Garden Activities: October 20, 2026

Nice that we had a dry Tuesday to do some work prior to the much needed and welcomed rain. I wasn’t up to snuff Tuesday so didn’t participate, but we had a full crew comprising Krystyna Bacik, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Susanna Mac, Ed Merlo, Nancy Taylor Walker, Janet Wall, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, and Ann Wright. Ed was part of the group Tuesday as he anticipated the probability that he’d be rained out on his usual Wednesday work day. When the usual Tuesday volunteers arrived, Ed was already hard at work trimming the matilija poppies with a weed whacker.

Ed demonstrating the perils of working with large, sometimes dead, stems of the poppies that can be very hard, and if broken, very sharp (check out his left arm). 

This is a good opportunity to mention that we have a fully supplied first aid kit in the barn shed for mishaps such as this. And although we don’t have a required “dress code” associated with volunteering in the garden, best practices include long-sleeved shirts and long pants, a broad-brimmed hat, gloves, sturdy footwear, sun screen, water, and bug repellent.

After doing some research on line regarding matilija poppies it became clear that it would be best to cut them back to about 6 inches at this time of year which would take out all the dead stems as well as those that have recently bloomed. We’re hoping that by following this advice, we will have a refreshed patch of poppies to wow the pubic during the May Matilija Poppy Festival and all during their blooming period.

Marna and Anna using hand clippers and loppers. Because of their size and strength, they are tough to cut.

Ann demonstrating the size of the poppy stems — many 8 feet high or more.

Dale using loppers to cut down the stems most of which are brown which means they have probably not bloomed for a while and are no longer just dormant but dead.

In preparation for the Festival this year we cut out as many of these as possible, but it still looked poorly — in comparison to previous years.

In some of the images you can see a considerable number of cut stems. These were carried to the green waste bin where extraordinary efforts were made to fit as many in the bin as possible.

Krystyna working with Susanna who was compressing the pile as much as possible.

For those that wouldn’t fit, rather than leave the stems where they were cut, they were collected and left in a pile adjacent to the green bin. If still there next Tuesday we’ll cut them into shorter pieces (if necessary) and again fill the green bin as much as possible.

Matilija poppies are a record breaking plant in many ways: the largest flower among CA natives, the largest plant size of any poppy species in the world, and able to spread via rhizomes up to 20 feet — though if unchecked by a barrier of some sort could spread much further. If you have the appropriate space for such a plant, then the challenge is to get it to establish in your location. I have yet to have success in getting one to take hold in my garden! CVBG is blessed with several stands of thriving poppies.

A smaller and more compact job was taking the dead chasmanthe leaves off the plants in the space between Lillian’s Meadow and the Chilean garden.

Nancy and Krystyna working on the chasmanthe patch.

Krystyna, Janet and Beverly at the finish.

Before everyone left, Ed took a group photo inadvertently including himself in the form of two finger fragments (resembling alien flying saucers hovering over the scene!) framing the shot.

Marna, Susanna, Nancy, Janet, Krystyna, Dale, Anna, Beverly, and Ann.

Many thanks to Ed for volunteering on a day other than his regular.

And, many thanks to Beverly, Susanna and Nancy for their images.

Enjoy the garden! 

KMM