Path of least resistance

Hilary taking a break

The 4' wide path at PRG has become quite difficult to use this year. It's overgrown and very narrow in places, thanks to some enthusiastic plants and also the decomposed granite (DG) substrate gets washed into deep grooves by rain. That creates ankle-twisting ditches on one side - not good.

DG needs maintenance every couple years, and I had called a number of companies to get quotes on repair. One of them came out to see the site on Saturday. The representative said the path needs to be completely clear to give a real quote.... so, at our volunteer workday on Saturday we decided to seriously attack the path!

Before

Matt, Aditi, Sarah, Sage and Hilary joined me and the sun was very warm as we worked on cutting back all ornamental plants (not weeds) that crossed the path edging.

Not weeds? Well, we have a weeding volunteer day on June 15th 1pm-3pm (join us!) and that team can focus on weeds, then we can just use the string trimmer if there are any left. Ornamental plants need to be cut back a bit more carefully though.

After

Anyway, away we went. We focused on a couple sections and really hauled out a lot of plant material. The path is now drastically wider in spots, overhanging branches are trimmed, a lot of fennel got whacked, and Calandrinia cuttings were reserved for future planting. More to do though!

Then on Sunday, Matt and I did a couple more hours before exhaustedly heading up to Papito for some well-deserved sangria.