Today was special to me for it was my first day back at the garden this year, having missed the previous Tuesdays for windy weather, ill health or appointments. It was great to be back and I felt better and stronger as the morning progressed — the salubrious effects of the garden, the work, and, of course, the great volunteers. On hand to welcome me back were Bill Dobner, Beverly Kemmerling, Irene Rowland, Daryl Stutley, Kayli O'Hara Vest, Nancy Taylor Walker, Janet Wall, and Ann Wright. Bill busied himself with the compost, and the rest of us slowly made our way up the zig zag to the top of the hill.
On the way up we picked up miscellaneous wind-blown debris and stopped at the lower edge of the Rare Fruit Orchard to dig up a slew of what I think were saplings of desert willow. Irene using Janet’s “root slayer” to remove a sapling:
On the way up, we passed one of my favorite plants, one of the native lupines of which, for some reason, we have very few in the garden. Someone (Jim Cyr?) thoughtfully caged it as lupins are very susceptible to browsing by rabbits and/or squirrels:
I also wanted to point out the knife-blade acacia (Acacia cultriformis) just up from entrance B of the Nature Trail. We took a picture of it but it is nowhere to be found. It is in full bloom and worth a look see.
Once we got to the top of the hill I made a pilgrimage to the spot where the voodoo lily lives, but despite the recent rains, it wasn’t poking up from the ground yet.
In December, Jim had shown me where some vandalism had taken place. Rocks had been thrown into a patch of prickly pear cacti breaking off many of the pads and leaving rocks from the path edges in the middle of the patch. We carefully removed the rocks and replaced them on the path.
While at the top of the hill we took 10 minutes, and Irene led us in a meditation using the garden and plant theme. It was wonderful. We all 8 sat on one of the picnic benches.
Nancy (barely visible on the left; she took the shot), Kayli, Daryl, Irene, me, Janet, Beverly, and Ann:
Finally we spent the remainder of our morning finishing up placing cobbles on the trail that comes up through the Trail of Trees and intersects the main trail just as it is about to intercept entrance B of the Nature Trail.
Ann, me, Kayli and Daryl transporting rocks to the path borders:
Below is the final product!
We’re at the point now that we’ll have to take wire cutters to the bins of cobbles to get them out, we’ve taken that many out of all of them.
Enjoy the garden, it open as of today….KMM
Comentários