2009-10 Work Day #17: Last official day for plant year

Drew, John, Kristen, Noelia and Sarah came out to go seed collecting along Laurel trail. We had hoped to get scrub oak, but we were about a month late. However we did collect Brikel bush and golden bush. Anyway it was a nice day to be out.
This is the end of the plant season which started in July this year. 1/2 the plants were put in the ground yesterday with Keep It Wild work day around the Nix Center.
The weather has been cooling off even more with moist AM's. PM's still get into the mid-70's. So where's that rain? (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #16: Bumping, new shade structure, and rain collection

David, Beth, Steve, John, Sarah, Noelia and Drew helped today on a very productive work day. Drew and David finished getting the new shade structure up and assembled: a 200 square feet of additional work space. John, Sarah, Noelia and Beth bumped up the remaining plants. David and Drew got the rain collection gutter square and finished the feeder to the cisterns.
The weather appears to be cooling off, and we're getting AM moisture. However today was a nice 72F. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #15: Raising new shade structure

David, Beth, Steve (yes, he’s back) and Kristen joined in to help assemble the shade structure for our new work area. I bought the 10’ model to clear the door, which is much heavier than the smaller gauge pipe model.
The weather has been up and down, and no rain. Foggy mornings. I turned the irrigation back on and we’ll monitor a bit closer as we’re back to weekly work days. Beth took the propagation class at Theodore Payne Nursery yesterday… this will help us a lot when we start vegetative propagation.

The snake visitor to the tree house appears to be a striped racer. Cute little guy. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #14: Bumping Up

Drew headed up the work day with Noelia, Beth and Sarah. They focused on getting purple needle grass bumped up. Also they removed siding on both structures to let in more light and allow better circulation. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Nursery Irrigation Covers

The county built covers for the irrigation valves and main line. Very robust to protect against the elements and prevent accidental breakage. There’s top access, the whole assembly can be move up. Thanks! (click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #13: Bumping Up & WOW

Drew, John and Noelia helped bump up and repair pots. Turned off irrigation to allow pots and especially seed flats to dry out. Also removed caging from most to allow better air circulation. PUt out 1st treatment of pre-emergent WOW on 1,000 square foot test area. (Click any pic to enlarge)
Goings on: weather has cooled down, and it rained about 1" this past week.

2009-10 Work Day #12: Bumping Up & Moving

John led the potting group with Beth, Noelia and Sarah. Critters are eating golden bush, ISO MEN, and nibbled off all the lemonadeberry, RHU INT. We're caging many of these along with seed flats.
Kellan and David helped me level, add gravel and lay bricks to get nearly finish the rain cicterm move.
Weather: cooling off, prior two weeks had been 90F+ degrees. We cut the watering on main nursery and on the ceanothus, CEA MEG, in the Tree House. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #11: Bumping Up

Time flys when plants are growing... Beth, Drew, Krysten and Sarah working on bumping up our first plants into 1-year-pots: golden bush, mugwort and mustang mint. John and I worked on the plants in the Tree House. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #10: Bumping Up and Moving the RB's

Beth, John and Trish bumped up the remaining tree/shrubs into 5 gallon pots. David, Drew and I began moving the rain barrels, so that we can start organizing the area by the door into a new work area. Since the irrigation has "fixed" the benching, we can't simply move things around now. It was a VERY hot day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #9: Seed Collecting

We went seed collecting at Nix, to Dilly then Barbara’s lake, including David, Kristen, Drew, Noelia, Kellan, Nicoli and Gigi (picture taker). It was only in 90’s, and a great day for heat stroke. Collected black sage, yerba mensa, verbena and more. The seed flats continue to be dug up and seed eaten by ??, so I did a cut out on caging David built, and put back over seed flats. Germination looks good on most flats. Argentine ants are setting up home this year, so we’ll have to work on that. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #8: Seed Collecting

We went seed collecting along Willow Road and Laurel trail, including David, Kristen, Drew, John, and Trish. Many of the seed flats from last week have already sprouted! (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #7: Seed Flats

Preparation of seed flats for 2009-10 year. Sarah, Beth, Kellan, Drew, John, Noelia and guest appearance by Trish. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Plant List 2009-10

2009-10 Work Day #6

John, Beth, Kellan, Kristen and Noelia came out today. We reviewed IPM practices for the tree/shrubs, and Noelia and Kellan thinned foliage, especially on elderberry, took care of aphids and small outbreak of what appears to be white-fly. John and Kristen started on seed cleaning, and then were joined by Noelia and Kellan. All the available seed collected within this past year were cleaned, bagged and labeled. The bags will get an overnight stay in my freezer to take care of any critters. The 3 hour work day went by fast. Click any pic to enlarge.

2009-10 Work Day #5

John, Drew, Kellan and Noelia (1st timer). Ranger Barbara stopped by to chat after coming back from vacation. Noelia worked on ridding tree's of aphids and white-fly. John cleaned flats for seed flats and water outside plants. Kellan and Drew put up new shade-cloth sidings and assembled the new containers (we now have 5). I replaced the sprinkler heads over the potted-plants, and they appear to really do the job (about 5x gpm increase). We all arranged pots and put into old containers. I must add that Bette did bring treats by, as she does most work days... very thoughtful. All in all a very productive day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #4

David, Sarah, Kristen (1st timer), Kellan and David. Wow! We got the Tree House squared away which officially completes the irrigation project. This included organizing the pots, putting a sprinkler in each one and testing everything worked. David took care of the outside plants, and the rest assembled the new storage containers that you can sit on (pictured)... which are REALLY nice and spacious. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10 Work Day #3

Anne, David and Drew helped put together the micro sprinkler "hubs" for the Tree House. These are centered on a 6 port manifold, 6' of tubing and an adjustable micro-sprinkler. We then put more plants into the ground around the Nursery. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Irrigation finished in main structure

The Nursery main structure now has irrigation: misting and sprinkler. Click here for slideshow. David and Francisco both helped. (Click any pic to enlarge)

2009-10: Work Day 2

Sarah points to her suggestion to free birds that get into Nursery. This has been ongoing problem at Nursery, especially with sparrows: they get in, but can't get out. We fixed tie-wraps on main structure. David helped put more surplus potted plants around Nursery. We then continued working on irrigation system.

2009-10: Work Day 1

Sarah, David, John and Kellan were out today. John and I moved flats and pots out of the main structure to allow changing bencing and work on irrigation this week. All helped prep the 12 plants we're cold stratifying, some require it and the others it performs the same task as being in a flat. We'll be able to start the flats after the misting sytstem is in place... hopefully by the end of the week. (Click any pic to enlarge).

Meeting with OC Parks

Laura, Karl, Barbara, me, Jackie, Jennifer. We met to discuss ways OC Parks can help LCWP-Nursery and how our volunteer efforts can help get nurseries going in other OC parks. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Rabbit Fence

I added a fence to Tree structure to keep smaller animals out, notabley rabbits. We've been trying verious things to keep them out , but to no avail. They have been digging, cutting and bedding on the plants.

It's rattlesnake time again, and one was spotten on the path betweeen structures by Rick last week and today. Click here for snake relocation from trailer stairs.

Seed Collecting

Jason and I went collecting today at the south part of the park looking for plants in the maritime chaparral. We found 2 of the 3 I was looking for: red berry and bush rue. Lemonade berry was a brilliant orange, so we couldn’t pass that up. On the way back to Willow, Mr Rattlesnake, Southern Pacfic, was laying across Bommer. See video of snake: click here. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Seed Collecting

I went seed collecting today with Jason. We collected 1-2 years worth of purple needle grass, N. pulchra, at Big Bend and near entrance. We also scored Juncus Textiles, pictured; and Juncus acutus, which was a real find as the only other source was at the end of Emerald Canyon. This looks to be a good seed collecting year: variety and quantity. LOTS of ticks and poison ivy.

Work Day #12/13: bumping up

Drew and Kellan potted 40 plants on April 5. Weeded… this get out of hand under the benching… only to have Ceanothus eaten by slugs/snails. That problem is now resolved.
Beth bumped up Dudleya into 20 give-away pots. John and Drew bumped up 70 tree-shrubs into 5 gallon pots, with 9-month slow release fertilizer and mycorrhizae inoculated. David and I fixed the plumbing bib to accommodate a 2nd line for the irrigation system.
To make it all fun, it was very hot day. 101F in the Nursery shade structure. Bette, as she does many times, supplied tasty pastries.

Work Day, 2009#11 Final!!

Today was our final Nursery work day for the 2008-9 plant year. John helped Drew and Kellan pot up the big-pod Ceanothus into 5 gallon pots (hah! we ran out of soil..). Beth and Anne weeded and got pots and trays organized for next year. Nanci worked with Robert Hamersley and wife Tina weed and clean up. Also Robert fixed the little red wagon. David also weeded. So we got the place in great shape for our next plant year, which starts in July this year.
Good news is we now have city water in both structures. Thank you Ranger Barbara and plumber Bert

Work Day, 2009#10 Bumping Up

Stephanie, Beth, Drew and John. Finished regular seed flats. This will make total plants at about 1,800 (see inventory list).

Plant Inventory 2008/9

Notes
- List is sorted by “Plant/Tree”, botanical name
- All plants are in TOLN potting soil, 9 month slow release fertilizer and mycorrhizae inoculated.
- What’s ready now: bladder pod, milk weed, CA fuchsia, Mustang mint
- The remaining plants will take at least 1 month to be ready to plant
- The tree’s will be over-summered in 5 gallon pots
- Estimate of additional plants: rose (90 more), mountain mahogany (40 more), elderberry (20 more), white sage (30 more).

Work Day, 2009#10 Bumping Up

Nanci, Linda, John, Sarah, David and try-it-out volunteer from Soka University: Megan Tan. Bumped up remainder of plants: CA rose, Monkey Flower, purple needle grass, bedding plant, elderberry, mountain mahogany, and white sage.
There is enough work for 1 more work day to bump up tree-shrubs. It will take at least another month until we can bump up the tree-shrubs to 5 gallon pots…. size of plant and/or time of year that critters don’t eat the tops of them.
We’re starting to see fungal (fungus) gnats on the seed flats. These guys promote “damping off”. Search finds that common source is over-watering.. also if you are using peat-based media, consider switching to one that only contains perlite and vermiculite. Good air circulation is also a deterrent.
The automated irrigation project is making good headway. Ranger Laura worked with Eagle scout group, which donated $600 to the Nursery for the automated irrigation system. Ranger Barbara has gotten the County work started to lay bibs to both structures.
Beth is going to do various testing on the prickly pear cactus seeds. This will save us trial-and-error. However I have not given up on flat we have.

Weather: raining during week and another storm coming. 160 gallons of rain water.

Work Day, 2009#9 Bumping Up

The volunteers included David, Linda, John, Nanci and newbie Stephanie (Soka student). We bumped up bush sunflower, elderberry, monkey flower and purple needle grass.
The Park had taken our 430 purple needle grass and planted them for re-vegetation around the Nix Center. In 1 or 2 work days we should be able to move our trees up to the 5 gallon containers. See slide show. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Work Day, 2008#8

David, Beth, Anne, and Linda helped on today's work day. We bumped up purple needle grass, CA fuchsia and mustang mint. The oaks are growing, slowly. We've had a period of near-freezing temperatures.
The 2” of rain produced about 60 gallons of rain water -30gal/1”. This is less than average of 50 gallons/1” of rain. Interesting enough we used 18 gallons this work day – most of this was for cleaning.
A big help has been David and Beth coming by and checking on plants and watering. Without an automated irrigation system, maybe this June, this is the support we need.