City Gardener Sandbox

Today at the greenhouse B... and Al... gave me the task of cleaning up the climbing vines in room C3. It didn’t take very long to accomplish. The room is kept fairly chilly since it represents temperate forests in winter dormancy. I was glad to be wearing two layers today. Vine bench in room C3 In the same room, C3, they had me climb up on one of the benches along the wall to prune a few of the climbing bushes clinging to a metal trellis. I also trimmed a few small bushes on one of the other low benches (I’m hoping I didn’t kill one of them because I think I removed a bit too much of the plant…50% or so). Finally, I scrubbed the leaves of one of the vines. They were partly covered in sooty mold, and looking unsightly.

My husband T... joined me for the drive to the greenhouse this morning. There, we met up with his friend from work-days, D.., for a tour of the greenhouse. The tour began with an introductions to the staff. I brought them first to the farthest end of the greenhouse, room C4, where the desert plants are housed. In particular, I highlighted the Welwitschia mirabilis from Namibia, and then pointed out the differences and similarities between euphorbias and cacti. I also showed them plants intermediate between those with leaves, and those with only needles. The intermediate plants have both needles and leaves. We talked about convergent evolution where euphorbias from Africa and cacti from South America followed similar adaptations (intermediate forms with both needles and leaves) although their genetic groups are completely different. Vanilla vine in room C2 We then toured the Temperate forest room, C3. This room houses examples of many of the plants and trees with which we are famili...

Director A... had me gather small 4-inch pots, 160 of them, and place them in trays to be filled with potting mix for planting of brassica seeds by agronomy students. I found the pots in the pot-room, the trays in the tray-room, and the potting soil bags in the room full of different types of soil, bark, vermiculite and perlite. Back in the workroom, I filled the trays with the empty pots, then dumped potting mix on top of the empty pots, spreading out the mix into the containers until they were full. I used an empty tray to press down on the pots to compress the soil just enough to squeeze out some of the excess air pockets from each small pot. Finally, each tray was set in a bath to soak up water from the bottom of the pot. Later, B came along to gently spray water onto the surface to ensure the small pots were adequately moist for seeds to germinate. The trays were then placed in a walk-in refrigerator to keep them cool and moist for later use in class. Working in D2 again, I notice...

   I spent the 3 hours of my shift almost entirely occupied by a single chore: scrubbing the black sooty mold off of the thick, leathery leaves of a ficus tree. The tree is in D2 (display room 2, tropical rainforest of New Caledonia) located in the northeast corner of the room. The sooty-mold problem had become more noticeable since the collapse of a tree which had been hiding the ficus from view.  The collapsed tree had become very top-heavy, on a spindly trunk unable to support the weight of its own canopy. There were a few minutes to perform a few other smaller chores: cleaning up leaves from D4. B showed me how to use the computer located in the workroom to enter my schedule into their online calendar. I entered the dates I would be coming to the greenhouse through April, 2023. I’ll have to remember to fill out their calendar when I return from my winter trip in April.

Today, a few days before Christmas, the weather turned very cold. The high today is expected to be -6F. Like other fool-hardy Minnesotans I ventured out to the greenhouse to fulfill my appointed duties. However, when I arrived there, only Curator J.. was in the building. He asked if I would stay and do a bit of sweeping, which I did for about two hours. There wasn’t a lot of debris under the benches, but every bench had a little bit. So the benches in all four collection rooms needed attention. I also swept the workroom. I have to state the floors of the greenhouse look much tidier since J’s arrival, thanks in part to a leaf blower recently introduced to the greenhouse. He has made a significant effort to get pots up off of the floors onto low benches. The floors clearly are being washed more frequently compared to before his arrival. It is important for the greenhouse because it reduces the biomass on the floor for the proliferation of pests and fungus, which then spread to the plants...

Both Director A... and B... were back in the greenhouse this week, having been away last week. My first task was to pot a couple of cactus-like plants in the aster family: Kleinia pendula (inchworm plant); and K stapeliiformis (pickle plant). Both are finger-like succulents with spines like a cactus or euphorbia. They originate from Africa. Each variety had approx 8 10-inch stems which (previously calloused overnight) I inserted into an arid mix, all in one terra cotta pot.  The plants were donated by Madison (I assume UW at Madison WI). I was asked to bury a label deep in the base of each pot with the plant’s name, date, and my initials. I also repotted a couple of small agave-like plants in the asparagus family, which originate from S. America: Furcraea guerrerensis. They were each planted into 6-inch terracotta pots with an arid mix. The plants were donated by Madison (I assume UW at Madison WI). I was asked to bury a label deep in the base of each pot with the plant’s name, dat...

Before arriving for this weeks activites in the greenhouse, I was informed some of the staff had been exposed to covid, and were home in quarantine. Curator J...  had issued an email earlier in the week, which outlined the current guidelines regarding covid. My first task was to empty a large bathtub-size tank. It contained a few water lilies which failed to grow well. They remained too small to be adequate examples of their species. The tank also features a small floating fern. A asked me to save the fern into a glass jar, along with the tank’s bubble tube. The lilies were discarded. I emptied the tank and washed the sides of the adhering algal growth, rinsed the tank, and left it on its side to dry. I repotted a couple of small hibiscus plants native to Kauai (Hibiscus clayi), Hawaii (family Malvaceae). They were placed in new plastic “azalea” pots with relatively shallow depth (5 inches or so). A asked for soil 1a. She also asked us to desist from using paper towels in the botto...