Clean Up Day #3

David, Beth, Noelia, John, Sarah, Drew and new-comer Bob (none pictured) all came to help out today. Noelia put the finishing touches on the irrigation for the “temporary” storage of plant flats, which she put together last week. This turned out very well and taps into one of our existing lines. We’re using micro-sprinklers in a test mode. Drew leveled “temporary” storage area and put in first stakes. Bob, John and Noelia wrapped up the staking the fencing. Bob moved 20 plus bags of TOLN potting soil, each weighing 75 pounds, over to the new storage area. He then cut and bent fencing stakes… a hard working guy.
Beth and Sarah fixed the tree/shrub structure fixings and put up south facing side for upcoming warm weather. In the same spirit they hung shade cloth siding on main structure. They then arm-wrestled the irrigation timer and checked all the micro-sprinklers in tree/shrub area. We then negotiated a plan for the upcoming plant bumping up.
John assembled the new tree pot cart and the new wheel-barrel for mixing potting soil. Neither fit on path to main structure, so this will need to be widened.
David tended to the ever-growing plants newly planted around the Nursery. We reviewed the irrigation setup for the outside watering too.

Clean Up Day #2

David, Beth, Noelia, John and new-comer Bob are pictured in new storage area. Noelia and Beth both got all the assorted pots into containers, which keeps them critter free, cleaner and easier to manage. John and David worked on clearing the 10x10yard area for planting and irrigation. Robert and Bob cleared new storage area and laid cloth.
We reviewed the number of new Nursery initiatives: new storage area, 10x10 yard area/year to irrigate/restore, an dpotting bench and hopper. We reviewed how we’d bump up new cuttings to size of pot and how to get this into a 1 gallon pot. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Clean Up Day #1

David and Beth helped do major clean up at Nursery today. Beth cleared back the foliage around the Nursery perimeter so that we can get around on all sides and we now have a full work area. David fixed the little red wagons, weeded and took care of new plantings around Nursery. I cleared area for supplies and weeded also. We were all exhausted at the end.
We seem to have made some real progress with the deer-mice, as we have not had any in the chests for 3 weeks now. David brought in the final prevention: a sign he and granddaughter made. We concur that Betty’s suggestion of steel-wool in the open spaces did the trick.
By the way… David is helping me with another automated irrigation scheme to water the plants we have started outside the Nursery and an overflow area (to be determined). (Click any pic to enlarge)

An update, lookin' good

We already have 460 restoration plants: purple needle grass (280), Juncus acutus (144), and rose (36). These are almost ready to go.
Our vegetative plants are doing very well. See following pictures of samples that are about 2 ½ months old. So far the results look very positive. See root growth in pictures of black sage and buckwheat.
We’re testing walnut, Juglans californica, and sycamore. The walnut came from Crystal Cover (but I think we have some outside of Willow gate). The tree planting by Willow gate will need another mulch put down… unsure if we’ll do it or park staff.
If you haven’t seen planting at Willow Ranger trailer, take note. Very pretty white monkey flower and mustang mint in picture.
Before our “official” plant day, in early July, we’ll have a few clean up and get ready work days. In June we’ll be open for new volunteers to start, no reason to leave them out of pot scrubbing, cabinet cleaning, weeding and other duties as required!
Deer mice continue to be a problem with our cabinets. They chew up everything and pee-poop-birth on everything; damaging supplies and making all unsanitary. We’re working on keeping them out, and going to try repellants too.
(Click any pic to enlarge)

End of 2009/10 Plant Year

Beth, Nanci, Sarah and David helped wrap up the end of the 2009/2010 plant year. All seed flats were bumped up and all tree/shrubs pots were bumped up to 5 gallon pots. The tree inventory is back up to about 60%.
Beth brought in her flat used for her training at TPF, and finished potting them up. These were about 5.5 months, and many of the plants woodier than ours. These plants give us a good idea of what we should expect. Also I’m running tests on sycamore, walnut and willow cuttings.
The weather was slightly overcast with a cool breeze; rain is forecast for tomorrow. Deer mice continue to get into the Nursery containers over the past 3 weeks. We’re taking Beth’s suggestion of plugging the lock hole and the hinges. Stay tuned as whatever drives them to do this is strong. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Plant Propagation: Vegetative #4

Beth, Noelia and Kristen helped prepare 5 cutting flats: BRI CAL, RHU LAU, MIM LON, ERI FAS and ENC CAL. That’s a total of 320 more cuttings, bringing our total to 1,204… we’ll see what that turns into actual plants. As important, most of the Nursery volunteers have gotten 1-3 training sessions with vegetative propagation, and this last group showed they are getting the knack.
The day was warm, and rain is expected next week for 2 days. The water to the Nursery had been turned off, and Ranger Steve made sure it was working again.
(Click any pic to enlarge)

Vegetative Propagation Steps

These are the steps we've used for vegetative plant propagation. Most of these were adapted from trainging at Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery. (Click any pic to enlarge)