February Work day wrap-up

With huge participation, great planning and organization, and heavenly weather, the February Panhandle work day was a success this morning. Here are a few pictures that capture some of the fun and accomplishments.

We began at 9 for introductions and a rundown of the day's plans from Guillermo, Gloria, Zack and Charlie (department staff). 

Working with some of our regular volunteers from the neighborhood, students  from SF Day School worked to bring healthy soil into the children's garden around the perimeter of the playground. 

A small, hard-working group spread cardboard to suppress weeds, and then added soil to an area at the southeast corner of the playground. We'll get to plant this area soon! 

Students worked in small groups at a table in the playground making Shasta Daisy seed balls with clay, soil,  and water. 

 Wielding shovels, volunteers spread out and edged the mud and grass off of pretty much all the pathways in the center of the park. Compared to the muddy conditions of last spring, this is pretty miraculous.  Let's hope that the rains coming next week don't return the mud to the walkways.

Another group traveled east of Masonic with wheelbarrows, pitchforks and rakes to spread mulch under the big cherry laurel (one of my favorite trees in the park - seen below during one of last year's big picnic days). Considering the tree's huge canopy, that's a bigger job than it sounds like. Looking at past workdays, we spread wood chips on that tree in February 2010. How cyclical!

Thanks everyone!

Brown conical mushrooms sprout yesterday in the park under a cherry laurel

The large cherry laurel just east of Masonic is a real survivor. Our park has quite a few laurels, but none like this. From time to time, people leave trash in there and cut into or gouge the trunk with metal and glass. When I visited the park yesterday, I saw that one of its large branches was pulled down to the ground and the branch was cracked. That was hard to see. 

It cheered me up to turn around and find mushrooms sprouting from wood chips we spread around the tree in February. 

February blooms in the Park

During late February, we start seeing some early blooms in the Panhandle Park. Above - Cherry Laurels (just east of Masonic). Below - a white magnolia and a pink magnolia near the McKinley Monument.

February Work day wrap-up

Yesterday's work day for the Panhandle Park Stewards brought out lots of enthusiastic volunteers to work on making the Panhandle a better park - and the best weather we've seen in a long time. 

After meeting at the Bulletin Board, a group travelled east to a stand of trees just east of Masonic. After picking up a few bags of trash (see last week's post on drinking parties), we shoveled wood chips on the ground to shield the shallow topsoil and protect the trees' roots.

After posing for this group shot, we travelled further east to the Redwoods and spread more compost around the grove (a task we started in January). This hard working group, which included both neighbors and green-agers from across SF, had their pitchforks, wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes moving fast.

Back at the playground, our Panhandle gardener Dave was helping lead another dozen volunteers, including One Brick and Asian American Recovery Services, were sweeping and raking leaves in and around the playground. Meanwhile, a crew from Rec & Park made a soil delivery. I gather that the children's garden around the playground is getting a make-over. For planters, it's out with the old tires and in with wood barrels.

Above: Jay with some of the day's One Brick volunteers.

A huge THANK YOU to everybody who helped make the work day a huge success. Hope to see you back on the Second Saturday in March.