Garden Activities: April 22, 2025 (Earth Day)

Today, the Tuesday Crew, consisting of Beverly Kemmerling, Irene Rowland, Daryl Stutley, Ann Wright, and me, focused on the Trail of Trees to which we haven’t paid much attention since placing cobbles along the edges of the paths. The work wasn’t particularly glamorous; it was mainly pulling or digging out mustard in and beside the paths. However there were some learning activities. Irene taught us that ceanothus blossoms can be used as soap. You take a blossom or two and rub them vigorously in your hands and they foam up to a lather. Hand model, Daryl, showed us how it is done.  Luckily, someone had a water bottle handy to rinse off her hands!

Irene also showed us how to use sow thistle, that is abundant in our garden (it is the one that grows quite tall), as food. You cut off the root, strip the leaves from the stem, and chop the stem into bite-sized pieces. Below are the chopped up stem and the salad made from the pieces:

Sow thistle salad:

Along the main trail through the Trail of Trees, we currently have 3 native penstemons blooming. They are all worthy of inclusion in our home gardens and according to calscape.org are available at nurseries.

Penstemon pseudospectabilis (desert penstemon):

Penstemon rostriflorus (beaked penstemon):

Penstemon spectabilis (showy penstemon):

And finally I can never ignore creative creations in stone. Along the Trail of Trees we found this:

Thanks to Beverly, Irene and Daryl for their images.

Enjoy the garden!   KMM