A tree planting at our August community workday

Our newly planted Kauri Pine

The mature Kauri Pine

Among all the introduced trees seen in the parks of San Francisco, the Queensland Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta) is one of the less common. Kauri Pines have leathery, evergreen leaves, and grow very tall. Like the more commonly seen Norfolk Island Pine, the Queensland Kauri Pine is in the auricariaceae family. The Panhandle has one mature Kauri Pine - located near Cole Street. Nearby are two young Kauri Pines planted in recent years, and now, there's a third, planted just this weekend by the Panhandle Park Stewards under the supervision of SF Rec and Park gardening staff.

In addition to volunteers from the community, the SF Bridgemen joined the work group on Saturday, helping with the other projects of the morning: cutting back sucker growth from the elms and redwoods, raking and pulling weeds, and trimming a few of the large shrubs found near Lyon Street on the south side of the park.

Thank you Bridgemen for your work on Saturday! 

There's an old salvia in here somewhere....

Redwood pruning gives the southeast corner a new look

The coast redwoods in the southeast corner of the park were pruned of most of their low branches last week, resulting in a significant change of appearance. Long a focus of community stewardship efforts, the coast redwoods at the park's eastern edge exist in a few different clusters - at the two eastern corners of the park and behind the McKinley Monument. This ambitious pruning is a sign that the city is increasing its efforts to take care of the trees in the Panhandle. 

From inside the park, the facade of Mt Zion Baptist is more visible than in recent history.

With the low-hanging branches removed, the massive trunks of the redwoods make an even more dramatic statement.

Still shady, but less gloomy at the southeast corner.

By contrast, the north-side redwoods haven't been recently pruned, and branches dip within reach. 

First rains of the season

The third rainfall in three days is soaking the park this morning. Before the rain started, I was out for a walk in the park and found that the storm had brought down a couple of big tree branches.

Next to the playground - thankfully doesn't seem to have done any damage

An even larger branch, also from a Monterey Cypress, near Shrader @ Oak

Meanwhile, I checked out the redwoods behind the McKinley Monument, which were pruned back earlier this month.

Seen from this angle, the pruning of the tall trees close to the monument looks pretty severe

The shorter redwoods located further back were also pruned but not as severely

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

October Workday Report

During yesterday's community workday at the Panhandle, neighbors split into two separate groups to take on projects at the east end and at the center of the park.

Panorama of the redwoods at the east end

In the eastern end near Baker Street, we spread a large mound of woodchips as mulch around the redwood trees, to protect the shallow roots, prevent soil compaction and conserve water. This beautiful grove of trees is ours to enjoy, so if you want to beat today's heat, take a walk beneath the canopy of the redwoods around the McKinley Monument.

Jogging under the redwoods

 

The other group tackled end-of-summer maintenance of the flowers and perennials that grow around the playground and in our rain garden, near Ashbury. The spent blooms were removed to make room for fresh starts that will come with the rains this fall and winter.

After promoting the Panhandle Park workdays for nearly six years, I feel very happy to have increasing support from the neighbors who take part in our community workdays - one time, dozens of times, or somewhere in between. Having sufficient numbers to split into two groups and take on a variety of projects in cooperation with the Rec and Park staff is also a huge mark of success.

As the drought continues,  portions of the park are growing increasingly bare of grass. However, big portions of our meadows remain green and welcoming. Meanwhile, the elms have sprouted abundant new leaves in the last month, despite my worries that the changing climate was having severe effects on them. The timing is a little odd, since we are also beginning to see fall color foliage on other trees.

Elms

Early fall color

Barer and barer

September workday report

Our monthly community workday took place last weekend, and thanks to a strong turnout from the families of the San Francisco Day School, we accomplished a ton of work to keep the park beautiful and accessible.

The SFDS families were mostly involved in a project at the east end, where a grove of redwood trees is located behind the McKinley Memorial. With wheelbarrows, rakes and pitchforks, they spread a thick topping of compost fines beneath the trees to nourish them and protect their roots.

Photos by Guillermo

Back near the playground, our regular/repeat volunteers took care of the areas next to the playground and in the rain garden, removing eucalyptus leaf and bark litter and pulling weeds, like dandelion, English plantain, and Bermuda grass. 

Doug and his friend took care of watering a few thirsty plants

Today's workday was sunny & busy

It was a warm sunny morning for our Panhandle workday, and our challenge was to reinvigorate the big bare spots in the turf around the McKinley Monument. A big crew of volunteers was on hand to shovel compost into wheelbarrows and then spread a thin layer on the compacted soil, with the hopes that the seed bank will send up fresh shoots.

After break, we spread a mountain of wood chips around the northeast redwood cluster. By the time our program ended, a crew of seven remained on hand for a final photo in the cool shade of the redwoods.

Our work site was next to the big District 5 mobilization on Baker Street for waste drop-off and compost giveaway. Some of our team brought along bags to take some free compost home. We also had the chance to grab a free reusable bag from the SF Dept of Environment.

District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague also stopped by for a chat on the way to her campaign volunteer mobilization in the shade of the memorial.

April's community workday in the Panhandle

How does it feel working in the sun? 

Thanks to more than 25 people who showed up to help out on Saturday for our April community workday! Our focus turned back to the playground, where we weeded some of the ornamental beds, raked leaves out of the sand, and added a few new perennials to the empty spots near the northeast border.   

Removing wheelbarrows full of leaves from the playground

Watering some new plants

 During the second half of the workday, we moved west and spread two truckloads of compost fines around redwoods and other trees near Fell and Cole. 

Four wheelbarrows in action at once

We also took time to discuss the city's plans to remove four trees and prune several others to address structural and safety issues. After that discussion it was eerie to return to the park later in the day and notice a forty-foot long branch that had fallen from a eucalyptus tree just across the path from the bathrooms. The limb had either fallen conveniently just off of the path behind a bench - or perhaps had been removed by some helpful folks who happened to encounter it on their Saturday afternoon visit to the park.  

March workday: Much to report

Today's steady rain was welcome at the Panhandle, giving a much needed soak for all of the plants - and especially a bunch of new ones that we put in the ground at Saturday's community work day.

Working with a big crew of volunteers, including families of the seventh graders from the SF Day School, we worked on several projects near the east end. Next to the multi-use path for the two blocks between Baker and Central, shrubs were clipped, beds were weeded and supplemented with compost, and several nice sized ornamental bushes were added.

All photos in this post by Liz Acosta Photography. Copyright, all rights reserved.

On the south path, we worked on a large bed that needed to have some weedy rumex crispus dug out, huge roots and all.  

Copyright Liz Acosta Photography

A project that took some extra planning was a special planting close to the redwoods at the southeast corner of the park. On Friday, the seventh graders learned about California's native redwood habitats during their science class. They drew pictures of two plants commonly found with the coast redwood: redwood sorrel and Western bleeding-heart. On Saturday, they planted several of these plants close to one of the redwoods, and posted some of their pictures to encourage some respect and hopefully prevent trampling.

photos Copyright Liz Acosta Photography 

 

The success of Saturday's work day was due to everybody coming together - students, parents, repeat volunteers, first-timers, and our crew from the Rec and Park Department. 

Final group photo by me.

Copyright Liz Acosta Photography

October Workday wrap-up

My pictures don't do  justice to the beautiful weather or to the amazing spirits of all the volunteers who came out for our workday on Saturday in the Panhandle.

Clearing leaves from the path and the meadow

We were joined by an awesome group of families from the San Francisco Day School, who joined the main group of volunteers on a job that at first appeared daunting and thankless - raking up eucalyptus leaves in a big area between Clayton and Cole Street on both sides of the north path. But with a lot of people getting to work, and with help from RPD, raking leaves in the sunshine actually turned out to be pretty fun. With a huge amount of leaf litter removed, the grass is going to have a much better chance to resprout with the coming fall rains.

The area we were working in was adjacent to a cluster of redwoods on the north side of the park, and a crew from RPD arrived to work with Charlie (pictured above) on clearing some burl growth as well as clipping back English Elm suckers coming up from the ground. During break we took a closer look at the redwoods and began learning more about them and thinking about a biodiversity project that we hope to bring to the multiple redwood clusters found in the Panhandle.  

In the shade of the redwoods on a sunny fall morning

Meanwhile, Nancy and Michael traveled down to the east end to tackle a special project: clipping back the large bush from the north path. This bush grows quickly, and can reduce visibility for people traveling on the path. Safety on the path is an ongoing concern, and the commencement of cross-town, park-to-park bike rentals is bound to bring even more people riding bikes in the Panhandle. Meanwhile the city is moving forward with approval of a separated bike way along JFK Drive, just west of the Panhandle bike path, so we can expect cycling to continue to increase in the coming year. 

September workday report

Community work crew at the Panhandle

September's workday brought the park stewards to the far east end of the park, where we worked in the shade of the redwood grove at the northeast corner of the park. Previous workdays have improved the soil and removed weeds at the base of these trees, and when the rains come we will be ready for planting. We hope to diversify the park by bringing in understory plants that you might typically find beneath sequoia sempervirens, thus beautifying the eastern entrance to Golden Gate Park and giving our community a way to experience a habitat that's representative of coastal California. 

Cobbling together a fix at Ashbury

Also in the park this month, we got to see the work done by our Rec and Park crews to address a persistent problem with standing water where Ashbury meets the Panhandle. The work definitely showed a dedicated attempt to fix the problem, and I'm glad for the effort, but would also like to see work proceed for our approved capital improvement project, which includes regrading and path repair in this spot.  

April workday: Beautiful day in the park

A big group of volunteers enjoyed this morning's workday under sunny skies. After getting an orientation to the day's work and checking out examples of one of the park's weeds, rumex crispus, we organized into two groups. While some folks began a clean up of the children's playground, the bigger part of the group walked east to a worksite near Baker Street. We passed by the pittosporum crassifolium that toppled over during the high winds this week. It was sad to see the end of this old tree, but fortunately there are several other Karos nearby in the park.

We started out by filling wheelbarrows, and then spread them around the young cherry trees near Baker Street.

The soil also went around the big redwoods on the north side of the park. 

Closer to Lyon Street @ Fell, the enormous eucalyptus trees got a layer of mulch. 

Thanks to all of our volunteers, and especially to the seventh grade (and some other students) from SFDS!