Garden Activities: May 6, 2025

Tuesday we had the pleasure of welcoming another new volunteer to the group: Anna Wiktor-Becker. She joined on a day of varied activities including planting, weeding, and trimming in the S. African Garden and the Desert Garden.

Anna joined Steve Davis, Irem Bayrak Dingle, Bill Dobner, Beverly Kemmerling, Julie Moffat, Katie Shank, Nancy Taylor Walker, Ann Wright and myself. Bill asked me to pass on the information that he and volunteer Avinash Bahadur had completed a batch of compost that is now available for use as needed in the garden and in the shade house propagation activities. 

The finished screened material:

We used for the first time in a long time a motorized e-cart built by volunteer Bob Butler. We found that going up hill empty was somewhat labor intensive as the center of gravity still leaves a lot of weight on the operator. It may come in handy for jobs involving toting cobbles for placement along paths or other jobs where it is possible to front load the cart. 

Beverly giving it a go, with me unchivalrously looking on from behind:

Our usual policy is to leave desirable natives in the various theme gardens if they don’t become too dominant. The CA fuchsia has done just that in the S. African Garden, so in the process of removing mustard, annual euphorbia and other non-desirables, we removed the fuchsia that was encroaching on the S. African natives. Unfortunately we also found what appeared to be a coffee berry plant in the wrong place so we reluctantly removed it. How many volunteers does it take to dig up a single plant?

Anna, yours truly, Steve, Beverly, and Irem.

Ann clearing some space around an aloe:

Beverly had divided her calla lilies at home and brought some in to plant at CVBG. Beverly and Julie planting a calla lily near one already in the garden:

Beverly and Irem planting more callas in the older part of the S. African Garden:

While activities in S. Africa were going on, a few of us went up to the Desert Garden to weed — mainly mustard.

There are several plants blooming in the Chilean Garden:

Escallonica: 

We’re using it to form a hedge around the port-o-potty and green waste bin.

Calandrinia:

Alstroemerias at the corners of the calandrinia beds:

Thanks to Steve, Beverly and Nancy for their images.

Enjoy the garden!   KMM