Mission Blue Nursery- November 15,2015

Blog post #5
11/15/15 (10 AM - 1PM)

Today I met up with Ildiko and the other volunteers at the Mission Blue Nursery around 10AM. We went inside the Nursery to sign in and to get to know each other. Around 10:10, we went to a State park to gather coffee berry seeds! We were having a really hard time looking for coffee berries, but after ten to fifteen minutes we found some. Ildiko showed us various plants to gather seeds from, such as Yaro, California Aster, and Dwarf Coyote Bush. She also showed us a plant called Yerba Buena and told us to smell it. It has such a lovely minty smell. I learned that you could make tea out of it. After about an hour of seed picking, we headed back to the Nursery to sort out the seeds. Once we settled in the Nursery, we began to weed Yaro and Tree Lupin until it was time to go. We got a lot of plants weeded. It made me really happy to see all these seedlings look healthier after weeding them. Ildiko informed me that the plants we weeding were going to be planted onto San Bruno Mountain starting next weekend on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to that.

Time logged for session: 3 hrs
Total time logged: 15 hrs, 30 min

These seeds are Dwarf Coyote bush

These are coffee berries.

This is a before and after picture of the Yaro we weeded.

Stewardship Program- November 14th, 2015

Blog Post #4
11/14/15 (9:20AM - 12:40PM)

I met up with Ariel and the other volunteers at the office at 9:20. Around 9:45 we headed towards Buckeye Ridge.We brought envelopes with us to gather coffee berry seeds and fennel seeds. We spent the first hour hiking and looking for seeds. The view was spectacular! I was so excited to see a beautiful view of the bay. After we finished collecting seeds wee headed back to the car to gather our weed wrenches. We hiked up the mountain until we reached a nice shady spot. It was 11, so we decided that it would be a good time to take our break. After our break, we went back to work. There was a huge field of grass with fox bush growing all over; it was our job to weed these invasive plants. Fox bush was really difficult to get out of the ground, the roots were so thick! I eventually got the hang of it, but it was really tiring. Around 12:20 we gathered up our weeds and discarded them. We grabbed our tools and headed down to the car. I had a really great day!

Time logged for session: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Total time logged: 12 hours, 50 minutes

Here are some pictures of the beautiful view.

I pulled this fox bush, it was fairly small, but it was really difficult to pull out.

This is a close up picture of the fox bush.

The Stewardship Volunteer Program-October 24, 2015

Blog Post #3
10/24/15 (9:15AM-12:45)

Today I worked on the mountain! I met up with Ariel and the other Stewardship volunteers at the San Bruno Mountain Office at 9:15 A.M. After all the volunteers arrived, we headed towards the mountain. Ariel told us about a Native American Tribe that once lived on the mountains. He showed us native species of grass that grows all around the mountain. Our job was to preserve the grass and other native plants by weeding french  broom. We used this tool called a weed wrench to pull out the french broom. These weeds could be as small as grass to as big as an average sized tree. I was shocked at how large these weeds could get; some of these weeds were taller than me! We took a break to eat snacks, and to drink water, and then we went back to work. We continued pulling weeds until 12:20 P.M. Afterwards, we gathered the hundreds of french broom we weeded and made a pile. In the pictures below I posed with the humongous weed pile. The orange tool I'm holding is the weed wrench. As you scroll down you can see how thick the roots of the french broom are. Volunteering today was extremely exhausting, but I had a lot of fun.

Total time logged for this session: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total time logged: 9 hours, 30 minutes


 
 

Mission Blue Nursery- October 18, 2015

Blog Post #2
10/18/15 (1-4PM)

Today my second time volunteering at the Mission Blue Nursery. I volunteered for three hours, from 1p.m.-4p.m. I was very excited to volunteer! Ildiko and I started off weeding plants. We got rid of various weeds like clovers and moss. I was really shocked about how deep the clover roots went into the soil. It was really difficult to get rid off all the clover's roots. After about a half hour, we began to re-pot plants for their sale. The Nursery has sales on the extra plants they restore from the mountain. Ildiko and I rearranged and organized the pot assortments to make room for other plants. We took a break and snacked on cookies. Afterwards I walked around the nursery and watered dried out plants. Then, I went outside and watered the garden. I went back into the nursery and worked with Ildiko to weed more plants until it was time for me to go. It was very pleasing to see how healthy the plants looked after we got rid of the weeds. The pictures below are the interior of the nursery.

Time logged for this session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 6 hours

First day at the Mission Blue Nursery- October 11, 2015

Blog Post #1
10/11/15 (1-4PM)

Sunday was my first day of volunteering for San Bruno Mountain Watch. I volunteered in the Mission Blue Nursery for three hours from 1pm-4pm. This nursery is a huge green house filled with various plants from San Bruno Mountain. I was very nervous at first but I eventually warmed up to my coworkers. My boss's name is Ildiko. She showed  me around the nursery and gave me various jobs to do. I learned that the main goal of the nursery is to restore plants from San Bruno mountain. My first task was to get rid of moss and different types of weeds from various plants in small circular pots. Ildiko ran across a Pacific Chorus Frog and showed it to me. We all took a mini break at 2:30p.m. and ate watermelon. I got to know my boss and coworker better, and I was able to explain to them about what my senior capstone project is. After our break I started to weed other plants in gallon sized pots. Once I finished weeding it was time for me to go. I had a lot of fun! I will keep in contact with Ildiko through e-mail to figure out a volunteering schedule.

Time logged for this session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 3 hours