Cahuenga Library Fall Planting!

EHNC Vice President Eric Moore, EHNC Public Safety Committee member J.D. Brown and friends help plant Blue Festuca grasses at the Cahuenga Library.

The day has finally come for Saturday’s Cahuenga Library Fall Planting event. Much less pressure and more low-key than our Big Sunday event, yet a lot of preparation had to be done nevertheless. Had to wake up extra early to do some tools shopping at Home Depot in Hollywood before arriving here.

We had about a dozen volunteers total, which was short of the projected number, but no big worries. Everyone was promised lunch but just about everyone had to either cut out early or leave right after they were done, so we didn’t even have food (even with food, we’d still be way under-budget). Some folks from Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardening, an informal group that clandestinely plants mostly natives in public spaces, helped out, mainly their team members known as Mr. Stamen, Roly Poly and Fuschia. They spent most of the time doing de-weeding and tending to the agave and aloe plants. There was much work for them to do due to the City’s Recreation and Parks department over-watering the plants, leaving  the weeds to grow uncontrolled (Some maintenance by the City, eh?)

We did have some folks do cleaning exclusively, including local resident Guia Wood, who comes armed most every month with her own dustbin, EHNC Youth & Education Committee member Beth Peterson and a woman named Jeannie who came all the way from Manhattan Beach and heard about this via the Big Sunday website’s volunteer calendar. We let them use our new “grabber claw” tool that makes cleanup both easier and safer (remember, we sometimes have used syringes scattered in the library grounds).

In the end, we got to plant all nine irises (now safely in the shade and away from walkways), the Festuca and Blue-Eyed Grass (strategically placed near an area where people like to loiter and litter, hoping their spiny appearance would be a psychological deterrant of sorts), most of the Hummingbird and Brandegee’s sages (we did finally expand the sage garden in the library’s entryway, which included some irises and two Penstemons), and planted one of the Cleveland sages and two Coffeeberry plants.

There were still seven plants not planted yet, including all the California poppy seeds, but we can get to those in the next few days/weeks. Someone even donated a few aloe vera plants to us. We kept all the unplanteds behind the gate at the front of the library.

We could have had more folks, but no worries, this wasn’t a high-pressure event like Big Sunday was. We got to see our garden expand and the library get cleaner again. Plus, the forecast calls for rain tonight (the clouds seem to be moving in).  A great time to be planting.

We’re looking for other people to help volunteer planting the remaining plants and seeds, as well as once-a-week watering for the new plants. Contact me {elsongs [at] gmail [dot] com) if you’re interested!

Here’s a Flickr slideshow of our planting event: