Greenway work party–Saturday, September 10

Hello Friend and Supporter of the Greenway,

I hope that you are enjoying the final weeks of summer. We are making plans for September’s monthly work party. It won’t be on the first Saturday as it usually is because, of course, that would conflict with Labor day. It will be on Saturday, September 10 from 9:00am to 12:00pm. We’ll have coffee at the start (many thanks to Canyon Market for providing this) and sandwiches at the end. I do hope that you can join us. We’ll meet at the end of the Chilton Avenue cul-de-sac (near 88 Chilton). Just follow the aroma of freshly brewed coffee! See you there at 9:00am.

If you’re planning to come to the work party please send me an email to tell me that you’re coming so that we know how many sandwiches to order.

As always, there will be plenty of work to be done taking care of our growing Oak Woodland and our latest project: the Native Meadow. Here’s a description of the main tasks that we’ll do at our Work Party:

• Weed around the direct-seeded oaks that are still in tree shelters and instal burlap squares as well as repairs to the sheet mulch where necessary. The best tools for this will be a pair of hand-shears, a trowel and perhaps a hammer
• Measure the height of all 57 of the direct-seeded oaks. We do this every year. Tools for this are a tape measure, a clip board and a pen and paper.
• Finish planting the Wild Blue Rye: we have a few more plants of this classic native grass. We’re planting a few at a time and there may be some left over for us to plant at our Work Party. The tools for this are post-hole diggers and trowels.
• Weed the Native Meadow. There’s a bad infestation of bind-weed that we need to keep carefully weeding. The best tool for this is our finger-tips. Attempts to dig it up simply damage the cardboard sheet mulch that is the primary way that we are suppressing it. Just pull gently!
• Prune off the sprouts from stumps etc left after hazardous trees were cleared by SFPW in 2017. The tools for this are loppers and hand shears.
• Weed the areas of shrub plantings. The best tools for this will be trowels and small shears.
• Collect trash. The Greenway gets plenty of trash tossed down from the Bosworth sidewalk. If you find cleaning up the landscape to be a satisfying pursuit, we’ve got a trash-picker for you!

If you have your own tools, please bring them. If you don’t have tools we have tools that you can borrow – just come to the top of the pedestrian ramp where Chilton Avenue meets Bosworth St. My red Subaru will be parked there at 9:00AM on Saturday morning with tools that you can use.

San Francisco’s rules in response to the pandemic no longer apply to open-air settings, and we will be working in the open air so a mask will not normally be necessary. Please bring a mask with you and, if you find yourself congregating to chat or need to work closely with any other volunteers and they feel more comfortable wearing a mask, please wear yours too.

I hope that you’ll be able to join the Work Party and look forward to working with you on Saturday September 10.

Many thanks for all that you do for the Greenway

Nicholas