Garden Activities: July 15, 2025

Today we welcomed a new member to the volunteer corps: Danny Lepore. He joined theTuesday Crew which today comprised Caitlyn Mei DePrano, Bill Dobner, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Zack Taylor, Nancy Taylor Walker, Anna Wiktor-Becker, Ann Wright, Parnian Zia and myself. As usual, Bill worked the compost. Beverly suggested the rest of us focus on the native section, so we started down the gravel path beside the Chilean Garden where it was obvious we needed to spend some time deadheading the calandrinia. Like deadheading the bulbine last week, having 8 or 9 volunteers made light work of that job. It helped that in the past year many of the plants had aged out leaving large gaps in the calandrinia borders.

Zack and Ann smiling despite the task in front of them. Notice the gap between the clumps that Zack and Ann are working on. That is one of the smaller gaps.

Ann, Zack, Parnian, Nancy and Dale with the job almost complete.

Meanwhile, we noticed that one of 2 Chilean wine palms at the entrance to the gravel path was being crowded out by matilija poppies.

Caitlyn and Beverly about to open up the space around the palm - that is still a baby (the dark green plant between them).

Before we left the area, I took the opportunity to share some knowledge I acquired at the Goebel Center garden (and confirmed today via AI on my iPhone): that the way to deadhead Alstroemeria is not to cut them, but to pull the spent bloom stalks out of the ground using a twisting motion if necessary. Presumably this encourages growth and more flowers.

An image from this past May of one of the patches. Alstroemerias were planted at several of the corners of the Chilean Garden.

Yours truly demonstrating on a patch of dead and dying bloom stalks. From left to right: Beverly, Danny (seated) Caitlyn, Ann (over my shoulder), Anna, Zack, Parnian and Dale.

When we finally finished in the Chilean section, we moved to the intended native section. There wasn’t much that looked urgent so we spent a few minutes introducing to the most recent volunteers some of the CA Channel Island species - particularly the island oak and the ironwood trees.

Dale pointing out a recently planted island oak (Quercus tomentella). According to Wikipedia, this tree is native only to 5 of the 8 Channel Islands and Guadalupe Island (Mexico). It is considered “endangered."

On the way up the hill, to compare to the sapling above, we pointed out the ~30-year-old island oak that flanks the service road on the right just down hill from the S. African section. I then showed them a picture I had taken of a really mature island oak on Santa Rosa Island which shows the result of decades of grazing non-native animals (primarily sheep and cattle) on the plants that used to hold the soil in place.

Notice daylight is visible between the roots demonstrating how much of the soil has been eroded away. The tree is literally standing on its roots. On the roots, notice the light patches. These are lichens, the presence of which indicates the air is mostly free from pollution and contains abundant moisture. Research is ongoing as to how to recreate the lost ecosystem now that grazing is no longer taking place.

Last on the agenda was the S. African section where there was still chasmanthe and bulbine to be deadheaded. Again, many hands made light work!

Enjoy the garden…KMM