Comments from February 2011 Survey:
Photo of soil: I found a layer of about 3-4 cm of fill. It was brown and gritty, probably mostly sand. Beyond that I found an A horizon of at least 30 cm. (that was the length of my soil probe). I was able to make a ribbon of about 4 cm, indicating a clay loam—which is what the Alameda soil survey said should be here. This soil was black-brown and somewhat plastic.
The lawn is still dense with a mixture of clover and alta fescue. On the east side I found a few annual grasses. There were a few English daisies (Bellis) and one Sonchus plus a handful of other broadleaf weeds including dandelions. But overall the condition of the lawn is very good. I found virtually no Annual Bluegrass and no open spots at all.
I should note that no attempt was made to keep grass awayfrom the trees. Yet I can’t see any ‘mower blight’ or weedeater damage to any of the lawn trees.
Photo: last fall a big area of Cyperus esculentus was removed by a gardener hired by the park committee. As far as I can see none of it has grown back yet. I assume this weed indicates a break in the irrigation line but no repairs have been done todate as far as I know.
3 photos of the native garden, which looks in good shape.(There is one large volunteer palm along the south fence that needs to beremoved ASAP.)
I probed the soil inthe north side of the native garden. My probe was only able to penetrate about15cm down before hitting an impenetrable layer. The soil was a bit grayer andmore clayey. I could make a ribbon of about 6-8 cm. indicating a higherpercentage of clay. The soil was very moist but we just had significant rainsso that’s no surprise.
Photo of redwoods.
The ceanothus ground cover is completely gone from the westside of the park.
In the northwest corner the ground cover is doing very wellbut it is being overtopped by bur clover (medicago) and Bermuda grass.
3 photos: annualgrasses and oxalis are taking over the north end of the 10th Avenuestrip.
The 10th Ave strip is deteriorating fast, justlike the 11th Ave side. Here the enemies are Oxalis and AlgerianIvy, which will someday crowd out the Ceanothus that was planted here. Rightnow the Ceanothus is is good shape but the weeds are coming.
4 photes of this.
There are also a number of volunteer shrubs that are getting very big. These shoul be removed. This includes two Pyracantha’s, a palm, some Agapanthus, two Coyote Bushes and something I can’t identify.
A soil probe here found soil identical to that in the lawn,with some ribbons of brown sand mixed in with mostly clay-loam.
