December workday report & the Panhandle gets its first signposts

Yesterday at the Panhandle, volunteers from the community joined with Rec and Park's gardening staff for the final community workday of 2017. Afterward, we gathered for our group picture below the new signposts, which, for the first time, proudly name our neighborhood park.

Perks of volunteering: holiday wreaths and homemade cookies

The morning's work centered around the plantings near the restroom. Starting at the mound, we planted approximately a dozen oenothera - evening primrose, the same variety that has done well nearby and produces yellow blooms on tall flower spikes, leaving behind lots of tasty seeds for the birds. The new primroses were placed in a bare spot on the mound, which otherwise has filled in well with coyote brush, ceanothus, yarrow, strawberry and other native plants since initial planting two years ago by park staff and volunteers.

For the rest of the morning, our crew of volunteers was busy with raking eucalyptus leaves from the grass, trimming the honeysuckle shrub bordering the playground, removing weeds from the rain garden, and doing some careful pruning of the dogwoods.