*Thanks to our MFPA photographer, Wayne Opp for all these great photos!
Archive for the ‘CA Native Plants’ Category
12 Sep
Who will be at our Heart of the Park event?
Almaden Valley Public Safety Net
Birds of Our Parks
California Native Plant Tour/Society
District 10 City Council Office
Friends of Guadalupe Oak Grove Park
Handmade Almaden Market
Master Gardeners of Santa Clara Valley
MFPA membership, raffle, & refreshment tables
Party by Alina Face Painting
San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services
Volunteer Unit SJPD Crime Prevention Ice Cream Truck
19 Aug
Pat Pizzo’s Bench
Pat helped design the native plant garden at the visitor center in Hellyer County Park. He began the installation in Jan 2020. The garden is evolving and growing. The maintenance staff installed Pat’s bench near the flag pole and under a valley oak at the center.
If you get a chance, please check it out and send energy out to Pat’s spirit thanking him for his vision with this garden. The park is located at 985 Hellyer Ave in San Jose.
*Thanks to Jason Gorman for the photos and to Deb Kramer, Executive Director of Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, for providing the information.
18 Jul
Volunteers Spruce up Native Plant Islands
On June 6th, 2021, a hard working group of 18 volunteers signed up with the San Jose Parks Recreation & Neighborhood Services Dept. to help the Martin-Fontana Parks Association prepare the Jeffrey Fontana Park’s two largest native plant islands ready for the long hot summer.
Wearing face masks and after passing COVID temperature checks, the volunteers went to work on the two islands to pull out dead native plants, prune back the spreading plants. To help conserve water over the summer, they hauled several buckets of mulch to cover the bare ground around the plants. The unused mulch from the ten cubic feet delivered by South Bay Materials will be added later in the summer. MFPA member donations funded the mulch purchase and will fund needed replacement plants in the late fall.
11 Apr
It’s that time of the year to enjoy the Native Plants at Five Islands
Take a walk with the video provided by our MFPA photographer, Wayne Opp below:
Here are some plant close ups:
Thanks to our MFPA Photographer, Wayne Opp for these great photos. We hope to be on this year’s Going Native Garden Tour.
14 Jan
Not to worry
This weekend, some good folks from Our City Forest will come out to visit some of the beautiful California native plant landscaping projects that Pat Pizzo designed and led volunteers to build including along Capitancillos Dr. in the Oak Canyon neighborhood and the 5 Islands Project in Jeffrey Fontana Park. Don’t be alarmed if you see them snipping away at the plants. They will be collecting cuttings to root and grow in their 501(c)3 non-profit nursery for the benefit of all!
5 Nov
The Five Islands in Fontana Park are Ready for Winter!
Halloween Day saw several masked Martin-Fontana Parks Association volunteers meet at the Five Islands in Jeffrey Fontana Park with rakes in hand. Forty bags of mulch were spread among the islands by the hard working volunteers, assuring that the Islands were tucked in and ready for the winter rains. To help keep the weeds at bay, the MFPA volunteers spread Preen (a weed preventer that stops weeds from germinating) around the islands. After running short on mulch, Stacey Winters made a run to Outdoor Supply Hardware to return with enough mulch to finish the job!
Many thanks to Pieter Noordam, Dan and Michelle Judd with son Jared, Stacey Winters, Dave Poeschel, Rich Grialou, Kelly Shepherd and husband, Dave Gonzales, Star Taylor, organizer Linda Wilson, and MFPA Photographer Wayne Opp. Additional thanks to Pat Burrow who also contributed pictures of the hard working masked team.
A bench dedicated to Antje Hirt, a former MFPA member who spent many mornings walking her little dog in the park, has provided a quiet place to sit and contemplate for several park walkers since its installation last summer. Plans are being made to compliment the bench with a Manzanita plant on each side.
HATS OFF TO OUR MFPA VOLUNTEERS!!!
24 Aug
What’s the only tree in our parks with a name? Find out in our August Newsletter.
For the complete 4 page newsletter go to: https://saveourparktrees.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/newsletter-august-2020.pdf or just click on the image above.
17 Aug
Thanks for helping out on Volunteer Day
Wow! Thank you Laurie and your high school young men and our usual “Stars” — a lot of ground covered. We may have finished watering our trees for the year and many will now be able to make it on their own for the next couple hundred years. Stay tuned for this fall’s planting events — more oaks and natives shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers.
