Outdoor Classroom at Soil Born Farm in Citrus Heights

California Poppies, blooming in November! 

Last week I met up with Chris and Robin of Elderberry Farms Nursery and Peter Larimer, the landscape architect who designed the new outdoor planting plan at Soil Born Farms. I'm going to be taking photos of the plants monthly so we can have a visual record of how they do. The plants are a collection of native and Mediterranean plants, all on the same watering schedule. I shall be the "scientific photographer". Wish I had a white lab coat!

I took a lot of not-so-good photos as we walked around and took inventory. Here's a lavender that's not making it. Planted too deep or over-watered in some other way? Mulch to close in on the plant?

Here's Chris looking at a dead plant ... a silver lupine that was killed by a ...

 red-humped caterpillar! Yuck!

Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) is a popular native grass, described as moving nicely with the wind and a great pollinator plant. Here it is in August,

 but I've seen it pretty dried out looking, too. This is one of my objectives regarding being involved with this project. I like to know how plants look thru the seasons. Because, as you can see, it's not lush and green in November!

My favorite thing, however, was not the plant walk-thru, but the outdoor classroom with its native no-mow grass.

Here's a full view.

There are gracefull sweeps of sitting walls.

The arbor is covered with a wire mesh,

that will eventually be covered by Thompson Seedless grape vines.

A lot of local businesses and organizations helped with both the financing and the construction of this project! Well done! Soil born is a great educational resource for the Sacramento area. They have made it possible to have a native nursery which gathers and propagates plants indigenous to our area, and they host a number of classes and events for young and old. Besides that, it's a bit of country in the heart of the city. Chickens, birds, big sky, quiet. They're growing and will only become more of an influence as time goes by.

The old meeting ground! Cute, isn't it?

For more info about Soil Born Farms, click here!
For info about the Elderberry Farms Native Plant Nursery
 and their free PBJ lunch/Wednesday morning workdays, click here!

Whether you need garden design, coac hing, seasonal maintenance or planting, Geno's Garden can help!  Call me at (916) 764-5243, or email hansonja@aol.com.