Prisk Native Garden

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

Ask me how much I get inspired by kids getting inspired, in this case by our beloved late wildlife protector, Jane Goodall. Ask me.

Turns out that a group of youngsters started a nursery to regrow trees in the burned neighborhoods of Altadena and the Palisades. And yes, they grew native trees. All real good, no? Jane's legacy will continue for many, many years, I'm more than sure.

Who knew that a passion for chimps in Gombe, Africa, could start a legacy that would reverberate through all times and places on earth?--Mike

(Photo: Myung J. Chung/Los Angeles Times)

The phenomenal Matilija poppy, Romneya coulteri. The association of poppies with Memorial Day started after WWI. In that case, this was the "Flanders poppy" of Europe. But all these species are in the Papavaraceae Family, of which this enormous species, called "the world's largest perennial," is part.

In our Garden the blooming of this guy is always in May, but in other gardens I've heard of it blooming in April. It has to be curtailed or else it wants to spread and spread and spread. A huge slope somewhere would be perfect for its ramblings!--Mike

Another excited pre-K group at the Garden.

"See? That big tadpole (Baja chorus frog tad) down there? Be careful. Don't push each other toward the water. Just look."--Mike

Sarah Oxley, parent volunteer, brought several classes to the Garden today and we led them around discussing "habitats."

Yes, Prisk represents many habitats throughout Southern California, and tadpoles, in this case, Baja chorus frog tadpoles, are found in many habitats, from the coast to sites very far from the coast. Here I have them in the little pond below the desert palm group at the end of the "Desert Wash" section.

The excitement of the kids made me forget that it was beyond "hot" today. The various shady spots in the Garden helped, too.--Mike

My volunteer at Muir Academy, Coco Chapelle, with daughter, Elsie, a student there. I planted an Iris this afternoon and mulched in the space where we're starting small now but expanding as we go on other sites. We're almost done at this spot in front of the "Muir Cafe," their cafeteria.

I sprayed the kids with the hose (mostly their hands that they held out, giggling) while I was winding up the work.

Now get this: without asking them, Coco handed me a nice check made out to "Wild for Schools," my new nonprofit, from their PTO at the School. Nice to get these unsolicited funds, no? I'll deposit this nice gesture in our WFS account tomorrow. Now it's mostly about mulch, tools, and plants.--Mike

(P.s. Soon I'll start a new FB Page for Wild for Schools, and hopefully continue to have good news as we go. But hey, Prisk Native Garden is the template, the headquarters, the very model, for "good news"!-M)

The button-like flowers of dune tansy, Tanacetum camphoratum, a plant of the disappearing San Francisco Dunes (another loss!), found delightedly for sale at Brita's Nursery on Main Street in Seal Beach.

This low, spreading perennial is rarely if ever sold, and I snatched one up quickly. Its leaves, yes, have a medicinal "camphor"-like aroma (remember the aroma from my childhood, somehow), and I like adding more aroma-based species when I can get them. Aromas are certainly one way of experiencing a native-plant garden.

I planted it where it can send up more rhizomes in a more shady area of our "back-dune" section near our coastal strand area, beacause after all, it's a creature of the more misty, moisture-rich Central California & more intolerant of our Southern conditions.--Mike