Bumping Up #2

Beth, Sarah, Drew, Bob and David all helped today. Beth coordinated the bumping up of the cuttings with Bob and Sarah. Many of our flats we had a 100% success rate, and others much less.
David, still not over this bug, worked more on the outside plants, which look great. We’ve noodle out a plan, and OKed today by Ranger Barbara, to clear are around Nursery, have a Juvy crew put out mulch, then lay irrigation out, and plant. We’ll have a path through area to make working there easier.
Drew and I worked again on getting the mix right for a bag of TOLN potting soil (which is actually about 21 liquid gallons): 6 gallons water, 1/3 bag of 1oz mycorrhizae mix, and 1.5 cups Osmocote fertilizer. The new mixing wheel-barrel works really well.
Drew and I also expanded the pathway from 32” to a little over 40” to accommodate the new wheel-barrel. This is a more appropriate size for many Nursery carts.
It was a pleasantly overcast day. (Click any pic to enlarge)

Bumping Up #1

Beth, Sarah, Drew, Bob and for a while David all helped out today. Beth organized and worked with Sarah and Drew to bump up our first batch of cuttings we started in 4 months ago. Our original flats from training, with mixed species, were nothing to compare with our later flats in overall quality of cutting… we’re learning. Key was to get the various training flats with mixed species back into same-plant flats.
Bob helped me use the new wheeled cart which allows us to mix a full 30 gallon bag of TOLN potting soil and then wheel it over to the potting work area… cutting down people traffic. Also the cart allows us to mix 3 times the amount as before. Key is to get the right mix of water and potting soil… about 8 gallons.
Bob also helped me repair the temporary plant fenced area, which Beth reported full of rabbits last week. Find out a critter had chewed a hole on the back side of the plastic fence. The fence is now metal. A good thing we only tested with 1 flat (18 plants). Last week Noelia put together and installed a drip line irrigation for this area… very nice.
David was sick, but still was able to come by and tend to the plants on the outside of the Nursery. We’ll be putting irrigation lines on these plants. All the materials arrived in the past few days. (Click any pic to enlarge)

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)