, but promised to return the next day with a crew to do just that. Thanks Ina! That's a huge weight off my mind. She even came back at 1pm and started picking up the big pile of trash we accumulated during the workday - great news.

All in all, a very productive day, despite the unpromising start!