Volunteer Day work

Our August Volunteer Day was attended by a small but devoted bunch. Sadly I didn't get photos of people but I did get some pics of the work done.

Kai and his dad Kresh weeded the entrance pathway with Kai's special tiny trowel that I keep ready for him, and while they did that, I deadheaded a lot of Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantina), cut the cardoon (Cynara carduncuulus) down to the ground, trimmed the palm by the bench and weeded too.

Matt went to the hardware store to get better stakes for the new big cactus. Some helpful (!) person had taken the guy line and all the padding off the cactus so we had to replace it all. I think the new work looks much better anyway, and as a bonus Chris found the rope and padding that had been removed, left elsewhere in the garden. Matt and I also staked up the Dodonaea viscosa (Purple Hopseed) on the lower path that was leaning over.

While all that was going on, Chris moved the cardoon. We cut this back every year but this year it never really got very big as we were so short on rain. Generally when it gets big though it's too close to the path. So, Chris dug it up and moved it about 2' back in the bed, and also gave it a huge amount of fresh compost from the compost bins so it can bounce back. Matt watered it too.

Josh planted some cactus I had brought from home on the back slope, and both he and Chris weeded a lot too.