Workday

Workday at Felton Presbyterian Church, from eight to noon on Saturday, July 27.

Yes, that was yesterday. I would have written about it earlier, and in time to plan for it; but I was just informed about it less than a day earlier, on Friday morning. Fortunately, plenty of parishioners attended and got quite a bit done. In the future, we will need to be more diligent about announcing the workdays at lunch on Tuesdays. Even though some of us who attended more regularly in the past are no longer here, there are newcomers.

The biggest project was the removal of those rotting benches on the northern half of the patio out front. The sturdy posts that supported them for all these years were surprisingly sound, and the last few needed to be pulled out by a pickup with a tow chain. It was a mess, but worth the effort. The benches on the western half of the patio are still intact, so will remain for now.

The flowering crabapple tree did not get the major pruning that it so desperately needs, because it happens to be right over where the benches were being removed. That project might get done separately from a workday, just because it would be in the way of other projects. ‘Workday‘ explains why it is so important. The smaller flowering crabapple tree will get only minor pruning while dormant next winter.

Only two low and minor limbs needed to be pruned away from the big catalpa tree that was supposedly getting too low over the parking lot. That tree, in the picture above, has really grown up nicely. It seems like only a few years ago when we were still considering removing it before it got too big and cumbersome. Another unhealthy and disfigured catalpa tree, that grew up with it just about twenty feet away, was pulled out back then.

Some of the low limbs of the cypress between the parking lot and the A&W got pruned out or groomed. That area has always been a mess, and needs more attention. The ivy on the lanai of Taylor hall also needs more attention, particularly since it was shorn to expose more of the internal problems yesterday. The hedges at the south end of the patio were shorn quite proficiently, and need nothing more for now.

The lily-of-the-Nile between the patio and parking lot needed nothing yesterday. I just took the picture below because they were still blooming like the Fourth of July. They were one of the more significant projects many years ago. When they needed to be removed from a home in Aptos, we dug, split, groomed and plugged them here, where they happily bloom now.