Garden Activities: July 29, 2025

Plant cleanup and irrigation activities took up the morning. On hand were: Irem Baytek Dingle, Bill Dobner, Daryl Stutley, Nancy Taylor Walker, Zack Taylor, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, Ann Wright, Parnian Zia and myself.

Bill tended to the compost, while Zack and I peeled off to work on the irrigation. The order of the day was to troubleshoot the east end of the Trail of Trees. The irrigation system was functioning correctly so no heads had to be replaced. We left the system on for an hour to give that area a deep soaking. We also hand watered a couple of trees that appear stressed: the recently planted CA sycamore in the service area and a young carob tree to the left and slightly up hill from the donor kiosk. 

The group checked on the irrigation around the flame tree on the west side of the Trail of Trees. They found and cleared the leaves from around the 2 of 3 sprinkler heads.

Daryl, Ann and Anna looking for the irrigation heads.

Daryl and I searching for the 3rd sprinkler head later in the morning.

Meanwhile most of the group headed up the hill to the Desert Garden to do cleanup.

Irem, Marna and Parnian clearing the dead leaves from a patch of naked ladies (Amaryllis belladonna).

The next cleanup was of the dead leaves hanging on the stems of the honey bush:

The before picture.

Parnian, Marha, Anna, Daryl, Irem and Ann about half way through.

Nancy and Daryl towards the end of the process.

Daryl and Anna saw that a cage was constricting one of the plants:

Daryl and Anna cutting away the cage intertwined in the leaves.

Finally, our favorite job: mustard and thistle removal. We ignored the dried up mustard as it appeared its seeds had already been sown. But we tackled the dried thistle and green mustard (and occasional horehound) to reduce the number of seeds.

Anna and Zack hard at work.

Many thanks to Nancy for her images.

Enjoy the garden!   KMM