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

Panhandle workday this Saturday, June 10

Join us at the Panhandle Park on Saturday, June 10 for a community workday:

Saturday, June 10

9 am - 12 noon

Meet at the bulletin board near the playground (near Oak @ Ashbury)

Tools & gloves provided

All are welcome! 

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."

May Workday Report

Park Stewards at the Panhandle on Saturday, May 13

Here's a late update about our stellar May Workday. Above all, it was a pleasure to be out in the park, on a warm and sunny spring morning. We focused our efforts in the central area of the Panhandle, near the restroom and playgrounds, with a focus on the mound (an area planted last year with a variety of drought tolerant native plants). In addition to weeding, we also spread a huge pile of wood chips around the mound to insulate the plants during the dry months ahead and make the area look its best.

We also added a few additional plants into our more established, diverse rain garden planting, and trimmed back a few of the rapidly growing plants. The May workday was also a chance to say thank you to Frankie, a Rec and Park employee, for his months of steady and friendly staffing of the community workday. We said hello and started getting to know Brian, a new staff person who will be assigned to work daily in the Panhandle and to support the community workday in the future. 

Woodchips making the mound look nice for the spring

Yarrow and sticky monkey in the mound setting up for a nice bloom

Noting that the dryer weather is allowing progress on the capital improvement work.

A fallen eucalyptus branch had been cut up and ready for removal. 

And the truck that was unlucky to be below said branch was awaiting removal and donation