Garden Activities: September 21, 2026
I include the above image as an example of the sense of tranquility even in the service area where we congregate early in the morning (if you consider 8am ‘early') to kibitz and discuss the plan for the morning.
Tuesday the crew comprised: Krystyna Bacik, Dale Harshberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Denis Luna, Susanna Mac, Katie Shank, Daryl Stutley, Nancy Taylor Walker, Marna Wensil, Anna Wiktor-Becker, Ann Wright, and myself.
As usual we elected to start up the zig zag path, and, per usual we found a job right away: dead-heading and lightly trimming the lavenders right at the beginning of the path in the Herb Garden. I poked fun at Katie last week, so I thought it only fair that I poke fun at myself this week..
Here I am looking like a human C-3PO trying to explain before I had people's attention how we were going to attack the lavender. According to the guidance I read online, at this time of year it is good to deadhead and cut about 1/2 the green (each stalk, not 1/2 total stalks to the ground). The result is a patch of lavender which retains its natural look but neater. This will also stimulate bushier growth.
Once we got going, there was plenty of work to keep the crew busy.
We surrounded the main patch close to the path. Since no faces are fully visible, I won’t identify them.
In this image, I am asking Katie to accompany me to the Desert Garden where the group had left a pile of succulent leaves and flower stalks that had to be transported to the trash waste bins in the parking lot across from the KAG. She and I filled 11 or 12 15-gallon pots with the debris for Jim Cyr to collect and take to the appropriate waste bin.
Meanwhile the crew finished up the lavender resulting in the photo below:
There is still more to do another time, but the main patch is pretty much done.
After tidying up the Desert Garden, Katie and I walked the Nature Trail to locate a tree that had fallen. We had received more than one alert about the tree and someone took the photo below and said its location was just below where there’s a beehive in the adjacent live oak.
Katie and I saw no tree or any evidence of tree work (saw dust e.g.). Turns out Jim C. alerted CRPD which sent a ranger out to deal with it. Kudos for the work; it was so cleanly done.
Finally it is interesting to observe how native plants have found different ways of surviving the dry hot summer.
What you see in this somewhat busy picture is a green bladderpod (Cleomella arborea) in a sea of deciduous bush sunflower (Encelia californica) on Sage Hill. The bladderpod stays green and growing all summer producing yellow flowers and the distinctive lantern-like pods. The sunflower shrivels to a crisp and looks dead, but if you break a branch you'll find it moist and green inside just waiting for the winter rains that will stimulate growth.
Really finally, we’re had another sighting of the zebra long-winged butterfly.
Here it is perched on a pendulant flower stalk of one of our skyflower (Duranta erecta) shrubs. This has me thinking of finding a place in our home garden to grow passion fruit vines as that is the only food the caterpillar eats. If you have similar thoughts, plant it where it isn’t next to anything you’d rather not have smothered! Like the decorative blue morning glory it is very aggressive.
Many thanks to Beverly, Daryl and Nancy for their images!
Enjoy the garden…KMM
