“It’s a perfect day for planting! We got a nice rain like the earth knew our plans.”
-Jack Grimm

We’d like to thank all of the amazing volunteers with Slithers and Crawls for all their hard work! We had more hands than supplies, but Slithers & Crawls covered the cost of plants, potting soil, and mulch to get the garden done. We got transportation help from our volunteer, Stephanie Poirier, to pick up plants from Sun Dog Nursery in Pinion Hills. Wendy Walker was a great help in her suggestions of plants, she even offered us some large rocks for the garden, which will help keep the plant’s temperatures stable and protect their roots, plus they’re pretty! We had a lovely couple stop by with a bucket of pink penstemons for the garden, too! They made a great addition and will reseed the area like the other penstemons we got.

Native plant list:
(in order from front right, to back, left back to front)

•Pink penstemons (the donated ones, are scattered through out, there are several in the front)
•California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum)
•White Sage (Salvia apiana)
•California Goldenrod (Solidago velutina ssp. californica)
•Penstemon
•CA Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
•Paprika yarrow
•White yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
•Pink penstemons (donated)
•Heuchera sanguinea ‘Coral Bells’
•Monkeyflower
•Heuchera sanguinea ‘Coral Bells’
•White yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
•Yellow yarrow
•Penstemons
•Paprika yarrow
•Narrow leaf milkweed
•Pink penstemons (nursery)

Our Maintenance & Watering plan

•Spring & Fall watering to be done every 3-4 weeks, more or less often if soil is dry or not dry (i.e. let the plants dry out completely between watering)
•Limited Summer watering to only cool/overcast days and only 1-3 times a month on the sunny side of the path (away from the wall), plants closer to the wall are species that need more shade & water and may need watering once a week in the peak of summer
•When watering, we saturate the soil completely and surrounding soil to mimic rain, ensuring enough water is used to get water below the plant’s root ball and encourage deep roots

Maintenance is mostly just weeding & redistributing seeds from the planted plants, observing plant health and ensuring mulch covers soil to prevent weeds for the first two years.
Likely weeds:
•cheat grass (Bromus tectorum)
•Storks Bill (Erodium cicutarium)
•purslane

Someone had done the hardwork for us,
here is a PDF of all the common weeds of the San Gabriel Mountains & Angeles National Forest:
http://www.natureathand.com/Main/SGMWeedGuide.pdf

We hope you enjoy the Memory Garden and can hold onto some good memories while visiting it and enjoy watching it grow for Lesa ♥

If you want to have Slithers & Crawls help you with a native plant or ecological restoration project like this, contact us! Projects like these are crucial to supporting wildlife like the snakes, lizards, turtles, amphibians, and all the bugs we love with the food and habitat that they need.