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Re: wildflower lawn disasters

At 8:03 PM -0700 5/30/97, you wrote:


>>> What about wild flower lawns.
>
>>I did this once. .....
>
>>However ....
>>just as the rains end, so does the wildflower bloom, and we ended up
>>with two front yards full of dead sticks.
>
>We are experiencing this right now in Berkeley. Last year, the city
>reworked the  median strip along the full length of University Ave (the
>main street into the center of town from the freeway) to have native trees
>and shrubs...and California native wildflowers and grasses. For much of the
>spring, it was block after block of glorious California Poppies, plus other
>wildflowers and waving green grasses. Now every block looks like an
>abandoned lot full of dead weeds with some tough trees and shrubs
>struggling to survive in the middle. REALLY UGLY!!!
>
>Katherine Pyle
>Berkeley, California, USA

Hi Katherine - The median strip in front of the West Branch of the Berkeley
Public Library was weeded about 3 weeks ago and the section between
California and Sacramento was just weeded and cut back Sunday.  The
University Avenue Native Gardeners is a group of volunteers who meet for
two hours on designated Saturdays or Sundays to do this work.  Anyone who
shows up is a member.  The city of Berkeley provides safety vests, hand
tools and blocks off one lane of traffic in both directions for this
effort.  We will meet again on Saturday, June 14th from 9am to 11am in the
section in front of Andronico's on University between Sacramento and Acton.
We will decide which block to tackle next then.  More native plants will be
going in this fall. The weeding will be less of a chore next year and
probably won't be necessary after that.  I have already noticed a huge
benefit from the native plantings:  LADYBUGS!!!!!!  Perhaps you could
spread the word about our work parties!  Millicent
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