Activities for 9 April 2024

There was a lot going on today. Steve Davis was on site with some suggested activities so we split up into groups and tackled diverse tasks. The real highlight of the day was introducing a new volunteer to the garden, Jessica Zhao. She joined Monica Barton, Daryl Stutley and me and headed up to the Desert Garden to work on the weeds in the Desert Garden itself. In prior weeks we concentrated on the open area to the north of the planted section. Unlike before, the mustard and horehound were more difficult to remove due the rocky soil in the planted areas. Like before, we concentrated on the plants that were blooming. Below are Jessica, Daryl and Monica with the fruits of our labor.

At the end of the morning Nancy captured Daryl and Jessica holding back the cart followed by me and Monica and Beverly Brune who had come to the garden to meet Jessica. You can only see the top of Beverly’s head over Daryl’s hat below.

Before joining the top-of-the-hill group, I peeled off and cleared the wild rose that was threatening to engulf the bench that overlooks the Chilean Garden.

Meanwhile Steve took Beverly Kemmerling and Nancy Taylor Walker to Lillians Meadow where they weeded (especially the St. John’s wort), fixed trampled cages, and removed some cages where it appeared the plants weren’t being eaten. Steve captured Nancy and Beverly working along the interior path below.

Below, Nancy captured Beverly working to remove some of the St. John’s wort.

…and the after picture.

Thanks to Steve’s vision, and the hard work of the volunteers to maintain the garden, Lillian’s Meadow is looking better than it has in some time. Hopefully it is again approaching Lillian Daviess original concept. It’s a particularly good laboratory for observing which grasses and grass-like plants do well in our region (and which are a source of food for animals) as well as other plants that do and look well in a naturalized environment.

Across from the bench where I cleared the rose, was a cluster of various colors of Alstroemeria hybrids on a corner of the Chilean Garden.

Finally, you may notice that yesterday, the new fence in the KAG was sealed with a clear finish as was the tree base of the tree house.  Today they were working on the grape arbor in the main garden, replacing some rotten boards and staining the entire structure to match the existing stain.

Enjoy the garden!    KMM