April workday coming up next Saturday

Our next Panhandle community work day is coming up next Saturday, April 9. Join the fun by meeting up at the bulletin board (@ Ashbury) at 9 a.m. Wear sturdy shoes; gloves and tools are provided.

Our work plan is still being developed. Given the heavy rains in March, a bumper crop of spring weeds is coming up. The lawn mowers will be out soon to cut the weeds down to size, but helping hands from the community would be useful in eradicating weeds from around the trees.

It's Vernation Time Again

I love visits to the park this time of year. 

Tree improvements near Bierman Glade

I noticed recent tree pruning that has dramatically improved the appearance and feeling around the Sue Bierman glade, west end of the Panhandle. The pruned trees were pittosporum, one of the most common trees in the park.

March work day - wrap up

A garden is a work in progress, forever changing and, as a managed landscape, it needs routine upkeep and inputs. In the Panhandle, one of the inputs that we routinely bring in is healthy soil, so on this March work day, that's just what we did in the park's largest grove of redwoods, located just east of the McKinley monument. We last spread new soil in these redwoods at a community workday in January 2010. 

Volunteers also worked to clean up the playground, and to bury cardboard - i.e., sheet mulching an area just outside the fence, so that we can have a bed that will be ready to plant into this spring. 

Workers in that area also scooped up weeds and tossed them into wheelbarrows. Yeah! 

Thanks to SF Rec and Park workers for organizing the work, and to our partners, the San Francisco Day School and Asian American Recovery Services, for bringing out volunteers and working so hard.