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)