Weekend Work Extravaganza

So much happened at the garden over the weekend, it is hard to be coherent about the whole thing! First, I want to thank everyone who stopped by to help. Shen and Felix watered and weeded, Miyuki weeded, and planted the Verbena donated the previous week by Shen along with some Echiums that are now the start of a beautiful new planting by the dog area (see photo). Kay donated Geranium maderense, Silene coronaria, and Parahebe perfoliata all exciting editions to the garden! Among the many many things Annie did for the garden over the weekend, the most visible is a giant Yucca that is now planted next to the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus). Which the cardoon by the way, is about to flower in full purple glory any time now!

The garden also had many visitors who made us volunteers feel extra special about the garden - everyone had lots of good things to say about our work! Eva and Gene stopped by with their parrot (if you're reading this send please send us an email so we can be in contact!), as did neighbors Will and Claudia. Many other folks stopped by with their dogs, all of which were cute temporary additions to the garden.

June 19th Community Clean Up Day Posters

Hi Everyone,

Next Saturday June 19th is the big Community Clean Up Day on our Pennsylvania and 17th Street. To read more about it, go here: http://17thandpennsylvania.blogspot.com/

Showplace Square (8th and 16th Streets)  is the meeting place for the general DPW-organized event. For people only interested in working on the 100 Pennsylvania block, we've agreed to meet at Pennsylvania x Mariposa.


Pennsylvania-specific volunteers will get coffee and pastries at the above location at 9am provided by P Garden, and afterwards DPW is doing lunch at Showplace square.

Tomorrow (Saturday 12th) we're going around the neighborhood plastering posters. If you have time between 2-3pm please join us.

We'll meet up at my place at 1020 Mariposa St. #2 and head off from here. Afterwards we'll meet back up at my place again for coffee, tea, and yummy baked bribes (I mean goodies)! If you have a staple gun and/tape gun please bring those.

If you can't make it this Saturday, but want a poster to place in your building or in your neighborhood, I'll be around this weekend if you want to pick some up.

You can also download these digital files and print them yourself:

11x17 size http://www.box.net/shared/static/0gitp2kj19.pdf (approx. 50MB)

8.5x11 size http://www.box.net/shared/static/6nlpkeao2q.pdf (approx. 50MB)

If you have any issues downloading the files, please email directly at

arum@onehouse.net.

Thank you everyone for all your support!

Arum Ahn

Volunteers Needed to Help Plaster Posters for Clean Up Day

Hi Everyone,

Next Saturday June 19th is the big Community Clean Up Day on our Pennsylvania and 17th Street. Tomorrow we're going around the neighborhood plastering posters. If you have time between 2-3pm please join us.

We'll meet up at my place at 1020 Mariposa St. #2 and head off from here. Afterwards we'll meet back up at my place again for coffee, tea, and yummy baked bribes (I mean goodies)! If you have a staple gun and/tape gun please bring those.

If you can't make it this Saturday, but want a poster to place in your building or in your neighborhood, I'll be around this weekend if you want to pick some up.

You can also download these digital files and print them yourself:

11x17 size http://www.box.net/shared/static/0gitp2kj19.pdf (approx. 50MB)

8.5x11 size http://www.box.net/shared/static/6nlpkeao2q.pdf (approx. 50MB)

If you have any issues downloading the files, please email directly at arum@onehouse.net.

Thank you everyone for all your support!

Arum Ahn

Cleanup day! Volunteers NEEDED.

DPW has organized a cleanup day on June 19th and we need 20-30 people to come by and pick up the debris left when their machinery goes down Pennsylvania and scrapes up all the weeds and trash!

Come down to Mariposa x Penn at 9am, get free coffee and snacks, and spend an hour or two with us cleaning up your neighborhood!

Lunch (BBQ!) will be provided for volunteers AFTER the cleanup at 11:30am at Showplace Square, 8th and 16th Streets.

Let's show DPW what we can do!

Plant profile: Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblongata

Latin name: Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblongata ("cot-eye-LEE-don or-BIC-you-lah-tah var. ob-long-AH-ta") “Flavida” ("FLAV-id-ah")
Common name: Finger Aloe
Originally from: South Africa
Blooms: Tall flower spikes hold nodding peach-colored bells.
Light: Sun or light shade
Water: Rain is plenty
Drainage: Well drained soil or just some rocks will do...
Height x width: 36" x 48"
USDA Zones:  9-10
Where to find in P. Garden: There are clumps all along the cactus wall.

This plant was originally found in the wild in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. E. van Jaarsveld describes it in the new "Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Crassulaceae" as Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblonga “Grey Sticks”. It may also be identical to Cotyledon “Mr. (or Mrs.) Butterfield”, which is described as a garden hybrid.

In South Africa, the disease caused by eating these plants, called cotyledonosis, has poisoned sheep and goats but rarely other animals. Ranchers in South Africa found that the meat of animals killed by cotyledonosis also remains toxic to humans and dogs who eat it.

I can’t remember where we got our specimens, or what they were described as when we got them, but they are doing fantastically well and flowering right now with those wacky, frilly, girly peach flowers on the elegant stalks.

They’re exceptionally tough, drought-tolerant plants that maintain a great form and look good all year round. Thumbs up from me!

UPDATE: Totally drought proof - 5 years of zero worries succulent gorgeousness so far. Thumbs up!

Fencing at the Mariposa Center Garden - done!

This evening I met lovely, hardworking volunteers Emily, Ryan and Leanne at the Mariposa Center Garden to finish the fencing there. Emily and I were early so we picked up the tools and fence materials from the garden, and wheelbarrowed them down to the strip.

When the others arrived, we pounded in two U-posts at each end of the to-be-fenced area, and attached the fence to each end, then pounded in 4 more posts in between, trying to stretch the fence as tight as possible. Not easy without guy lines or tensioning posts, but I think it'll work. Then we wired the fence to the posts.


We left the hole in the Caltrain fence open (second photo from top) - we need Caltrain to fix that hole permanently, and there's no point fencing it ourselves til they do - the homeless people will just trash it to get through.

After that, we watered all the plants - 2 wheelbarrow trips with old milk cartons full of water (the hose doesn't stretch all the way from P. Garden) and we were done! Many hands make light work - thank you Leanne, Emily and Ryan for a very enjoyable evening on the street!

A number of people stopped as usual to thank us for our work - if any of you are reading the blog please come help some time! We have volunteer days regularly, and the more people who come and do a little of this or that, the faster these plantings will be ready for everyone to enjoy (upcoming tasks include planting more plants, watering, fetching mulch, applying it, and finally, removing the fence once the plants are established!)

And once again, thanks to Center Hardware and The Godmothers for bankrolling this neighborhood improvement project!

I like!

Have you heard of CSN Stores? They have over 200 specialty shop sites that offer everything from a bathroom vanity to adhesives and most things in between! I was recently contacted by CSN Stores to do a product review which I will be featuring in the upcoming weeks, so be sure to check back.

Later on this year we'll also be doing a giveaway to a few lucky readers too - I think you dog lovers are going to really like it!

Mariposa Center Garden fence half done

Today Emily and I met at the Mariposa Center Garden to try to set up a fence to protect it from life on the street. It’s a temporary fence – when the plants grow up we’ll remove it.

The nice guys at Center Hardware donated the materials: we had 100 feet of 12 gauge fence and 10 U-posts. They loaned us some good wire cutters, and I brought along a 9 pound hammer, pliers, tying wire and gloves. Before Emily arrived, the nice guys also sort of stood around and assessed puny-looking me in my nice office clothes, my collection of somewhat rusty tools, and, I think, felt a bit sorry for me. Which I thought was pretty reasonable actually, as I was suddenly feeling under-qualified for the job!

So Emily arrived and we pounded in the U-posts. I had wanted T-posts which are a lot more rigid, but they weren’t available. So the pounding was a bit of a pain with the flimsier posts and the rocky dirt. Then we cut a 50’ length of the fencing and attached it to the existing fence at one end, and pulled it along the posts set down the strip, wiring it to the posts as we went. We placed it inside the strip of Dietes plants, and outside the other plants – just to hide the fence a bit. The fence looked a bit crooked and floppy, so we added another post to tighten it up, which sort of worked a bit. We ran out of time and had to go back to work, but the first half of the fencing is done and looks pretty good!

We had one angry (deranged?) person tell me we shouldn’t be doing this, and that he’d kill the plants, and about eight delighted, happy people who stopped to tell us how great our efforts were. So on the whole, I think the community is behind us ;) We won’t be winning any prizes for tight, ruler-straight fence building but hey – we got the job done and I think it’ll work.

Later this week we need to do the other half of the fencing, attach signs to the back fence telling people about the garden, and water the strip. Anyone up for it?

Awesome Volunteer Workday

So many thanks to Shen and Leaanne who worked tirelessly to whip the garden into shape! There was much weeding of the middle front bed (goodbye Oxalis! see photo) along with pulling out variegated mint and bindweed. Leaanne also deadheaded the two standing rose bushes, Coreopsis, and Scabiosa 'Fama Blue'. Shen also donated a bunch of Verbena (see photo) that she grew from seed - many thanks Shen!

Other accomplishments include but are not limited to:
1. Building dirt wells around many of the plants in the red bed, mostly the Dahlias
2. Composting around the Dahlias
3. Watering all of the newer plants in the red bed especially the Cosmos, Zinnia, and Rudbeckia seedlings
4. Cut back the overgrowth on the path by the stop sign
5. Planting some Cosmos seedlings in the front left bed where the yellow Aquilegia used to be (before it was stolen! horror!)
6. Thoroughly soaked the bed along the stairs on both sides and the area with the Nicotiana.
7. Toward the front of the red bed by the tea tree (Leptospermum) planted Agastache mexicana 'Acapulco Rose'

Even though Annie had a super long day doing lots of other hard work, she still came by the garden in the late afternoon and: watered (the Mariposa Center Garden, left bed, middle back bed, potted plants on back slope, wine barrels), moved Curry Plant (Helichrysum italicum) out from under cardoon to further upslope, and cut back the Euphorbia myrsinites (Donkey Tail Spurge) that was done flowering.

Diagrams

Emily Gogol, Josh Schechtel and I applied to the SF Parks Trust to have them become our fiscal agent for the project. This means that we can accept donations and grants to fund the project as if we are a 501(c)3 but without all the paperwork! Donors get the tax write-off, and we give 5% of donations to SFPT.

This was approved yesterday, and I'm signing some more paperwork for SFPT but it's basically done. Great news.

I also met with representatives of Saturn Construction to get some ideas for what can be done on the street to improve it. We need to get several more quotes - does anyone know a landscaping company who could work on this? The quotes we'll get will give us an idea of what grants to pursue.

I created some images to show Saturn the sort of things we could do. The images are in the Google Groups' files section, and also here:

If you have comments, questions or ideas, now is the time to share them. These are just ideas, and do not cover the entire scope of the project. Let's start the conversation here: when we have a good idea of the direction to go, we will hold another meeting at the NABE. Not everyone interested in this project is on the email list - at the next meeting we will ascertain who needs to be on this decision-making list, as I feel it's too difficult to coordinate ideas on and off list. Let people know: if you want to be part of the decisions made, get on the list! Click here!

We also have some other fundraising ideas in the works that will be fun, but will need volunteers for. We need a volunteer coordinator who, as the need arises, will get hold of DPW, the neighbors and businesses, and other volunteer groups, to let them know when/where we need people (for a planting day, trash clearing day etc.) If you think you can do this job, please let me know. The work will be sporadic, and not difficult! UPDATE: Arum has volunteered to help with this. Thank you Arum!

OK, let's hear your thoughts!

Mariposa Center Garden revisited

Last night Emily, Gina and I planned to work on the Mariposa Center Garden (Mariposa at Pennsylvania), planting the plants we got using our donation from The Godmothers.

We met at 6pm and weeded, then laid out the plants I bought last weekend and started digging into the rocky, dry dirt. Thank you digging bar! Gina had a flash of genius and went home to get her digging bar too - pretty soon we were getting into the swing of it: use the digging bar to loosen dirt, then the shovel to empty the hole, then back to the digging bar, and so on.

3 Dendromecon rigida (Bush Poppy - picture below)

4 Lupinus arboreus (Yellow Bush Lupine)

5 Cistus "Sunset"

2 Lavatera "Barnsley"

1 Rosmarinus (Rosemary)

(We have 9 Achilleas, and a lot of Dietes left to plant, and we need a few Bougainvilleas to cover the fence)

Lots of people driving or jogging by shouted encouragement. And after a little while we were joined by a young man who probably lived on the street, and maybe had a few... issues, but he helped us dig a hole anyway.

Another guy used the hole (pic left) in the middle of the strip's fence (often repaired, never for long. Note to self: Call Caltrain again to get it fixed) to access the railroad tracks while we were there, and I had to explain to him when he returned that the hole will soon be filled and he'll need to get down to the tracks by another route. He wasn't pleased.

Such is gardening work on the street! Always lots of interesting characters. We managed to get Ryan to come down and provide male presence (and dig some holes!) which was much appreciated - I think he was going to go to the gym, but he got a different sort of workout!. And as the sun started to go down Matt joined us and we planted the last plant and watered everything in until it was dark.

Today I'll be picking up some fencing supplies to protect the new plants - all donated by Center Hardware (thanks Brandon and co!). If you have fencing skills and can help me pound in a few posts and attach the fence, let me know! We also need to mulch the strip heavily and water it weekly for a while - if you live nearby, can you help?

Bottom photo shows, from left, Gina, Emily, Ryan and me. Go team!

Vinca, thy name is weed.

Among the pantheon of gardening mistakes I have made, one had a light shed upon it yesterday.  Namely, the planting of the supposedly happy-go-lucky blue flowering periwinkle known as Vinca major.

More like "nasty-go-evil"! It was slow to get started, due to the dryness at P Garden, and it's preference for damp, shady spots. Just as I had planned - it would not get out of control and would be a good ground cover. At least, that's what I said to Matt when he spent a lot of time telling me it was a bad idea.

Yesterday however I noticed a patch of it had taken a firm hold and Matt went on to spend a lot of time telling me "I told you so" which as we all know is one of the most annoying things a person can say. On the other hand he was so delighted to be right that he helped me yank it all out and as a result we have cleared a spot for a yellow bush lupine to be planted shortly.

In other news, Emily came back from her trip and spent several hours watering (that's me watering at left, too). The ground at P. Garden is dry, dry, dry - all the way down as far as you can dig and then reach for the digging bar (about a foot) so this is it plants: Who needs more water to make it? Right now I am looking at the standard roses, the Brugmansia, the ginger, the yellow wallflowers I recently put in, and the Dahlias that Emily's looking after. We shall see who can make it on once a week water... fingers crossed.

Emily also planted some baby burgundy Cosmos in the left bed, and some Zinnias and Rudbeckia hirta "Cherokee Sunset" in the red bed.

Photo shows yellow Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) "Coronation Gold" with California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) "White Linen" and some calla lilies in the background.