Another NEN blog goes live

I've once again had the pleasure of contributing to the Neighborhood Empowerment Network site. This time, the blog post subject was how to plan a garden like ours. Hee haw - plan!? Who told them this was planned?

Community Event a Success

I may have gotten Pennsylvania Street Gardens into a mess (UCSF's Community Celebration event) but Arum definitely got me out of that mess - she seemingly effortless kept her cool running the booth talking to the community, and making everything look great (see photos of the event). Meanwhile, I ran around like a crazy person helping kids and Jennifer Newsom participate in planting an edible garden. The day could not have happened without you Arum! Many thanks to everyone who stopped by to check out our poster and pickup a little UCSF sponsored giveaway of an ecopot basil, parsley or chives.

UCSF also made a generous donation to fund out booth, which included 2 edible gardens and 1 native plant garden. The new fun native plants that will now call P-garden home are:

Penstemon eatonni (3) - 4 inc

Salvias (1) - tiny 6-pack

Erioginum (1) - 1 gal

Epilobium cana (1) - 1 gal of our native Fuschia!

Dudleya pulverulenta (1) -5 gallon of awesomeness

Dudleya farinosa (1) - 1 gal

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi subsp. coactilis variety white (1) 10 gallon

Agave desertii (2), 4 inch

Agave shawii (2), 4 inch

The event was truly a mega-event hosted by UCSF to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Benioff Children's, Women's and Cancer hospital. There was flamenco dancing, a ton of free food, and even the gorgeous farmer's market (well a very upscale one anyway!) style decorations that were also for the taking. I saw a lot of very happy people walking out with armloads of produce!

Arum and I met a lot of great people at the event, and I hope to see them all at the garden in the near future. Specifically the workday on Novemeber 6th from 10-12 at Pennsylvania Garden on Pennsylvania in between 18th and Mariposa. But I bet you all already know to be there ; )

Emily

Come visit us at UCSF!

Hey everyone,

Pennsylvania Street Gardens (aka P-garden etc) has been invited by UCSF to participate in the Community Celebration at UCSF Mission Bay from 1-6pm (more info here)! I know you will all be watching the World Series just a few blocks away, but before the game come stretch your legs at the event. There will be food, music, and of course gardening activities. I have designed a native plant garden for oohing and awwing (see photo; awesome Dudleya pulverulenta) and their will be an edible garden too! Hope to see you at the Pennsylvania Street Garden booth+ gardens.

Emily

Local metalworker makes PG safer

This just in: if you visit the garden today you'll see new evidence of the craftsmanship of Potrero Hill metalworker Ron Lester (Iron Maverick). He has just installed our brand new handrail, and it runs from the top of the steps all the way down the length of the storm drain, and in classic Ron style has a wavy, organic feel that fits the garden perfectly.

We have always loved his work; he donated the arch at the front of the garden to us, and we liked it so much that we asked him to create the info board holder that we funded with our May 2010 plant sale. After consulting with dog owners, the decision was made to build a fence around the dog area and we've hired Ron to do the job.

We folded the handrail into that brief, and it'll help in our planned improvements to the lower path: stopping folks from being tempted to jump into the ditch, and with baseboards added, stopping wood chips from smothering the Aloe nobilis hedge there. We'll trim back the plants along that path and make a little retaining wall opposite the handrail to keep the Callas in place, widening the path at the base of the steps.

Watch out for the dog area fence soon - the entire garden will soon bear the stamp of Ron's metal artistry! We're very happy to support a local business too, and keep all the money donated by locals on the Hill.

Tree Dahlia gets ready to rock

Dahlia imperialis

Our Tree Dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) is about to start flowering. Get out there and see it now - the 10' tall flower spikes are usually blown over by November winds and we only get to enjoy it for a short time!

Today I deadheaded and trimmed a lot of plants in the garden. I also chatted with Ron yesterday about the handrail he'll be installing at the steps tomorrow. Can't wait to see what that will look like!

Raffle winner - please check in!

mjg1966 at hotmail.com won the raffle at the plant sale - please email me to claim your prize! annie at psgsf.org (or check your email - I sent a couple messages to you)

thanks! :)

Get your PSG tees here, folks!

Some of you may have noticed PSG volunteers wearing some pretty stylish tees at the plant sale last weekend. Well you can have one too! We used CafePress.com to create a whole line of PSG logo tees and sweatshirts, among other things. And $5 from every sale goes to PSG. Click here to buy 'em.

We also have other fun gardening tees for sale - to see the whole line, click here.

Xmas coffee mugs and personalized Christmas ornaments can be found at CafePress if you’re looking for unique Christmas gift ideas!

Deluge of good news!

This just in: stacks of cash

What an utterly bonkers week. To add to the excitement of getting a gong from San Francisco Beautiful and receiving $85,000 last week from two granting bodies, we enjoyed a hugely successful plant sale on Saturday and then on Sunday I was interviewed by the Examiner about our plans for the SPUR project (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden) just down the street.

Today I got a call from KPIX (Channel 5) that they wanted to do a TV interview right-now-this-minute at the site of the  Pennsylvania Railroad Garden (watch the video and decide for yourself if we should get Emily in front of the camera next time - I vote yes!) This was followed closely by a request from the Potrero View for comment on how on earth we plan to spend our outrageous bounty. And to cap it all off I've just received notification that we received an Innovator Award from SFPT for $1500.

(I really think I have to take Alison's advice and play the lottery this week - it seems Lady Luck has my number on speed dial.)

OK, well I'm going to live in Hawaii now and employ a professional back-patter for full time fawning. I invite all the other fantastic PSG volunteers to follow my example! Do we think SFPT will notice if we invoice them for Mai Tais? Nah!

Watch KPIX tonight, 6pm

Emily and I just met with a photojournalist from KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and if you tune in tonight at 6pm, you’ll see the SPUR project (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden) on TV!


All this press is the result of the Community Challenge grant awardees being announced today. The excitement is mounting – we should be able to start work soon. Go team!

Examiner article

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Replacing-blight-with-beauty-105156064.html

Replacing blight with beauty
By: Erin Sherbert
Examiner Staff Writer
October 18, 2010

The short stretch of 17th Street at the edge of Potrero Hill has long been known for its homeless encampments, illegal dumping, hypodermic needles and petty crimes.

The street is one of many right of ways in San Francisco that is not formally “accepted” by The City, meaning officials have no obligation to take care of it with street cleaning, sidewalk repairs and everyday maintenance.

Yet, one neighbor is working to clean up the street — one grant at a time.

Annie Shaw, who lives on 17th Street, initiated the Seventeenth and Pennsylvania Urban Renewal project, a plan to give her street a complete makeover.

She is using $45,000 from the Community Challenge Grant program, which provides matching grants to local residents, businesses, nonprofits and other community groups to make neighborhood improvements such as litter abatement, landscaping and adding public artwork.

“Nobody looks after it, so it’s a disaster,” Shaw said of her street. “Nobody had any intent to take care of it.”

Shaw is one of 28 community members who are receiving a piece of a $577,000 grant to embark improvements, which include rain gardens at San Francisco State University and community art at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.

Companies give 1 percent of their business taxes annually to the grant fund.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce the recipients today.

“Clean and green neighborhoods are essential to the quality of life of all San Franciscans, and these innovative community projects help to beautify our neighborhoods and get communities working together,” Newsom said.

Shaw’s project started more than a year ago with a small garden she planted at the off ramp at Mariposa Street. She caught the attention of Caltrans, which owns the land, along with her neighbors, who appreciated the small touch of beauty in the neighborhood.

With the grant money, Shaw plans to start work on building new sidewalks this spring with the help of some professionals. She will plant trees and “spiky” plants that will both be beautiful and create an uncomfortable spot for transients to sleep, Shaw said.

Once the street is brought up to code with Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks and acceptable pavement conditions, The City will officially take over maintenance, said Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for the Public Works Department.

In the past six months, The City has accepted more than 200 streets that were not officially maintained by San Francisco.

Sale and festival - fun times!

Panorama!

Yesterday's benefit plant sale and raffle were a great success for us: we raised $2241 to put towards to fencing of the dog area: that's twice as much as we made in May at the last sale!

At 8am we met Gary who'd donated the use of his tents, tables and chairs to us from Brickley Production Services.

Matt & Melissa

Melissa worked the cash box and sold raffle tickets, while Emily and I sold plants and advised customers on what would work for their garden or patio. Nataly arranged the plants beautifully and kept things restocked, as well as selling her own succulents (among other things) which looked lovely! Leah priced and trimmed, and Matt delivered what he described as "a billion" wheelbarrow loads of plants to people's cars, or even their houses if they lived locally. He even dug up a variegated Agave americana right out of the garden for one lady who just had to have it. It's OK - we have lots of others, and it was a tad crowded in that spot ;)

Leanne, Arum, Nataly and Phil worked the booth at the Potrero Hill Festival all day (after helping set up at the sale!) and their setup looked very professional indeed. They raked in the raffle ticket money, and gave away lots of dog treats too! How could Nataly have been at both events, you may ask? I think she must possess super powers ;)



Emily, me, Leanne,
Arum and Nataly



At the end of the day, Emily and I went up to enjoy the festival for a few minutes. There was dancing, there was eating, there was a petting zoo (um, it was total Cute City there - I almost rustled a little goat, they were so adorable!) and clearly a good time was had by all.

When we to back to the sale, Nate, Tanya and Michelle had come to help us tear down - thank goodness for them, because I for one was shattered! We had a few leftover plants that I'll probably put on craigslist next week, when I've had a chance to inventory them. And I need to announce the computer-selected winners of the raffle! Never a dull moment around here ;)

Pics to come soon - check out Emily's ones here!

Welcome to Pennsylvania Garden!

We hope that everyone had a blast at the plant sale & Potrero Hill Festival. Our fund raising efforts were wildly successful, many thanks to everyone who participated. We have such a great neighborhood!

For new visitors:
Pennsylvania Street Gardens is a non-profit group dedicated to greening Potrero Hill and the surrounding neighborhood. It was founded by Annie Shaw in December 2008 with the creation of Pennsylvania Garden at 18th and Pennsylvania.

We maintain Pennsylvania Garden, and are working hard to keep it looking beautiful, and plan on hosting many fun community events (think movie night, dog show, and photography contest!). We love working with members of the community (artists; engineers; dog walkers!) so green thumb or not, you can be a part of the garden too.

If you'd like to volunteer or get on our email list, please send an email to: info at psgsf.org

If you'd like to donate please follow this link: click here

If you have materials (plants, equipment, services, other?) to donate please send Annie an email at: annie at psgsf.org

If you want a Pennsylvania Street Garden T-shirt: click here

Hope to see you all at the garden again soon!

Emily