Garden Activities: April 14, 2026

I’m afraid we subjected ourselves to another Tuesday in the Trail of Trees clearing clover and thistle from the paths. At least it was cooler than it was in recent days. It’s amazing how much work a group of knowledgeable volunteers can accomplish while having fun at the same time. Contributing to the efforts Tuesday were: Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Susanna Mac, Katie Shank, Daryl Stutley, Nancy Taylor Walker, Janet Wall, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, and yours truly.   

Bill Dobner was onsite managing the compost operation. Avinash Bahadur has agreed to be trained so he can assist Bill in that operation. Many thanks to both. The compost operation at CVBG is an important component of the propagation activity as it provides a key ingredient in the growing media used to propagate plants for the garden and for sale.

The following are some shots of the weeders.

Janet, Susanna, and Anna in the lower path where there was a bit of shade.

Daryl and Marna.

Nancy took this group shot of Janet, Katie, Susanna, Marna, Dale, Daryl and me.

Taking a shot of Nancy.

This image of Nancy and Daryl is to show the after image of the cleared trail behind Nancy and a little bit of the trail going up the hill in front of Daryl.

We discovered an anomaly under the red-leafed flowering plum.

Katie is carrying a piece of something sprouting under the plum. There are multiple plants growing mostly within the drip line of the tree and the leaves are bright green rather than red. This begs the question as to the origin of the plants: Are they from seed?  Are they from roots? If from roots, are they roots of the red-leafed plum or a grafted root stock that had green leaves? Whatever they are they need to come out, so maybe we'll discern the answer when we are paying close attention.

A couple of natives that grow in this area are members of the borage family. One we’ve discussed before. We’ll plan to leave them as they don’t seem to be particularly aggressive and don’t spread even where we would like them to — behind the shade house on the hill, e.g.

Phacelia sp..  It has pretty much gone by, but the old bloom heads look a little like hairy caterpillars.

A similar plant but a different genus: 2 names for which are: Crytantha microstachys or Tejon cryptantha. The flower heads look like the fiddle necks of young fern leaves.

I just want to alert the volunteers that Athens has warned us to not overfill the green waste container, so please make sure to press the contents down below the rim.

Thanks to Janet, Nancy and Marna for their images!

Enjoy the garden…KMM