Garden Activities: October 13, 2026
For the first time in 2 months, cool weather was predicted for Tuesday, so we opted to work from 9-11am. It was almost chilly when we began, but by 10:30 it was already getting toasty.
Volunteering were: Krystyna Bacik, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Denis Luna, Susanna Mac, Katie Shank, Daryl Stutley, Janet Wall, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, Ann Wright, and myself. On Monday we had Salinas Tree Service doing some cleanup both in the KAG and the main garden. That work was mainly removing dead limbs from a number of trees — particiualy the Chinese flame tree in the KAG, the sycamore and Torrey pine in the Native Section and the CA native black walnut trees. Sadly at least 2 of the black walnuts seem to be in failing health and will likely have to be removed altogether by next year.
The only plant that was entirely removed was the cotoneaster on the left shortly after turning left at the first 4 corners. Cotoneaster is considered moderately invasive in some parts of CA but less so in the dryer southern part of the state. Ours appeared to be spreading both by seed and root sprouts. The tree crew dug out those sprouts in the immediate vicinity of the parent shrub and ground the stump. There were numerous sprouts in the wider area in thickets of verbena and lantana and Jupiter's beard. Some were found across nearby paths. Removing all remaining sprouts became the main task of the morning.
It was difficult to determine if a sprout was a root sprout or a seedling. We used shovels and “root slayers” to go down as far as possible. Undoubtedly, we’ll have to keep a lookout for a long time to come to address re-sprouts, and to address any we overlooked.
Krystyna getting a good chuckle from an innovative way Anna and Denis were enhancing the ability to achieve depth. Anna would balance on the shovel supported by Denis and then jump up and down on the foot pads! Hopefully the diligence in removing as much root as possible will reduce any regrowth.
After completing that task, we stayed in the Butterfly Garden and did a lot of deadheading taking care to spread seeds if they hadn’t been released already.
Toward the end of the morning, we squeezed 3 of us on the butterfly metal seat forming a thorn among roses tableau with Denis, yours truly, and Susanna seated and Krystyna, Anna and Katie standing.
This week because I didn’t get this report out sooner, I have additional information for some of the Wednesday activities. Avinash Bahadur who is filling in for Bill Dobner for the composting operation sent me an update and some images. There are a couple of volunteers who do double duty by working both Tuesday and Wednesday: Luna and Daryl. This provides the volunteers with opportunities to learn more aspects of supporting the garden, and provides the garden with volunteers eager to engage more deeply with the functioning of the organization.
One of the standouts Tuesday was the sky flower (Duranta erecta) in fruit below:
Sky flower is native to a large area of tropical and subtropical Americas, and has become invasive in other similar habitats: Australia, China, south Asia, etc. The leaves and fruits are toxic to humans, cats and dogs but not to birds, and the flowers are not toxic to butterflies and hummingbirds which use them as a food source.
Right in the parking area of the service entrance is another show: the silk floss tree:
Chorizia speciosa (now named Ceiba speciosa) is in front of the shade house nursery. The tree is deciduous at this time of year, so the showy blossoms on naked branches against the deep blue early morning sky were beautiful. This tree is native to S. America; it produces large woody pods which, when ripe, release seeds each with milkweed-like silky strands that facilitate windblown dispersion.
While checking more of the garden to identify future tasks for the volunteers to tackle, I noticed the new waterfall is growing some algae.
The board is aware of this and is evaluating options of controlling or eliminating this growth in a way that is compatible with this feature serving as a resource for the wildlife that visit and live in the garden.
Finally, a pictorial status report of the mortarless stone constructions in the Tranquility Garden.
Sadly it looks like the semicircular structure above has suffered some destruction. Looking forward to the next creation of our elusive artist (hint, hint!)!
Many thanks to Avinash, Beverly, Janet, Daryl, Susanna, and Denis for their images.
Enjoy the garden…KMM
