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.

Work Day, 2008#7

David brought his 3rd bench cover today, which we promptly put onto the seed flats, as many had again been eaten by “critters”. Those plants that were inside one of David’s cover’s, were AOK. So this is a story with a happy ending.

David, Beth and Steve went seed collecting up Laurel trail: prickly pear fruit, Toyon, Lancet-leaf Dudleya, Mugwort and some Deer grass. We ran into LCF work detail with Ranger Jackie doing trail repair (looked like hard work).

Beth and David have been helping water and check on plants during the week. A big help, and much needed.

Bumping Up, 2008#6

Most of the tree/shrubs were damaged by “critters”: Big pod Ceanothus, Toyon, Mountain Mahogany, and Holyleaf redberry. Also we lost many seed flats to early hot/windy weather. Sarah repaired Ceanothus, and re-seeded Holyleaf redberry. John reseeded Prickly pear cactus, rose and Bush sunflower. David reseeded Mountain Mahogany. Beth did repotting for existing potted plants. Bill worked with Linda on oaks. There was about 30 gallons of rain water from under 2 inches of rain from last week.

Bumping Up, 2008#5

David brought in two spiffy covers that we’ve already started using on the oak seedlings. In January, or when the oaks have 3-4 sets of true leaves, “something” gnaws the stem off at the base. This year we’re ready, and the design is light and easy to move around. For safe measure, the seed flats were covered too.
Nanci bumped up CA fuchsia and helped Bill bump up Coast Live and Scrub oak. John bumped up Big Pod Ceanothus. Steve helped prep potting soil and make labels. David made flats of Lemonade Berry and Elderberry that had been cold stratifying. The group finished with another set of Purple Needle grass. See slide show. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Bumping Up, 2008#4

The weather waited to rain today until right before we started working… about 0.1”. David started bladder-pod and bumped up CA fuchsia. Beth continued, along with John, on oaks and bumped up coast live oak. Nanci and Steve bumped up purple needle-grass, and a flat of scrub oak. The seed flats for toyon, false indigo, ceanothus, and mountain mahogany have all started and appear to be viable. The group went through 150 gallons of potting soil!

2008: Plant List and Seed Flats

Seed flats, 2008-9#3

Nanci and Linda put together seed pots for narrow-leaf and Indian milkweed. David finished flat of Ceanothus. John did seed flat of Dudleya and Sycamore. Bill did seed flat of Laurel Sumac. Beth cleaned all the seeds in cold-stratification: oaks, elderberry and lemonade berry. The oaks are about 10% germinated, so we will be bumping them up next work day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Seed flats, 2008-9#2

Nanci, John, Steve and Beth all helped put together our first seed flats and get the cold-stratification batch started. Lots of prep work still needed to be done: clean seed flat containers, seed cleaning, prepare flats, label everything…. We were able to get all the key plants started today with great help! See slide show. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Nursery Work Day, 2008/9-#1

Our first official work day for the plant year 2008/9 involved lots of cleaning: Nanci, Bill, Steve and John. Nanci made sure all was cleaned up in Nursery, and then moved to cleaning seed from the rose hips and cactus fruit. Bill started the day by watering Dudleya and tree inventory, which have been on a every two week cycle over the summer. John, Steve, and Bill then proceeded to clean seed that we have collected over the 12 months. Then Steve helped do the final bag and label of seed, which I took home to get a 24 hour freeze to de-critter.
Oh… for those there, the plant listing is: Narrow leaved bedstraw, Galium angustifolium .
In the slideshow, click here, you’ll see Nanci starting to fill blender, with blades taped, with rose hip to begin seed separation. The “rose water” had the added benefit of softening your hands! Then you’ll see cactus fruit in bucket that had also been separated, then seed skimmed off top. Bill is taking the husk off False Indigo seeds. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Seed Collecting 2008

Collected rose, cactus fruit, acorns (coast live and scrub), wild rye grass, elderberry and Brickle brush with John today on Laurel loop trail. Very plentiful collection. Ranger Jacky is collecting more cactus fruit from the Nix area too. Click here for rose bed close up. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Seed Collecting

Seed collecting today with John and Bill up Laurel Loop. We scouted acorns for Coast Live Oak and Scrub Oak which are abundant, but not quite ready: on tree, turning brown and come out of cap easily. However we did collect rose and false indigo. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Big Minds Meet

Met with Karl today, new Executive Director for Laguna Canyon Foundation. Karl is all around good guy. Karl and I took Liz Brown's Docent class in 1999. With the LCF's support, we're able to continue on with projects and add to the Nursery, as witnessed by our new carts! After 7 years, we're finally using the wheel to move things around.

Nursery Work Day

Anne, David and John came to work. David and John potted up the remaining larger plants into 5 gallon pots. In the larger pots the plants can over-summer with less care and less stress. These plants were moved to the new tree structure. They were able to use up most of the recycled potting soil we had left.
Anne, John and I cleaned the 115-or-so 5 gallon pots that I’d fished out of the recycle bin at my work. This saved the Nursery about $600 for new pots being shipped to us.
The new docent training class stopped in with Bette to get a birds eye view of us working away.

Seed Collecting & Deer

I went seed collecting and as I was trying to see the rose patch by El Toro/LCH, a “foot step” behind me made me jump, only to find a deer grazing on elderberry. Collected Mountain Mahogany, Golden Yarrow and Golden Stars. Looks like it will be super year for Toyon and Oaks. Click here for current list.

Seed collecting with John. Collected: Mustang mint, onion and Mariposa lily. Black sage seed is abundant. The shrub oak look like they will bear well this year. Click here for current list.

Tree Structure Completed

With the help of Peter, John and Francisco from February to May 2008, we were able to complete the new tree structure at the Nursery. Last year we successfully tested that tree/shrub plants fare fine over summer in 5 gallon pots with little attention. Add to the suggestion from Master Gardener program to use motorized auger for tree holes, which was recently purchased. And finally a need by park Ranger Barbara for these type plants. This all now comes together with a need, a planting method and a low-maintenance care while during the summer. The structure can keep an inventory of about 130 tree/shrubs. The Park staff added crushed rock to structure and path. Then they added mulch on entrance paths. Very nice. All that’s left is to purchase Nursery carts to get trees to parking areas. See slide show. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Bumping Up 2007-8/#6

Sarah, Anne, Nanci, John and David helped finish off our container plant work on this work day, though Paul did drop by. At the end of the day we had 1,600 restoration plants, 146% of our goal. All container plants are in 3-4 inch pots, use TOLN potting soil, include 9 month slow-release fertilizer and are mycorrhizae inoculated, including Glomus intraradices. The pot size is ideal for restoration planting. Click here for ending plant inventory.
There are two restoration planting dates set for Feb and March, see calendar for specifics. So our plants are destined to get in the ground. The Willow area will be mowed and probably seeded right around planting.
We left the seed flats under frost cloth as temperatures are expected into the 30’s until next week. If there is a prolonged forecast of low-30’s, then we’ll also cover the container plants with frost cloth. Stay tuned about the new structure for our Tree Inventory. The proposal will be presented to The Laguna Canyon Foundation board this Monday at their next meeting. See slideshow for pictures. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Ending Plant Inventory 2007/8

Bumping up 2007-8/#5

Sarah, David and John came by and we continued to bump up and we fixed existing pots. Our plant numbers are at 125% of our goal of 1,100. We would have finished off our list, but a few plants just we not ready. We probably won’t have our final plants ready until a few weeks. David again graciously volunteered to come by and check on things over the next few weeks.
We started this work day later in the day to account for the continued frosty weather; and low-and-behold everyone was very happy about starting later. mmmmm this only took me 4 years to figure out! The seed flats had been under the frost cloth for 2 weeks, and they looked AOK. This looks to be promising technique. (Click any pic to enlarge)