Garden Activities: September 29, 2026
Just when we thought it was safe to move the work hours from 8-10am to 9-11am, the weather projections for the coming 10 days show the day-time highs back in the nineties! So until this weather pattern changes, we’ll keep to the earlier time slot.
Volunteering today were: 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.
We started up the zig zag path but when we got to the western most turn off toward the Trail of Trees we changed course and headed down to address a few trees in need of root sprout removal.
The first was the jacaranda which you can see had developed root sprouts about 5 feet tall around the base of the trunk. These we removed.
Next we removed a water sprout from a poorly executed lateral branch cut that was left too long to begin with. Incidentally this tree honors longtime volunteer and former CVBG board president, Jean Reiley. She herself donated the jacaranda mentioned above.
The last couple of trees at the far western end of the Trail of Trees were, I believe, laurel sumacs that had considerable growth at the base.
On the swing back towards the service area, I saw what has become a source of curiosity for a long time. The fact that the first leaves produced by some acacia seedlings look nothing like the leaves of the adult plant.
These are the “leaves" (flowers and fruits) of the adult tree. In fact they aren’t leaves at all; they are phyllodes. These have evolved to deal with hot dry Australian deserts by dropping the leaf part and modifying the leaf petioles into the phyllodes which lose less water and absorb less harsh sunlight than the delicate leaves of the juvenile seedlings.
To complete this botany “lesson” we stopped by the acacia (greggii?) in the native section whose mature leaves are the same bipinnate leaves as those of the juvenile shoestring acacia.
We also passed the 3 crepe myrtles the middle one of which we gave some TLC last year. It seemed to have had a beneficial effect relative to the other two, but now they all look about the same.
Finally it’s a shame the group has trouble getting along (ha ha), but after work visits to a local cafe would help greatly in improving the situation!
Many thanks for the incredible collection of photos sent to me for consideration this week! Contributions were received from Denis, Beverly, Susanna, Nancy, Marna, and Ann.
Enjoy the garden…..KMM
