Yucca is not Yucky

Wendy's first tree!

One of our youngest volunteers today, Sophia, asked me 'Why are they called Yuccas? Are they yucky?' They are anything but yucky! For starters, they come in a variety of colors and some are variegated. You can uproot them, leave them behind a shed for months, practically forgotten, and they will re-root when you plant them again*. They also thrive in our environment with almost no additional water after their first rainy season. All winning qualities in my book!

*not that I endorse this type of (non)care, but I'm just saying they will live and don't go looking behind our shed at the garden...

Today we had a mighty team assembled to put in Yuccas, Cacti, move mulch, and clear the site of trash. There is always trash to be cleared! Our mighty team in alphabetical order: Anna, Annie, Carl, Carlin, Eddy, Emily (ok that's me), Linda, Masashi, Matt, Matt (of Annie and Matt), Patrick, Sophia and Wendy. Everyone picked up trash, and then divided up into work groups. Eddy and Matt brought a ton of Cacti and Yucca that we had been storing at Pennsylvania Garden down to the site, the rest of us hand carried a few Yuccas, and everyone got to work digging holes and placing plants. Annie had to leave early to go to work, but she did a great job instructing everyone on where things went and why. Hopefully we put everything in the right place!

Mighty cactus tamed by Eddy, Carl, Matt and Matt

We also had numerous, like almost a dozen, people stop by and say hello and thank you. Everyone had a story to tell about the site, and say how impressed they were with how things were changing for the better. Becky stopped and told us a story of how she used to come to this block and watch the jack rabbits race the train as it went by, back when she was a little girl. Martin, seeing us working across the way as he shopped at Center Hardware with his family, even came over and made a large donation in the form of a credit at Center Hardware. What a great guy!

At the end of the +2 hour workday almost everything was planted, picked up and put away. Did I mentioned the trees were also watered using our new irrigation system? Love it! Can't wait to make all the arrangements for the upcoming plantings on January 20th and 21st. Stay tuned!