Garden Activities: January 20, 2026

Tuesday was a day of varied activities. Quite the team showed up and consisted of Steve Davis, Bill Dobner, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Julie Moffat, Katie Shank, Daryl Stutley, Nancy Taylor Walker, Anna Wiktor-Becker, Ann Wright and myself.

One of the first things we noticed was an area of die-off in the matilda poppy patch just down from the service area.

It wasn’t clear what happened to those plants; if anyone has ideas for us to investigate please let us know.

While Bill tended to the compost, the rest of us divided up; some headed up the service road toward the S. African garden where Steve wanted us to focus, and a couple went toward the native sections to check on recent plantings and water those by hand as necessary. Serendipitously Dale had brought two plants for the S. African garden called "pregnant onions" due to the appearance of a main bulb surrounded by small bulblets.  In fact this is not an onion but a succulent named Albuca bracteata. The internet called for filtered light, to we planted one behind a chasmanthe at the 2nd 4 corners and the other in the shadier area under the nearby S. African native plum (formerly called a kaffir plum — a name that is now avoided due to its inclusion of the pejorative term “kaffir”).

Dale planting the one in the morning sun.

So last year (or the year before) we attended to the overcrowding of the area across from the Tranquility Garden by thinning out the freeway daisies which had begun running over and through the other plants in the area. This year we focused on thinning out the aloes that have become very happy there. Given their volume and shape it took no time to fill the 2 carts we had brought up with us, so we had to make more than 1 trip to the service area. Some were taken home by the volunteers, and others were left on one of the tables in front of the greenhouse for the propagation group to pot up for sale or use in the garden. The remainder were dumped beside the port-o-potty for transport to the non-green waste containers adjacent to the park. We left plenty which will soon spread again.

A full load.

Julie, Anna, me and Daryl in the thicket.

Anna behind an area from which aloes were thinned.

The “after” shot.

While this was going on, Dale and Beverly worked on the up-hill end of the S. African garden removing the upright euphorbia weed from around some of the plants.

Beverly

We had planned to plant some of the broken branches of the golden torch cactus but the broken pieces were too long to plant so we cut them up and moved the tops into the middle of the patch where they can rest a week and harden off prior to planting next week. The middle sections were left in front of the patch for later collection.

Julie and I cutting up the pieces into manageable lengths.

While there, we looked over the southwest edge of the garden and observed that a man root (wild cucumber) was covering the patch of cacti and other plants. Despite the steepness of the hill, Daryl slid down, barely missing the thorny pads, and was able to remove the vines growing above ground. The root itself will undoubtedly grow a new top which we will have to keep after.

Daryl holding and standing in the vines she removed.

Finally Steve noticed that one of our more unusual yuccas was in bloom. Called a Mojave yucca due to it being native to the Mojave Desert, it is located on the west end of the garden. It is unusual for its bloom stalk which nestles down among the leaves.

Yucca schidigera

Thanks to Steve, Beverly and Nancy for their images.

Enjoy the garden!    KMM