April workday, with major projects underway in the Panhandle

At our workday in the Panhandle on Saturday, April 13, volunteers from the community worked together on one of our most important ongoing projects: caring for the trees in the park. We removed weeds from around the trees so that the park workers can maintain a safe distance from the trees while mowing the park's grassy meadows. 

As part of the morning's work, we also performed some ongoing maintenance work in the rain garden, removing some of the weeds and trimming back some of the most aggressive growth. With the Panhandle Playground project having begun, a fence is now installed right at the very edge of the rain garden, allowing for the removal and eventual rebuilding of the pathway. 

A Groundbreaking event sponsored by Rec and Park and the San Francisco Parks Alliance is planned for tomorrow, Thursday, April 25, from 11 am to noon. All are welcome to attend, meet your neighbors and city officials, and learn more about the Panhandle Playground and other playground renovations.

Demolition of the playground looks complete

The irrigation project was also active on April 13, with some trenching around the southwest corner of Fell & Masonic. 

Report of our October workday

On a beautiful fall morning, neighbors and families from the San Francisco Day School joined together with the the gardening staff of SF Rec and Park Department to take care of our local park, the Panhandle.

Four volunteers tackling the heavy duff left by the big trees 

Around our playground (which is slated for a complete rebuilding next year), grows a diverse mix of plantings, like well-established penstemons and butterfly bush. The area also has many large trees that shed their bark and leaves year-round...and so keeping the plantings in good shape takes some extra care and attention from the volunteers.

Four more volunteers wondering how to remove all the weedy grass from the rain garden

Adjacent to the playground, our rain garden has one problem area, on the west edge where seeds of invasive grasses pour in from the surrounding turf during each rainfall. This month's volunteer crew tackled the job of removing these grasses, and then planted in with some clumps of yarrow that grows nearby. Let's hope the yarrow begins to fill in this spot.

A sunny fall morning

Report of our September workday

On Saturday, local residents got together at the Panhandle to help our gardening staff with the continuing effort to keep the Panhandle Park welcoming and beautiful.

Brian suggested that maintenance of the irrigation system for the rain garden was overdue. That involved opening up the control box, and giving everyone a tutorial on the controls inside. 

It also required an assessment of all of the sprinkler heads, cleaning or replacing those that were clogged or damaged, and in some cases, digging out and and re-positioning the fixture. It was the most thorough maintenance of the irrigation that volunteers have been involved in, and will be important to give the garden some watering during the warm months ahead.

Not all of the volunteers on Saturday were wrapped up in the irrigation system, others were busy raking out beds, deadheading the blooms and removing weeds from the mound, and trimming back the shrubs surrounding the playground. We wrapped up with some raking of the leaves near the basketball courts.

February workday with SF Day School

Our community workday last Saturday was bright and warm, in the middle of a very dry winter. We were greeted in the morning by Rec and Parks employees, who had placed more than a dozen new bunch grasses for planting into the mound. 

Once the grasses were planted, our attention turned to the rain garden, which needed a good weeding after a few months without attention - especially the northside, which gets inundated with annual grasses. 

A bunch of Douglas Iris and a couple of alum root were also brought out by the parks department for planting into the garden. This kind of iris has been very successful in the garden, producing some spectacular purple blooms.

Nearby, families from the SF Day School worked throughout the morning to clear fallen eucalyptus leaves and branches, with a break for cookies freshly baked by Brian, our friendly Rec and Park gardener.  

August workday at the Panhandle

It was a cold Saturday morning, and as we walked through the Panhandle we could hear heavy drops of condensed fog falling from the tall trees. But there was work to do! A large eucalyptus branch had fallen near the south path. In the mound full of perennials, Bermuda Grass was sending its ropy underground shoots through and around our plantings. Weedy annual grasses had infiltrated the rain garden. Thousands of leaves and passels of bark strips lay scattered across the meadows. And the stumps of dead trees stuck up from the turf, like unfinished business. Was there any way for us to accomplish all of the work? Fortunately, our regular volunteers were in attendance, and our numbers were bolstered by the Bridgemen, a group for gay, bi and trans men who get together and give back to the community in service projects. 

By the end of the workday, the weather was still damp and chilly, but the group had persevered through the challenging project. The tally was seven tree stumps removed. The cart was full of the stubs of roots and the pickup truck had a full load of weeds and leaves. The traces of our work removing the stumps showed in several areas with a topping of fresh soil. With the work done by the end of the morning, the Panhandle was looking great, and was more ready for tree plantings that are anticipated this fall.

June workday report

The workday on Saturday, June 10 brought out regular volunteers and some new folks as well, to work on keeping the Panhandle beautiful. After a thorough weeding of the rain garden, we turned to pruning basal shoots and root sprouts (suckers) produced by the large elm trees near the playground. We continued with our loppers towards the east, making it all the way to Baker Street, clearing basal shoots around more trees and also some pruning back some shrubs that had begun to intrude on the multi-use pathway.

Get out and enjoy the additional clearance on the path

Video on building community through work effort in the Panhandle

On this holiday weekend, I'm re-posting a video about the community workdays at the Panhandle, produced by Ben Youngerman, the creative force of local agency Panhandle Productions.

"Just show up, people are friendly, a great place to hang out and do something for the neighborhood."

Report from March workday

Amidst our historically rainy winter, we were able to enjoy a community workday at the Panhandle Park on a sunny Saturday morning.

Regular volunteers were joined by families from the San Francisco Day School, making a large group who were able to cover all the territory near the center of the Panhandle that we have spent much effort on taking care of: the rain garden, the mound of native perennials, and the plantings surrounding the playground.

November workday at the Panhandle

A super group of volunteers joined yesterday's workday at the Panhandle Park, joined by Liz (center in vest) a gardener newly-assigned to our sector of Golden Gate Park.

We took up the challenge of aggressively removing weeds and over-abundant native plants in the rain garden, in order to free up some space for a number of new plants and maximize the biodiversity there. 

With plants provided by the RPD nursery, we planted some additional primrose, cinquefoil, and currant into the garden, as well as one new species: sambucus racemosa. Looking forward to abundant rain, perhaps coming in the next few days, to give these plants a good long drink.  

Join us November 12 as we diversify the plants in the Panhandle Park

Our next community workday in the Panhandle is in a week and a half:

Panhandle Park Community Workday
Saturday, Nov 12
9 am - 12 noon
All are welcome. Tools and gloves are provided. Wear sturdy shoes and dress in layers. 

The rains have begun, and that means it's planting season! Our rain garden near the playground was planted in early 2013 with dozens of species native to California. It's time for updates to the garden so join us for the fun of planting new plants into the garden and move a few others around. We'll also have a variety of other tasks, like sweeping, raking and weeding.

a photo from 2013...

...and one from this fall

The August workday at the Panhandle

At our workday on Saturday, August 13, volunteers from the community joined Rec and Park staff to help out with ongoing projects: tending to our rain garden full of diverse California native plants (planted about three and a half years ago) and to the nearby mound covered in a patchwork of drought tolerant perennials, planted just within the past year. There was a lot of weeding, raking, sweeping, pruning and deadheading, resulting in a truck full of trimmings heading to the park's compost yard. 

Report from the July workday at the Panhandle

At yesterday's Panhandle workday, volunteers from the community turned out to work with Rec and Park staff to take care of the park's gardens, focusing on the area near the playground.

A few of yesterday's accomplishments -

• Removing sand from the south pathway next to the playground 
• Tending the rain garden by removing trash, raking leaves, and pulling weeds, and
• Thoroughly removing weeds from the mound next to the restroom (planted this past winter, in part by volunteers in February and in part by city workers), and 
• Most impressively: installing a sturdier, and more attractive rope fence around the planting on the mound. 

See the pictures below for more - 

On the mound, clipping expired blooms from yarrow can result in new growth 

Installing the sturdy new posts required a stake pounder and a lot of work

The new fence was strung at the end of the morning

Since planting at the beginning of 2016, the sticky monkey, coyote brush, and other plants have grown and bloomed. Volunteers have fertilized the plants and also keep on top of the weeds that inevitably sprout. 

A large portion of the yarrow in the rain garden looked black and blighted. Yesterday's solution: remove to the ground level, watch for new growth, and replant the area if necessary. This coast buckwheat will enjoy the space to grow. 

The community volunteer program at the Panhandle continues on the second Saturday of each month, from 9 am - 12 noon. 

Spring at the Panhandle rain garden

This picture was taken on a very rainy day just about two years ago. It's a great reminder of the beginnings of our rain garden, located in the Panhandle next to the children's playground. 

The garden has been hugely helped by the abundant seasonal rains this year. A large number of volunteers have also worked to keep weeds at bay - and they've been largely successful. While there are several kinds of weedy grasses in the garden, they are just a small portion on the vegetation, and they are outmatched by several species of native grass, including Nasella pulchra (Purple needlegrass). 

Last fall, a native plant called Spreading Rush proved to be spreading too much, so we pulled the smaller sprouts and moved around the juvenile plants. Now, that area is more diverse with ferns, heucheras, tellimas, and a number of Heracleum giganteum (Cow parsnip) with their white flowers on tall stalks.

The red-stem dogwoods have grown quickly, and this spring after putting out leaves they are now beginning to display their small white flowers. Many species of birds visit the protective thicket.

The yarrow forms a solid border on the north side of the garden, and is setting up for a long bloom in late spring/early summer. 

Meanwhile on the opposite side, a more delicate plant called Potentilla gracilis (Graceful cinquefoil) is prolific. Its bright yellow flowers bloom in summer-fall. These three plants - the dogwood, yarrow, and cinquefoil - are some of the plants in the garden that, in the future, we may choose to cut back, in order to increase the diversity within the rain garden. Pruning back native plants takes effort, but it's a great situation for this project to be in.  

The willowherb - growing profusely on the side of the garden near the basketball courts - may call for slightly different measures. We have discussed the willowherb at workdays and have puzzled over whether to remove it. We did not plant it; even the exact species is elusive ... I guess it is Epilobium parviflorum or ciliatum or hirsutum...so maybe it's native, maybe not. There will be a summer bloom of thousands of tiny bright purple-pink flowers. I leaned toward leaving them in place, preferring them to more intrusive grasses that wash into the garden with each rainfall. By mid summer, though, many of them may need to go. After blooming, their seeds quickly emerge, attached to long white fibers and hanging on to the tops of the plants a bit like spiderwebs..and then the whole plant dies. It might be a good idea to remove some of them this summer, both for appearance and to keep it from extending its reach around the garden.   

At our February Workday, crafty people will build a fence

Mark your calendars - a week from Saturday is the next Panhandle Community workday:

Panhandle Park workday

Saturday, February 13

9 am - 12 noon

Meet at the gardener's shed (near Oak @ Ashbury)

Gloves and tools provided. All ages welcome!

During the workday on February 13, there will be an option to take part in a special crafty project: to assemble and install a low fence around the rain garden next to the playground. The fence will be built from natural products - willow branches harvested from San Francisco parks. A fence like this will be attractive and durable. This project will require extra hands and patience. To help us plan for the project, please RSVP if you would like to be one of those involved in the project. That will help us plan for tools and materials.

Headover to Pinterest and search Willow+wattle for an amazing array of ways to build these fences!

November workday report

 At the community workday this Saturday, volunteers helped the Panhandle by teaming up with our Rec and Park staff on two projects: tending to the grounds near the playground with new plantings, and spreading compost fines to nourish the redwoods growing near Cole Street.

Afterward, we celebrated our morning of work with some chicken and veggie tacos prepared by Guillermo. Thanks everyone!

"Brown is the new green": Spreading woodchips beneath the elms

Planting drought-tolerant perennials next to the gardener's shed

Reorganizing plants in the rain garden to fortify the edges

Spreading a layer of soil below redwoods and one of the 2 California Buckeyes in the Panhandle (at right)

In the shade of the Panhandle's redwood grove