It may have been almost two years since the previous posting, but our CCSF Native Plant Garden is still growing strong! Each semester two students get together to assist on the maintenance and host workdays at the garden on the east side of the science building. This Spring Semester we welcome Michael Case and Emily Fryer to the team.
A highlight of spring is when the Douglas iris (Iris douglasianapictured above) are in bloom. Though drought tolerant, the foliage does have a tendency to look shabby and brown during the summer, but the wait pays off with this intricate inflorescence.
I'm sure you're asking: "What kind of exciting activities do they have planned?"
Weeding and cleaning! Some pesky weeds have made their way into the beds, along with a lot of cigarette butts. With the help of some biology students we were able to perform some routine maintenance to keep the beds looking fresh.
Stay Tuned for volunteer opportunities and plant info!
Its officially spring in the garden and we are beginning to get our wildflower show. The month of March brought us some much needed rain and the plants at our garden are sure happier for it. One outstanding wildflower that is blooming right now is the Seep Monkey Flower (Mimulusguttatus) which has bright yellow flowers with red freckles and resembles a monkey's face. This Monkeyflower can be found in all across the state in wet places like seasonal springs, bogs or even roadside ditches. In San Francisco a few places it can be found are the ditch that leads to Fort Point in the Presidio, along the northern section of mountain lake, and in Lobos Creek. This plant is great for wet places and does well under garden conditions with regular water. If you have a leaky faucet or a bird bath that gets regular visits place this Monkey Flower underneath and watch as it takes off with its rhizomes spreading as far as the water will let it. Seep Monkey Flower is a wonderful plant for a bee or hummingbird garden because it is produces numerous flowers and has a long flowering period. If pruned periodically it may flower into the fall but goes dormant in the winter beginning to show its colors again in April.
Seep Monkey Flower at a glance
Sun: Full-Part Shade Water: The wetter the better Soil: Tolerates clay, serpentine, sand and seasonal flooding Wildlife: Bees and Hummingbirds Pair with: Common Rush, Sedges, Fringe Cup and other stream side plants.
Our second round of planting in the new Historical Garden bed will be going on.
Kaya & Lawrence went out and got 30 plants with the money raised during our donation drive, most coming from San Bruno Mountain, the last refuge of the Franciscan floristic provence.
Beach Strawberry is a perennial member of the Rose family. It reproduces by sending out runners forming a dense mat, which is good for filling in between rocks or on the borders of your garden. Of our two native strawberry species this one is more aggressive and hardier. It grows along the coast and can be found in the Coastal Strand, and North Coastal Scrub. During the spring and summer it has white flowers that give way to tiny edible strawberries. It has adapted to life on the coast by forming a thick waxy coating on the tops of its 3 serrated, oval shaped leaves. This adaptation limits evaporation making the Beach Strawberry a very drought tolerant ground cover. Another way it is adapted to life on the beach can be observed when the plant is buried by shifting sands. When this happens it sends a runner shoot up out of the sand to form a new colony. In San Francisco it can be found in the dunes of Ft. Funston, along Ocean Beach all the way up to Baker Beach and around to Crissy Field. When the Army operated at Ft. Funston (and other coastal sandy sites) they could have chosen Beach Strawberry as one of the plants to stabilize the dunes instead of introducing the invasive, bluff busting ice plant.
Beach Strawberry at a glance
Sun: Full Water: None or very little Soil: Requires good drainage Wildlife: Butterflies, Bees, Birds, and Small Mammals Pair with: Seaside Daisy, Beach Sagewort, Prostrate Coyote Brush, Coast Buckwheat, Pacific Gum Plant, Dune tansy
While the east coast is bathed in blankets of school-stopping snow, here in the cool coastal climate, wintertime means bloom time for species such as the wild lilac, "Snow Flurry," (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus).
You can also see the little blue blooms of the coast blue blossom around campus (walking from the bungalows to the back side of the library, for one example) and the bay area.
Crima Pogge, Kaya Mac Millen, Mitchell McCartney serving snacks
Time to reflect, and time to move forward. The Ground Breaking Ceremony was a wonderful success. We began the planting of our Historical Garden, connected with students, faculity and community members, and celebrated our Garden Grant award from the California Native Garden Foundation (CNGF).
Crima Pogge, Director of the Center for Habitat Restoration, poured hot tea while Lawrence & Kaya, the NPG Interns, served home baked and community donated food to hungry volunteers. As everyone toured the garden and got to know the stewardship team, Kaya broke the chatter to give a speech about the inspiration and history of the garden, followed by comments from Crima, Lawrence, and our visiting benefactor, Alrie Middlebrook.
NPG Welcomes CNGF & Fosters Partnership with ELSEE
Donations from California Native Garden Foundation
The California Native Garden Foundation brought over fifty plants! We were all able to roll up our sleeves and get our hands into the soil in the new garden. The plant donations and grant are a part of the
Alrie Middlebrook presented CCSF with the rest of the Garden Grant- a check for $500 dollars to go towards signs and educational material for the gardens.
We are very excited to be partnering with the ELSEE (Environmental Laboratory for Sustainable and Ecological Education) project, which helps research and fund methods to integrate native and food plant gardening on school campuses around california.
Find out more about CNGF and ELSEE on their facebook page and website.
Thank You
Our donation drive has brought in nearly $400 dollars! This money will go directly to the procuring and planting of native species on campus. Thank you to everyone who was able to contribute.
Special thanks to Bill Wilson, a community member who showed up with camera in hand to help document the groundbreaking. Bill Wilson is president of Sunnyside Neighborhood Association and member of the Greening Committee that has been responsible for the maintenance and planting of new gardens along Circular, the road behind Batmale Hall that leads in to campus.
Check out his photos of the garden in our web album here, or visit www.billwilsonphotos.com to see more of his work.
Join us in celebrating the completed planting of our demonstration garden and the future of our ecological garden.
The California Native Garden Foundation will be on hand to present the NPG team and the Biology Department with the Garden Grant check. The grant funds $1000 dollars in plants and signs. Its a healthy start to our second garden, but continued community support is crucial to the Native Plant Garden's prosperity.
Come by and show your support! Kaya and Lawrence will be baking treats for visitors!
While the rain may make some dreary, bored, and boarded up in doors, for the California gardener the winter rains mean one of three things: weeding, seeding, or planting.
With our Demonstration Garden a few plants away from completion, the NPG stewardship team emerged from post-finals slumber to sow some wildflower seeds and prepare our northern bed for up coming planting.
Sowing Seeds
Armed with packets of wildflower seeds, two rakes, and an unusually hot day, we revisited the scarred and forgotten soil of the previous native garden bed (which had to be abandoned due to construction upgrades). After six months of neglect and construction, we were surprised to see a healthy population of pearly ever-lasting, yarrow, seaside daisy, and even lupines poking through the weeds. Score one for natives! This forgotten bed wont be planted in the near future. Lack of funding or responsibility will turn it in to a weed garden before long. We wanted to push off the inevitable a little longer, maybe inspire some students trekking up the Science stairs with spring time displays of Chinese houses, tidy tips, fare-well-to-springs, sky lupine, and bird's eye gilia.
Judith Larner Lowery, of Larner Seeds, recommends sowing wildflower seeds between the first rains of October and in to February. Wildflowers, she notes, are not "drought tolerant" in the same way other California natives are. Rather, they are drought evaders: they complete their life cycle before California's summer drought. Wildflower seeds need consistent water to germinate, so either sow in a wet forecast or be on hand to keep the soil moist. Seeds also need good soil-to-seed contact, protection from predation, and a weed-free bed.
After becoming established, a naturally rhythmed wildflower display doesn't need any more water than the environment provides. To prolong blooms, weekly watering is recommended.
To plant our bed, we raked the upper half inch of compacted soil to create a multidimensional, textured bed to catch the seeds. While Lowery recommends cutting your seed mix with about four times sand or compost to help with even distribution, we simply broadcasted our seeds by hand. A quick stomp around the bed ensured good soil contact, as students passing by looked quizzically at our strange dance.
Today's good rain will help set the seeds in their new home, and we will monitor soil moisture over the next few days to see if hand watering is needed.
To find out more about growing wildflowers, check out Larner's guide here.
We have a new addition to the Native Plant Garden: Lupinus albifrons! The evergreen leaves of this beautiful shrub are a fuzzy silvery-gray, hence its common name, Silver Bush Lupine. Its inflorescences, which develop in April and May, can grow up to one foot long. These stunning, fragrant blooms often cover the entire bush, creating a brillant purple display for your garden. Not only are its flowers attractive to humans, but butterflies enjoy them as well, making Silver Bush Lupine an excellent choice if you would like your garden to become a part of San Francisco's extensive biological corridor.
Our little Lupinus albifrons!
Silver Bush Lupine is actually in the same plant family (Fabaceae) as some very common food crops -- peas and beans. Late in the summer and early fall, Lupine bushes even produce light-green, hairy pods that closely resemble those of a snow pea. (However, we don't recommend consuming it because, unlike its culinary relatives, Silver Bush Lupine is toxic if eaten.) These pods dry and remain on the bush so, as you're hiking in the Bay Area this fall, you may walk past a Silver Bush Lupine and might hear the ethereal rattling of its pods in the wind.
Members of the bean family (including Silver Bush Lupine) also have nitrogen-fixing root nodules that cause them to increase the nitrogen levels of the surrounding soil. Thus, they play a very important role in enriching soils that were once nitrogen depleted. So, if your yard is low on nitrogen, needing a drought tolerant plant, or if you're just looking for something to brighten your yard with silver foliage and purple flowers, a Silver Bush Lupine would be an excellent choice!
Silver Bush Lupine at a glance
Sun: Full
Water: None or very little
Soil: Requires good drainage
Wildlife: Butterflies
Pair with: Deer Grass, California Fescue, or Ceanothus
Coyote Bush in its natural habitat (bottom left corner)
As you hike around the Bay Area this winter, you’ll most likely come across stands of a lovely evergreen shrub conspicuously cloaked in downy white flowers. This would beBaccharis pilularisor Coyote Bush. It is one of the most common species found in coastal sage scrub. As its name suggests, it provides an excellent complex habitat for wildlife including (you guessed it!) coyotes. As strange as it sounds, this plant is in the Asteraceae family and so, is closely related to the sunflower. If you stretch your imagination, you can see similarities in their star-shaped (Aster is Greek for star) flowers. Coyote Bushactually has male and female flowers on different plants, making it a dioecious plant.
Coyote Bush's female flowers
In the wildCoyote Bush is a pioneer species that quickly recolonizes disturbed habitats. Its extensive root system allows it to survive drought and fire. This makesCoyote Bush a great addition to your drought-resistant garden. (Not to mention that its green foliage is beautiful year-round!) CCSF has its very ownCoyote Bush on display in the Native Plant Garden. Although small, it will fill in quickly and will soon draw birds, bees and butterflies to our campus. Come by the garden and check it out!
As a part of the largest urban community college in the nation, and located in the ecologically rich but heavily developed San Francisco peninsula, the City College of San Francisco’s Native Plant Garden presents a unique opportunity to connect our diverse student population with our diverse ecological heritage.
Bordering the entrance to the Science Building, the Native Plant Garden will consist of a northern and southern bed. The northern garden will function as a living laboratory for students in biology, ecology, botany and other sciences. The southern bed will operate as an educational garden to introduce home gardeners and landscape artists to native plants. The southern bed will present native plant gardening as an ecologically beneficial alternative to the water-intensive, high-input, low-value systems associated with traditional, horticultural gardens.
Together, the two gardens will showcase the beauty and utility of native California plants in landscaping and backyards. The gardens will demonstrate the use of California plants in water conservation, erosion control and wild life habitat, and add CCSF’s Ocean campus to the larger network of volunteer-supported corridors, which connect the Bay Area’s patchwork of natural areas.
The Native Plant Garden began in the laboratory and continues on as a student-directed endeavor, as a part of City College of San Francisco’s dedication to sustainability and the preservation of San Francisco’s natural heritage. Benefiting from student, faculty, and campus wide support, the native plant garden will continue to foster a relationship between people and planet, and the environmental stewardship that is the cornerstone of sustainability.
