Perc Pond Garden Program

The program applies only to the planting areas in front of the chain link fences that are visible in many neighborhoods. Access to interior areas are prohibited for safety reasons. The club will provide hardy native plants selected for the location and will help organize volunteers for the initial installation. Neighbors, family and/or friends must participate and to continue care for the planting into the future.

Native plants are recommended

Why are native plants recommended to use in your Perc Pond? Although there are other ornamental plants that might be suitable for the challenging conditions of the perc ponds, our native species will provide the “best bang for the buck.” Think of the perc pond areas as a potential attractive green spaces that will not only feed birds, insects and wildlife, but improve the street view, provide seasonal color, and promote community pride. We strongly recommend fall planting to give our natives the best start to establish through winter rains.

The MT&GC would like to promote the use of our showiest and hardiest natives in more areas of the city. Our club will provide plant and design expertise, and, help purchase recommended native plants for those neighborhood leaders that have adopted perc ponds.  

A community perc pond garden should be an evolving process that looks cared for. It is not necessary to install a complete garden in one weekend! A garden is an ongoing process. The City will provide a sign that the landscaped area is a designated Percolation Pond Garden. With this sign in place, the City will only maintain the area inside the fence of the perc pond. The City will not be responsible for any maintenance of the resident landscaped area. It will be the responsibility of the adopting residents to water and weed the landscaped area to keep the garden looking good.

City residents interested in adopting their local perc pond, can coordinate with the Club Member-at-large Perc Pond project director by sending an email to info@marinatreeandgarden.org. 

The Straw Bale Method

Soak your bale with water and fish emulsion every day for a week. Let it get hot and rot a bit – about a week or two. The bale is ready to plant when it is no longer piping hot. Spread a good layer of compost over the top and plant into the bale using seeds or starts. You can dig a hole and fill with compost before planting. Squid guts worked really well buried into the bale before planting tomatoes this year. Fish heads would be good too for heavy feeding crops.

You will need to keep checking moisture levels as the bale will hold more water than soil will (certainly more than sandy soil!). Keep it from drying out with attentive watering. Installing a timed drip works great too.

The advantages are numerous:

• Inexpensive! Straw bales run about $12-18 a bale
• Less work! No need to build beds or bring heavy top soil in to your garden
• If there are areas of contamination in your yard (motor oil, toxins) you can contain your planting area in the bale
• The planting zone is now easier to reach because the bales are off the ground
• Bales are easy to keep weed free (use straw bales- not hay – you don’t need sprouting hay seeds)
• Bales hold moisture well (better than the sandy soil in Marina)
• Bales will be warmer than planting in the soil – good for tomatoes!
• Lay down bird wire before laying down the bale to keep out gophers
• After the bale falls apart use as mulch in other areas of the garden
• If you are growing tomatoes or potatoes, you can avoid pathogens like Verticillium Wilt from persisting in the soil by using a fresh bale each year.

Check out these links that describe straw bale gardening in detail

University of California “Gardening with Straw Bales”

BBC News “Pee Bales”

or just visit YouTube and type in “Straw Bale Gardening”

It really works!
Even in the coastal summer fog!

Photos: Juli Hofmann

Why does my tree look so unhappy?

If the damage looks like the photo, it’s probably myoporum thrips (Klambothrips myopori). These insects are recent invaders to California and are affecting Myoporum laetum trees and Myoporum ground covers up and down the coast.

Myoporum thrips are dark brown minute and slender insects, less than 1/10 inches long. They have puncturing and sucking mouth parts and cause damage to young Myoporum laetum leaves which is easily observed by the gall-like swellings and distorted stunted and leaf curling or folding on new shoots. In severely affected trees, die-back begins at the tips and moves towards the trunk.

How can I control?

Trees under stress due to drought, poor growing conditions, lack of soil fertility or other environmental problems are especially susceptible. It is evident that the extended drought and lack of water has encouraged thrips spead through out the state. So the first line of defense is to provide good growing conditions. For thrips affected trees, pesticide treatment may also be an option but for heavily infested trees control can be difficult. Article by Robert Muraoka, a licensed California Pest Control Adviser and a Registered Consulting Arborist.

Some pesticides may also kill beneficial insects, such as bees and other pollinators and predators like the minute pirate bug and green lacewings that eat thrips. Since application of effective pesticides that work well to treat thrips is difficult, we recommend seeking professional expertise and hire a licensed applicator with experience treating Myoporum trees if you decide to treat your trees. Consult the University of California IPM website for more information on thrips control. University of Davis Pest Notes Publication

What should I do if my tree is heavily damaged?

For valuable landscape trees, besides improving tree health by improving overall growing conditions, pesticide treatment may be an option. For heavily damaged or dying trees replacement of the tree may with a suitable tree may be the best option.

Hardy Replacement Trees

The following list includes selections that are known to tolerate wind, poor soil, and low water (once established) unless othewise noted. It is suggested that any new tree be watered regularly for the first year or two to establish a healthy root structure!

Click here for printable pdf

View local list of nurseries

Arbutus ‘Marina’ – Strawberry tree
Ceanothus – ‘Ray Hartman’ (please note: more of a shrub that can be trained as a tree)
Corynocarpus laevigatus – New Zealand Laurel (please note: poisonous berry!)
Cupaniopsis anacardioides – Carrot Wood
Geijera parvifiora – Australian Willow
Heteromeles arbutifolia – Toyon (please note: more of a shrub that can be trained as a tree)
Laurus ‘Saratoga’ – Saratoga Bay Laurel
Lyonothamnus floribundus – Catalina Ironwood
Melaleuca ericifolia – Heath Melaleuca
Melaleuca linariifolia – Flaxleaf Paperbark
Melaleuca styphelioides – Black Tea Tree
Melaleuca quinquenervia (aka M. leucadendra) – Cajeput Tree
Pittosporum crassifolium – Karo Tree
Tristaniopsis laurina ‘Elegant’ – Small-Leaf Tristania

The club then collected funds to purchase a bench and commemorative plaque to add to the site. A tinted cement pad was added by City Public Works staff for the bench to sit on.

It became obvious that this space needed more than a tree, a bench and some colored concrete. This site could become a welcoming green space in an area dominated by parking lot. It could become a beautiful memorial garden!

Club members Grace Silva-Santella and Juli Hofmann, created a landscape plan, budget, plant list and submitted a proposal to the Monterey Peninsula Regional Parks District’s Open Space and Coastal Preservation Grant Program.

The club was awarded a grant in early 2017, and the garden quickly took shape. The site defining hardscape rock wall and stone walkway were assembled in one day by local stone masons in February. Another full day by club volunteers accomplished all of the sheet mulching and planting. A Saturday afternoon club crew (with strong hands) assembled the drip system to each and every new plant in March. Coordination with Marina Public Works enabled hook up to city water and the installation of programable irrigation valves to provide reliable, measured water for the new garden.

The oak tree, bench and the garden honor Ken Gray and his service to the community. Ken had a deep appreciation for open space and for the plants and animals of California, as evident in his long career as a naturalist with California State Parks. He was a tireless volunteer, an activist for open space, and he served eight years on the Marina City Council. The hardy, native California plants in this design were chosen to inspire home gardens and provide habitat for birds and pollinators. This new public space offers a welcoming respite for the surrounding Marina community.

More information on the garden

LINK to Facebook photo Album

Special thanks to the Monterey Peninsula Regional Parks District for providing the funding.

Photos: Juli Hofmann, Pat Clark-Gray, Grace Silva-Santella

The larger garden project was created by Iris Peppard, founder of Everyone’s Harvest, in conjunction with Goodwill Industries that owns the property. The Marina Tree and Garden Club had agreements with Goodwill Industries to maintain 18-24 of the 88 raised beds that were on the property. This project was funded in part by grants from the Department of Agriculture and was a great opportunity for various groups and organizations to grow food in a community based setting.

The agencies in the garden were HOPE Services, the Veterans Transition Center, The Community Wellness Center, Shoreline Culinary Arts program, and Marina Tree and Garden Club. Everyone’s Harvest had service learning opportunities for students through California State University Monterey Bay. Student service learners were an integral part of developing the garden. This has fostered a deeper respect in students for how to grow food and maintain a garden. We will all deeply miss the people, community and this garden.

The garden had many interesting features, such as a CSUMB student constructed fog catcher, a Hügelkultur mound (also built by a CSUMB student), pollinator plantings, straw bale demo area, sheet mulching, windrow composting, and native plants that are still visible along Imjin Parkway. More historic images of garden activities can be viewed on our facebook site. @marinatreeandgardenclub

The 10 years of club activities in one of the largest community garden projects on the Monterey Peninsula has come to an end.

Urban Gardens Project Report

Students from the UC Santa Cruz Biodiversity Department came to study water use and insect diversity in the Goodwill Garden. Monika Egerer from the Environmental Studies Department in Santa Cruz provided leadership in compiling the collected data from 19 food gardens from Santa Cruz to Big Sur. You may read the results of the collected data in the Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2018 below. This report covers beneficial insects, pollination, pest control and water conservation, and ultimately food access and well-being for gardeners!

Fog Catcher at the Goodwill Garden

CSUMB student Sarah Nolan installed a working fog catcher at the Goodwill Food Garden at Imjin Blvd in Marina May 14, 2014. The fog catcher collected data on site at the Goodwill Garden for a number of years. Sarah was a student of Professor Dan Fernandez of CSUMB and created the fog catcher as part of her capstone project on water sustainability and fog catchers.

Photos: Juli Hofmann

All trees, seedlings, seeds, planting materials, and drip systems were provided for from club funds collected from past Marina Tree and Garden Club Garden Tour tickets sales and raffle. All planning, installation, maintenance and care came from volunteers willing to get dirty for a few hours a year.

There are about 60 percolation ponds in the city of Marina that handle storm rain runoff. Many of these sites consist of a chain link fence and a weedy lot with a sandy pit in the center. With the blessing of the city, the club had seeded native buckeyes and coastal oak acorns with the goal of creating more tree areas within the city. Some of these lots are marked for future development by the city.

Unfortunately, not every acorn, seedling or tree planted makes it through the first few critical years on its own. There have challenges with drip systems, mishaps with weedwhackers and misinformed tree trimmers, winter freezes, vandalism, and attrition. For these reasons, our tree planting campaign has transitioned into the Perc Pond project that is focused on planting native trees and shrubs in the front of the city perc ponds.

Locations of tree planting events:

• 1998
  Clark Street
  6 cypresses planted
• 1998
  Vince di Maggio Park
  6 Memorial olive trees planted
• 1998
  City Percolation Pond Beautification Campaign
  Native oaks and buckeye seeds planted throughout city percolation ponds. Approximately 60 perc ponds seeded.
• 1998
  Monterey Salinas Transit Center
  Cypress tree planted – sometimes decorated around Christmas season along Reservation Road
• 1999
  Locke Paddon Monterey Regional County Park
  Sequoia planted.
• 2001
  Veterans Transition Center
  Hayes Circle – approximately 200 cypress seedlings planted throughout housing area.
• 2001
  Marina Vista Elementary School
  390 Carmel Avenue
  30 trees planted (various species) around playground perimeter. Some of those trees were mistakenly cut down in 2008 and have not been replaced.
• 2005
  Del Monte Avenue Railroad right of way along bike path. Approximately 40 cypresses planted.
• 2010
  Vince di Maggio Park
  Del Monte Avenue
  Memorial olive trees planted
• 2010
  City Percolation Pond Beautification Campaign
  Native oaks and buckeye seeds planted throughout city percolation ponds. Approximately 30 perc ponds re-seeded over earlier plantings.
• 2011
  City Percolation Pond Beautification Campaign
  Native oaks and buckeye seeds planted throughout city percolation ponds. Approximately 20 perc ponds re-seeded over earlier plantings.
• 2013
  Goodwill Food Garden
  Monterey cypress seedlings planted in a row along Imjin Blvd by club and community members, HOPE services, and CSUMB volunteers in the fall. Planting extends the cypress row planted by CHOMP Wellness Center. Trees were donated from Goodwille Garden to the Veterans Affairs services next door and planted to the end of the block.
• 2017
  Hillcrest Native Garden
  The club secured a grant from the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District to create a native plant garden next to city council chambers on Hillcrest Avenue. Past council member Ken Gray is honored at this site with a memorial oak tree and bench, funded by friends, family and the club. More information about this project can be found on this page.