The Latest Dirt - Jan 2024

New Additions to Our Garden

By Greg Letts

You will see some new additions to Our Garden on your next visit.

Two large, barn-red sheds have replaced the old sheds at Our Garden, and the fenced area has expanded 10 feet.

For several years, squirrel nests and gopher tunnels have undermined the foundations of the old sheds. The floorboards were rotting beneath the storage racks.

Steve Griffin spearheaded the project to replace them, which took almost two years to organize, coordinate, and weave through the City of Walnut Creek and the UC system.

After all of the necessary approvals, work began in November with our UC Master Gardeners demoing the old sheds and moving the north end fence out 10 feet.

The UC Master Gardeners then moved yards of gravel to cover the newly laid hardware cloth and level the area inside the cage. After trenching the perimeter 18-plus inches deep, UC Master Gardeners lined the trenches with hardware cloth to hopefully keep the critters out for a long time.

UC Master Gardeners completed the last steps the first week of January. Tuff Shed installed the two new sheds and then the CoCoMGs moved our equipment, pop-up tents, folding tables, tarps, plastic and shade cloth from the parking lot storage container.