Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday, Jim, Gary and I continued to work along the trail to the Southern Forest. Gary complained that the weather pattern this year--a very long period of rain followed by sunny days--made everything grow like crazy. The groundcover is shrub height, great if we're looking at avens but unfortunate in the case of creeping buttercup.

Most of our attention continues to be trying to contain the bindweed in our planting areas. Taking out bindweed is not really practical in the fireweed field so we made a note to dig out bindweed roots there in the winter.

The big English hawthorn is in bloom, towering over the fireweed field. I've always been partial to this particular tree because I find it attractive. But lots of little seedlings beneath. I pulled out dozens. The tree has a death sentence if the VMP ever get fully implemented--Nelson noted that English hawthorns in the park need to come down, using herbicide. I see where he's coming from because I've noted quite a few in the park and it really does meet the definition of invasive species. Yet I'm sad to think that this tree will need to die. I'm contemplating deliberately targeting small trees and a concerted effort of pulling out seedlings as a strategy to decrease the population of English hawthorn in the park. I'm putting this on my mental "to do" list. Along with everything else.

In the Southern Forest, we noted the sun was everywhere. I wound up under the bigger spruce to pull out herb Robert in order to work in a shade. My guess is that the loss of trees in recent years due to their falls have made this area much more sunny than it has been in my memory.

Looking toward the east, there are three dead trees: two Lombardy poplars on the left and right, and a deciduous tree in the middle (behind the alder). They, too, will eventually fall.

The Merry Month of May (and the last day in April)

Finally, today, we had a sunny morning for our weekly work session. I haven't posted since our spring planting party so I need to back track. Essentially, Jim, Gary and I have continued our maintenance work, making sure our plantings succeed. Our invasive plant of the month has been field bindweed, AKA morning glory.

On April 30, a week after the planting, we brought in more chip to create a deeper mulch in this extended restoration area. It may have been our imagination but we thought the new plants actually grew in one week! For the record, here are couple of photos:

The only other thing to note from this last day of April was that earlier in the week, Gary had found jugs of motor oil and some sludgy stuff in a plastic bag in a bucket. Later in the day when I was doing errands, I took this refuse to the north parking lot, left it by the trash can, and emailed Kirk and Tony H to ask them to pick it up for proper disposal. Why people use a park as a dump is beyond me.

On May 7, it seemed spring was finally emerging. Avens along the trail, right before you get to our planting areas, had grown vigorously. They were much taller than what I recall from a year ago. Also, in the next photo, the columbine was about to bloom.

The columbine was blooming a week later, on May 14. We were basically removing as much morning glory as we could, particularly around our plantings.

Gary found this interesting specimen: a morning glory had grown through a hollowed out twig.

Today, we were in the Southern Forest to keep the morning glory off the plants from the fall, 2015 planting. It was super sunny and the twinberry had produced twin flowers. Robby showed up and worked with us for couple of hours.

Later, Gary, Jim and I walked over to the arboretum. The oxalis beneath the redwoods have gotten huge! Here's Gary's gloved hand in the mat of oxalis.