Nasturtium removal at the Springer property

Last season we started working on a one acre patch of Nasturtium that had jumped the neighbors fence and is slowly taking over the understory of a beautiful oak woodland. Nasturtium is very easy to control with hand removal, even though it is a prolific seeder.

Our volunteer stewardship team planted over 600 plants in tight planting clusters and cleared five 3 meter by 3 meter experimental plots. In the small plots, we will remove Nasturtium and any other non-native plants and monitor what comes up on it's own for the next two seasons. This will help me to know if we can ease up on planting and perhaps just control the invasive species, at least in part of the site.

 The extra help from the volunteers is invaluable. After our planting we had a picnic and shared stories and snacks.

Planting in Coast Live Oak Woodlands

We are planting native oak woodland understory in a few places around the Reserve. One of these areas is currently 99% Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus). Cal-IPC evaluated this plant but did not list it. It certainly seems to be gaining ground in one of our drainage areas and I consider it invasive. It came from a neighboring property and crept under the fence. This annual isn't hard to remove and I doubt it will be a serious competitor with our natives, once established.

Wood mint (Stachys bullata) was planted in tight clusters so that it might gain some defensible space against the Nasturtium. About 30-35 plants per cluster, 6-12" apart. Next year I'll get a bit more diversity in and plant blackberry, coffeeberry, and others.

Planting Greenhouse Demonstration Garden

Volunteers Gwen, Ellie, Martha and I planted another section of the greenhouse demonstration garden. Two types of annual lupin (L. bicolor and L. succulentus) and tidy tips (Layia platyglossa) were planted in clusters, taking up space that would otherwise be occupied by non-native annuals. We win.