City Gardener

  Al... was the only person in the greenhouse when I arrived there. My first task was to help her distribute plants back to their home spots, having been lent out to one of the classes, for demonstration purposes. I suspect the class demonstration focused on the different types of plant leaves. I learned how to use the computerized data library of plants at the greenhouse. The plant library is useful to look up the location of specific plants. Unfortunately, the database only lists the room in which the plant belongs. It does not indicate on which bench the plant is located. One has to search the room to find similar plants in order to find a specific plant. I spent the next hour and a half in Display Room 3, the Mediterranean Scrubland. I spent the time picking up leaves and trimming dead branches. In particular, I focused on the eucalyptus varieties, which tend to drop many of their leaves onto the ground. The final hour was spent in Display Room 4, Diverse Deserts. Again, I swep...

 I arrived by bicycle again today. The weather was cool - low 60s F- and almost drizzling. But, the bike ride was pleasant enough to enjoy. Al... was the only person in the workroom when I arrived at 10a. She had finished watering all of the rooms. She suggested I could work on vine maintenance in room 3c, which I did. I first inspected the low table holding the vining plants in 3C. I decided what tools I’d need, and returned to the workroom to gather the supplies:  pail, clippers, green tape, latex gloves, bucket of soapy water. I started by cleaning the soot from a “scrambling” hydrangea (Hydrangea obtusifolia, scrambling shrub, native of China) sitting next to a small wood trellis. Next, I selected the longest tendrils on the hydrangea plant and attached them to the trellis using the green stretchy tape. I was careful to attach the vine tendrils on one side of the trellis only because there was another different vining on the opposite side of the trellis. Later, I read the ...