Day 6: Plantathon? Puppathon?

Hesperaloe parviflora "Yellow"

Today was a relatively quick planting day. Matt and I popped in 5 Hesperaloe parviflora "Yellow" up at the top of PRG, added a Yucca elephantipes and a Yucca guatamalensis, and cut back some seriously unruly Santolinas.

Hesperaloe parviflora (aka Hesperoyucca parviflora) is a really tough desert plant and we have another group of five to go in, except this time a red color, elsewhere at PRG. Hope they do well!

Coco + Aditi

While we were there we saw Aditi and her new puppy, Coco! Coco is a poodle x German Shepherd and came courtesy of ex PG volunteer and grant writer Emily, so now the garden mascot baton has been passed from Emily's dog Bentley to Aditi's Coco. Congrats Coco - big shoes to fill...

And yet more plants planted - what a day.

Agave neomexicana

Matt and I returned to PRG today and started at 10am. We worked til 1.30pm, then had a break for lunch (garlic noodles at Sunflower!) and resumed until about 3pm I think. I am SO tired!

We did get a lot of plants in the ground, and tons of weeds weeded out. Here's a roundup:

First we put in five Agave neomexicana. This is a cute little blue-gray agave that should produce lots of babies for us - more agaves everywhere!

We moved a Yucca elephantipes to make a group with another one. For some reason people keep cutting off the flowering tops of these yuccas, which is pretty sad because it takes at least a year for them to look good again.

Agave "Blue Flame"

We cut back some Artemisias, Santolinas and Perovskias, and put a lot of weeds into bags. We also rounded up a mattress and other trash that was dumped. I put in a separate 311 for that  (to go with the one for the weeds) and it was already closed as they apparently picked the stuff up - great news.

We planted five Agave "Blue Flame" - a nice, softer-leaved agave - around the bottom end of PRG, and hopefully they won't get too beaten up there. That variety tends to suffer from broken leaves if people or dogs walk into them. Fingers crossed.

Agave gentryi

Down at the bottom behind the kiosk (and close to the five Agave "Sharkskin" we put in this week) we placed three rather small Agave gentryi, which is a very spiky and toothy species.

These will grow pretty big, so they're spaced quite far apart right now.

Agave impressa

Lastly we planted three Agave impressa closer to the top of the garden. Again, this is a medium-large agave at about 3-4 wide eventually, but the ones we put in are under 12" wide. They should get up to size in a few years.

So in total that's 26 new plants planted today, for a total of 55 planted this week. I need some tea to perk me up! Only about 150 left to plant...

More new Agaves!

Agave stricta

More new plants have been installed! Go check 'em out - it's been a veritable festival of planting this week as Matt and I have been out there every day since Wednesday, and more is to come at PRG.

First up, today we planted a gorgeous group of five Agave stricta (Hedgehog Agave) plants - these ones are ultra, super spiky so don't go cuddling them... weeding around them will be a real pleasure too. Let's just say we are planning to get a load of mulch to keep the weeds down really soon.

Agave parryi

They're planted right by an Agave vilmoriniana "Stained Glass" (Octopus Agave) which is funny - Hedgehogs and octopi!

Up the street a little way is a group of six Agave parryi we also installed today.

This one is a real favorite of ours, with lovely gray-blue leaves and a nice round shape, and we should see babies sprouting up from them soon enough.

Agave "Sharkskin"

Yesterday we put in quite a few new plants too. We made a group of five Agave "Sharkskin" behind the kiosk at the bottom of the garden. This one has lovely gray and smooth leaves.

We also moved four Ochagavias to a better group, combined several groups of Dietes bicolor together to make a nice area for them, pulled out a lot of dead Euphorbias and weeded and weeded and weeded... yes, the pile of debris for Recology to take is huge, but they haven't responded to the 311 request yet, so bear with us.

Yucca filifera

We put in three Yucca filifera at the top of the garden, right between two massive Agaves. They look pretty smart - one day they will be tree-sized but it will be a VERY long time (decades...) so don't hold your breath.

OK that's it for today. More to come tomorrow - if you want to join us, feel free! We'll be there from mid-morning on.

New Agaves going in for the holidays!

Agave bovicornuta

Happy holidays everyone!

Today Matt and I decided to plant some of the new plants we've received for PRG. We have about 230 plant to go in, so this will take some time... today we planted 10 Agaves, and did an inventory of plants and planting plans at that garden.

First of all we walked down the street and checked the planting plan once again, making adjustments. Then we set about clearing weeds from two areas, and planting five Agaves in each spot. One is a set of five Agave bovicornuta (Cow's Horn Agave) which is a really beautiful Agave with red teeth.

Agave ghiesbreghtii

The other is a group of six Agave ghiesbreghtii with their lovely striped leaves and white teeth.

We moved an Agave lophantha to the top of the garden to make room, and put in a 311 for all the masses of weeds Chris and Carrie have been cleaning out of the beds so diligently.

The weeds are coming out so easily now, after all this rain, and adding new plants is really fun. Makes for a rewarding session. We'll try and do some more tomorrow afternoon.

Plants are on the way!

Back in 2013!

A big order of new plants is on the way, and should arrive next week. Over 200 plants!

Along with all the plants we have propagated this year, we will have quite a number of plants to go in the ground this winter, allowing the winter rains to water them in. Planting is always my favorite part of gardening, so the next couple of workdays will be great fun.

Why do we need so many plants, you ask?

Well, we planted about 800 plants total at PRG when we started that garden in 2013. In the past 5 years, many of them have done splendidly, growing to fill their allotted spaces well. Others didn't fare so well for many reasons:

1. They were damaged by homeless encampments, theft or other damage. Sad.
2. They are short-lived "filler" plants that do need to be replaced every so often, so they don't look pristine anymore and no amount of pruning will improve them (Artemisias, I'm looking at you...)
3. They are still alive, but they're not as drought tolerant in that particular spot as we had hoped (Kniphofias, for example) so we will remove them and replace with something else.
4. They died for no known reason - we will move the remaining ones into groups and give them another shot.

That's pretty normal on the whole, and I'm pretty pleased with our plant selections overall. So we will replace the ones we expected to replace, remove the ones that don't really want to live at PRG, and bring in new plants to replace them. And as mentioned I've got lots of "free" plants we made from cuttings to add to the mix, so that will help.

A lot of the new plants will be types of Agaves we haven't grown before - small to medium sized ones which should be very happy at PRG, and super tough plants overall.

I also ordered a few new plants to put at PG too, while I was shopping. It's going to be an exciting winter!

Cupcakes consumed!

Our monthly Volunteer Day dawned this past weekend with overcast skies, but the weather soon turned to glorious sunshine! Quickly followed by a blast of cold rain. Then more sunshine!

Despite all this variability, we had a great team out to help out at the volunteer day. The plan was to finalize much of the weeding as possible, to prepare for planting the large plant order I've made which will be coming in in the next couple weeks.

These new plants will fill gaps where previous ones died or otherwise disappeared. So we set to work!

Matt moved some cacti, and Chris removed a dead tree. Sarah, Hilary, Carrie, Josh, Leslie and I weeded like mad, and made a vast pile of weeds which I put into a 311 request to pick up.

Then we all had a break for cupcakes, which were delicious :)

BIRTHDAY time!

It's Matt's birthday on Saturday, and it's Pennsylvania Garden's 10th birthday too! What does that mean? It means we will be having cake at the volunteer workday on Saturday from 10am-2pm.

We're going to do a real push to weed Pennsylvania Railroad Garden this week as well, as I have placed a large plant order and the beds need to be prepared before the plants go in.

So please join us - we'll be at PRG rain or shine. :)

Weed is legal in Canada!

Well, that got your attention ;) But the reality is, weed(s) are also legal in California, and we have too many of them. So at today's volunteer workday we pulled a lot out - along with some tired looking plants that need to be replaced.

I totally failed to get great pictures of all the seven volunteers who worked so hard in the surprisingly hot sun, but here is a screen grab of the 6 311 tickets I opened as we have SO MUCh stuff to get rid of!

A desk and two trash cans had been dumped, there was an encampment on the pathway, and we made four vast piles of green waste.

Add to that, Carrie and Chris had a phenomenal workday on Wednesday too, and had cleaned out a vast pile of weeds themselves. We still have a way to go, but this is a great start on PRG to prepare for our big winter replanting effort.

When Matt and I got home, we propagated a ton of plants from cuttings for that effort, and we're looking forward to getting them in the ground really soon.

Come to our volunteer day!

Hey everyone - it's time to deep weed PRG! We have a lot of plants on order to go in there, and we need to utterly clear the beds of weeds and  tired-looking plants before we can do that.

Meet us at PRG by the new benches at the corner of 17th x Pennsylvania on Saturday November 3rd at 10am and we will go from there with tools and drinks for all!

New trash can at PRG! New benches!

Behold! Such beauty!

During last week's meeting, Aditi asked Sophia Kittler, Senior Legislative Aide to Malia Cohen about a SF Public Works trash can for DPW-owned Pennsylvania Railroad Garden.

She got a positive response, and Sophia worked with Larry Stringer, Deputy Director for Operations at SF Public Works and others at Public Works to make it happen.

Much to our surprise, a can was installed this week! It'll be emptied by DPW daily so feel free to go right ahead and throw trash INTO it, vs on the ground - your volunteer gardeners appreciate your help with that.

Can of Joy Delivery Truck

It's a thing of beauty. We've never been so excited about such a mundane thing, but TBH the reason we had trouble with trash cans before was, well, where do we empty them? And who will do it? Thus far, Aditi and Chris are emptying the poop cans, and that's a Not Fun Task.

Are there any dog walkers who would like to help out every week or two with this task?

One bench of two

In other news, two new benches went in at PRG as well. They've already been seen in use by neighbors, and that brings us joy too. Will they become graffiti-ed and used as the foundation for homeless shelters? TBD. Enjoy them while they are there!

Our next volunteer workday (Nov 3) will be all about weeding PRG, so join us - we need your help as we have new plants coming in that can't be planted until weeding is complete.*

*Just kidding. Weeding is never complete.

Rapid response!

Today at the garden I saw a needle. I texted SF AIDS Foundation Needle Pick-up Crew: 415-810-1337 - they prefer text and pictures but calls are welcome 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week.

Within moments they replied: they’re on it!

Try this next time you see a needle.

Great meeting: Save these numbers

Me, giving my speech!

Deepest thanks to all who attended the meeting on Friday at PG! We had a fabulous turnout of passionate and informed agency partners, and a lot of great questions from neighbors and volunteers.

Thank you to Randy Quezada of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Larry Stringer of SF Public Works, Chris Balingit of Caltrans, SFPD Sgt Davin Cole,  Whit Bastian of the SF AIDS Foundation Needle Pick-up Crew, Claude Imbault of the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and Sophia Kittler, Senior Legislative Aide to District Supervisor Malia Cohen for all stepping up to speak about what their agencies are doing about these issues.

The team is going to discuss the best takeaways from the meeting so we can look into other ways to prevent damage to the gardens from homelessness.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, below is the text of the handout I made, which Hilary passed out to everyone on the day. The key takeaway is don't be afraid to CALL 911 if you see illegal activities, before things get worse,  call 311 to get trash picked up and text the SF AIDS Foundation Needle Pick-up Crew if you see needles.

Help Us Keep This Garden Safe: Do Your Part
Damage to the gardens costs us many thousands of dollars each year, and encampments create an unsafe volunteering environment, as well as an unpleasant garden experience. We are volunteer run and cannot continue to bear this cost.


Please do your part to prevent the gardens being damaged: report illegal activities at Pennsylvania Garden and Pennsylvania Railroad Garden. Here’s how:


Illegal activities include:

• Damage to, of theft of, trees or plants
• Dumping, littering, graffiti
• Public urination/defecation. Dog feces
• Fires. Theft. Verbal or physical threats. Aggressive animals

Pennsylvania Garden:
Property is owned by Caltrans

• Report illegal activities/emergencies: Call CHP at 911
• Trash pickup: https://csr.dot.ca.gov/ or
• Caltrans Maintenance Dispatch: 650-358-4127

Pennsylvania Railroad Garden:
Property is owned by SF Public Works

• Report illegal activities: Call SFPD at 911
• Trash pick up etc.: Call 311 or use the 311 app.

Other useful numbers:
SFPD non-emergency: 415-553-0123
CHP non-emergency: 707-641-8300
SF Homeless Outreach Team: 415-355-7401
DPH/Crisis services - for acute mental health emergencies: 415-970-4000
SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing: 415-252-3232
SF AIDS Foundation Needle Pick-up Crew: 415-810-1337 - prefer text and pictures but calls welcome. 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week