Prisk Native Garden

More nostalgia: The passing of Judith Larner Lowry.

This native plant lover, Judith Larner Lowry, did much to advance the love and cultivation of California Native Plants.

She left behind a legacy of warm and inspiring writing, including a book I'd highly recommend, for its warm and poetic writing: "Gardening with a Wild Heart." I've sent for Larner seeds, headquartered in Bolinas, CA, for many years. Her and her colleagues always make a gardener feel welcome. I bought this packet locally at Artemisia Nursery in LA.

Calling her a pioneer is altogether fitting and proper. Her long career helped the native plant movement kick into high gear.

Go to their website for a primer.

(Photo on left from their page.)--Mike

Hopeful article in NatGeo on the restoration of nature, from all over. I’m excited about Leo Di Caprio’s organization, “Re-Wild.”

Ask me if I want to get that globetrotting actor to Prisk Native Garden to discuss the Green Schools movement in So Cal. Just ask me. & please don’t discount that it could happen.—Mike

See how nature is bouncing back in these rewilded landscapes Once-exploited environments are being brought back from the brink by rewilding — and tourism is playing a role in sustaining this ecological regeneration.

This is my buddy and ally's last day at Prisk. I took a break from the FIFA game to sadly tell everybody that David is no longer our science teacher. (I even forgot about the game.)

David Macander has been a delight to have around, and we made a good team showing the kids around the Garden for years.

We dedicated a plaque to David and I'll mount it later under our Torrey Pine. It was Principal Katie's idea: When she came to Prisk David gave her a pine cone as a welcoming gift. The gift came full circle.

Many teachers came in to be with the Principal, David, and myself. This is one of Lisa Gaa's photos.

David will be going up to Camp Hi-Hill next. I'll really miss him, and I'll feel a definite lack in my experience of Prisk for a while. Yeah, I'll "adjust," but these partings in our lives are memorable and leave a mark. Farewell, brutha!--Mike

An old friend, author, and native plant expert, Barbara Eisenstein, planted out a "micro-forest" using the Miyawaki method, involving planting a diverse bunch of plants and trees close together as a way of reforesting an area quickly. (Because the plants compete for the light and the nutrients they can grow quite quickly.) Barbara's got a large area on which to experiment: her three-acre Nature Park in South Pasadena. The photo on top shows the early planting; the second pic is the grouping several months later.

Heck, If I had a large area on which to experiment, I'd try it myself. (The method does have its critics, and I'd like to find out more about the method and any drawbacks later on.)

(Photos by Joel Gomez)--Mike

My volunteer Nicole (Coco) at Muir Academy, where we're doing a small native plot in front of the Muir cafeteria (hey, Wild for Schools has a foothold there!), took a pic of her daughter, Elsie, while she stood in the space.

Grasses, Carex, Irises, and an Island red snapdragon, to use the common names of the species, are most of the population there.

(And no, I won't let other students pose in there, in case anybody's curious!)--Mike

When I first glanced at this white stone in the desert section I thought that overnight it had a layer of moss on it. Quite strange.

But then I looked more closely. It was a bunch of baby grasshoppers, massed together. More strange, but the animal world is that and wondrous.--Mike

I caught David Macander with his back turned in our Desert Wash, with the kids in the shaded background. Scenes like this will be gone soon, unfortunately. David is leaving soon for Camp Hi-Hill, used by our School District to allow kids to camp for short periods in nature. I'll miss him and our friendship, our occasional lunches together in the Garden, the fact that he is an ally who sees eye-to-eye with me about pretty much everything, and his value as a science teacher on our campus with his unique take on teaching. I visited him once at his relatively far-off house in Temecula and gave him a landscaping consultation.

I've assisted him for a long time as a co-teacher as I led tours or the kids searched for items on a science "scavenger hunt."
(Funny thing, I do have a teaching credential, but I haven't used it officially for a long time. But here I am joining in in my own way in this educational enterprise. It's destiny, I tell ya!)

But again, the campus to me just won't be the same. David still has about two weeks left at Prisk, and he'll visit more and we'll have one more lunch, my brutha!--Mike

I watched this prickly guy coming up in the "authentic" desert soil around the ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) I just planted and didn't quite know what it was. It was greener than the western thistle (Cirsium occidentale) that commonly comes up as a volunteer in the Garden from its many seeds flying around, and staying slender and comparatively small.

Now that it's blooming, I can see it's a prickly poppy, Argemone munita, from a happily accidental seed that was brought in when I got some desert soil from a roadside about a year back. Nice, huh? The bloom looks like a Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri), but smaller.

There's no better medium than the wild soils/gravel from the deserts for desert plants, IMO. They're full of special minerals, etc. I'll save the seeds from this poppy and try to keep this biennial going in Prisk. I've seen them come and go over the years: it's an off-again, on-again visitor.--Mike

(Note: the Bureau of Land Management allows you to pick up whatever "detritus" you see along roads--gravel, rock, etc.--up to 60 pounds per visit: I looked it up and followed the law. They don't want you to search in sensitive/endangered areas, natch.)

David, Maya, and me. Selfie by Maya.

The school year is winding down, and David Macander's tenure is near an end at Prisk. My nostalgia is already cranking up. More on this in next couple of days. --Mike

The tree guys from Gruett Tree Service (whom I'd recommend if you need some tree work or removal), Guillermo and Alberto, came by and tore out most of the desert ironwood (Olneya tesota) after it fell across the Desert Wash at one point. I removed some of it away from walking areas, and had the scratches and cuts to show from it, since the spines on this desert species are about as nasty as I've seen in any species. I surmise that this species got too much water in one season from the early rains, and it couldn't handle it. It happens in the desert section, occasionally.

My buddy Evie who works for the District told me straight that the District workers wouldn't remove something like this (I won't go into why; I don't know why); so I had to hire outside labor. I've done this in the past. The PTA will pay for most of it; a smaller amount I'll chip in from my nonprofit, Wild for Schools. After all, Prisk is the "headquarters" and "template" for any and all re-wilding of schools in the District, and for any campus anywhere, for that matter.

The planting of trees, the removal of trees (or any vegetation, like lawns, hopefully) for any reason: it's all part of this movement, after all.

A real good aspect of all this is the opening up of all the new open space on the other side of the Desert Wash now. Feels good.--Mike