Garden Activities: May 25, 2026

In the garden Tuesday were Julia Appelrouth, Steve Davis, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Katie Shank, Daryl Stutley, Janet Wall, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, and myself. We started out welcoming Katie’s recently acquired 4-legged fur baby, Spike, to the larger Tuesday Crew family! He is currently sequestered in his own regal carriage for health reasons. We all took turns offering him treats that he gladly accepted.

Spike and Katie. Katie pulled Spike’s conveyance up nearly to the top of the hill.

Steve had a couple of small jobs he wanted accomplished so he took Katie and Julia to the native section where they removed a couple of sizable valley oak saplings.  Steve then proceeded to hand water a few plants that are outside the reach of the irrigation system.  Most of us hunkered down in the S. African section where we dead headed bulbine.

The group at work. Steve with his watering can.

I don’t have a good “before” picture, but here is an “after" picture showing a patch of bulbine without all the brown flower stalks.

The “after” picture.

Meanwhile, Daryl had moved onto the Rare Fruit Orchard arbor that she attempted to shore up, but didn’t have the right tools so will tackle again next week.

Daryl realigning a post.

Some plants of note in the garden this week were:

Hesperoyucca whipplei or Our Lord’s Candle just coming into bloom. The hespero prefix can refer to “western” or “evening.” In this case the plant is native to SW US — the western most plant in the overall range of the yucca family. It also has a unique relationship with a specific CA yucca moth species that is the only pollinator for this yucca, and the hesperoyucca seed is the only food of the CA yucca moth. This is a good example of co-obligate mutualism where each party is solely dependent on the other for survival.

A mass of Eriogonum fasciculatum or CA buckwheat mid-way up the service road.

Cistus creticus or pink rockrose on the up-hill side of the path from the 1st 4-corners to entrance B of the Nature Trail. 

Thanks to Janet, Beverly and Marna for their images.

Enjoy the garden!   KMM