City Gardener

 I cycled to the Greenhouse for the second time this season. The weather was cool (in the 50s F), and a bit drippy, but I didn’t get soaked thank goodness.  On arrival I met Al... in the greenhouse. She had repotting chores for me to do. There is a small tree (Cotoneaster frigidus) busting out of its plastic pot - 14 inch diameter. However, I couldn’t find a larger pot anywhere in the building. There was one terracotta pot in the store room, but it was stuck inside a larger terra cotta pot. I couldn’t get them separated, and at one point the rim of the larger pot cracked. I let Al know the chore would have to wait until we got a suitable pot. I’m a bit afraid I was too aggressive trying to separate the two pots. *Blush* There were two smaller plants in the ginger family that needed repotting. The larger of the two was Heliconia augusta (red christmas heliconia). Since the plant was already in the largest plastic pot we had in the greenhouse, Al decided we should simply split i...

  Today is very rainy and chilly. Curator was out ill today; the greenhouse was manned by Al, B, and undergrad student L. As usual, B had tasks all lined up for me: working on the vine bench, then repotting banana plants in room C2. B is so very organized. On the vine bench, a vine plant had been moved from a different room. The plant - Thunbergia grandiflora, blue trumpet vine - needed more support. On the vine bench the plant will be allowed to grow up a stainless steel cable to a height of 8 feet or more. But, the cable had to be installed before I could attach the plant to the cable. To install the cable, I had to loop one end into a double-barrel ferrule, then crimp the ferrule to secure the cable from slipping out. The loop of cable is then attached to another cable running overhead above the vine bench. Several vine plants of different genera are attached to the cable system. The trick was having to find the crimping tool in the storage room, then learning how to operate the...

  Today I cycled to the greenhouse for the first time in 2023. The temperature soared to 88F. I packed a pair of short pants for the ride home, but I prefer to wear sturdy long pants for work at the greenhouse. I’m frequently on my knees tending plants or weeds, the extra padding of long pants is much more comfortable than bare knees on hard concrete or gravel. The ride was quite pleasant, although the breeze from the south was sharp at times. The first task assigned to me for the day, by the Curator, was to collect some packets of beneficial insects -  Amblyseius cucumeris - from the pots in room C2 and relocate them to sick plants in room D4 (the desert room). One plant in D4, in particular, is beset by mites which are sucking out the sap and killing the leaves. One entire branch had been denuded. I attached the packets to the stems of the 4 plants to encourage the A. cucumeris predators onto the infested plants, to find the offending mites, and eat them. My second task was ...

I returned to the greenhouse after having been away for almost 8 weeks (spent in Palm Springs). The day before, Wednesday, I sent Curator J... an email to give him warning I would be arriving, and to give him the opportunity to cancel my arrival if the conditions at the greenhouse prevented my working there at this time - I have been concerned since A... is still on medical leave that Curator has too much on his plate to shepherd volunteers through the morning. But, he replied to my email indicating that volunteers are welcome. Curator had a list of plants on the “vine bench” for me to prune and move, this bench is located in the middle of room C3. B also had a few ideas for pruning a viney bush-like plant attached to the metal trellis in room 3 on the wall separating it from room C2. I spent the majority of the time working on the vine bench in C2. I repotted two of the plants which had become root-bound and top-heavy. One of the vines had become so entwined in its tomato-cage that I ...