Cooler weather brings the best season for planting in southern California, and staff and volunteers have been busy with many beautification, maintenance, safety, and planting projects. We’ve also been busy with events and activities, as reported below.

Gardens and Grounds:

• Miguel Estrada hired three new student workers, Brittany Carnero, Dahlia Vamstad, and Jai Moreno who join continuing student Bethany Johnson in keeping our Gardens beautiful and assisting with visitor services.
• The team started a new effort to clean up the orchard. The primary goal is to clear enough vegetation to allow the Botanic Gardens to replace drip tubing with more UV resistant PVC pipe that will sit above ground.
• Irrigation and plants are being installed in the new California Bee Garden.
• We removed the weeds and mulched under the winged elm and dawn redwood in the Deciduous Forest area, near the base of the steep driveway.
• Two areas were reseeded with temporary annual grass in the Deciduous Forest area. In spring the area will be seeded with Defiance XRE fescue.
• The large limbs that crashed on the Celebration of Life Memorial are scheduled for removal, which must be done before repairs are made.
• An open area in the North American Desert has been flagged for a new installation of agaves.
• Five leaky hose bibs were replaced throughout the Gardens.
• We started clearing out large weeds and old irrigation (drip tube and PVC pipe) in the newly acquired Frost Court property.
• Years of sediment are being removed from the Butterfly Garden drainage channel.
• Phase two of perimeter trail repair has begun; approximately 2,200 sq ft of trail have been filled and smoothed starting with the areas bordering the Conifers and Coastal Sage Scrub.

Activities and Events:

• Online Fall Plant Sale
• In-Person Succulent Pumpkin Centerpiece Class
• Art in the Gardens
• A pop-up shop was set up at Art in the Gardens to sell BG branded items and plants
• Janine Almanzor hired a new student assistant Curator, Catherine Shannon, to replace Yani Aldao Galvan, who was offered a position as the Director of Conservation with the Mojave Desert Land Trust.