SEED COLLECTION + WORKDAY
Ohlone Hillside at Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
"xǔčyun" the region that is part of the ancestral and unceded homeland of the East Bay Ohlone (pronounced "HOOCH-yoon" in Chochenyo language)
By Will Macfarlane
DATE: June 13 2025
TIME: 12pm
TEMP: 60°F – mostly sunny, moderate breeze
VOLUNTEERS: 8
My name is Will Macfarlane. I’m a landscape architecture student at UC Berkeley and an intern this summer with Terremoto and Test Plot. I’m interested in slow work – working with the land, building relationships, and supporting spaces where plants, animals, and people can all heal.
We began the morning at the roundabout in front of the Lawrence Hall of Science, where Margaret – a longtime volunteer with Skyline Gardens has spent seasons tending and seeding this area with local natives. Skyline Gardens is a 20+ year restoration project led by an amazing team of volunteers and shares the same geology, a high ridge volcanic plateau. Some of the plants were grown from seed gathered in her own backyard, others from Skyline, and some from nearby wild species. A quiet, patient experiment. Some were direct sown. Others were transplanted. All were part of a slow effort to reintroduce local ecology.
We harvested what we could, with the intent to process and reapply these seeds within the LHS Test Plot, which is about a 5 minute walk away. Being able to collect from some seed originating from Skyline Gardens, which sits on the same volcanic shelf as the LHS Test Plot, means the seeds carry local adaptation – rooted in the same soil. This kind of hyperlocal sourcing feels essential. A way to deepen our reciprocal stewardship and add resilience.
Collected seeds + Methods:
– Uropappus lindleyi / Silverpuffs (dandelion like - just grabbed handfuls of puff)
– Agoseris grandiflora / CA Dandelion (same method)
– Eschscholzia californica / California poppy (crack open the long pods when brown)
– Salvia mellifera / Black sage (turn the seed heads upside down into an envelope and tap)
– Lupinus succulentus / Succulent lupine (pop open when black)
Later in the day, we shifted to the Test Plot itself. We focused on pulling invasive oat grass and watering the established native plantings. A handful of species stood out – still holding strong after a dry spell:
– Arctostaphylos manzanita
– Pteridium aquilinum
– Ceanothus
– Stipa pulchra
– Achillea millefolium
– Gilia capitata
– Gilia tricolor
– Artemisia douglasiana
Beyond the active plot, we noticed a small stand of Eriogonum nudum / Nude buckwheat growing through oat grass on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Bay. Untouched by us, but persisting on its own.
Next steps: continue supporting what’s thriving. Maintain the edge between the plot and the surrounding weeds. Begin seed cleaning, and wait for the right season to sow. Timing, as always, matters.
GETTING AHEAD OF BRUSH CLEARANCE
Ohlone Hillside at Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
"xǔčyun" the region that is part of the ancestral and unceded homeland of the East Bay Ohlone (pronounced "HOOCH-yoon" in Chochenyo language)
By Jen Toy
Test Plot Director
DATE: May 23 2025
TIME: 10am
TEMP: 56 degrees
︎WEATHER: Sunny, no clouds
We’ve been prepping this new plot for brush clearance season. Up here in the East Bay, this happens in May. The Lawrence Hall of Science works with an outside contractor to bring in 6 guys with string trimmers that work their way down the UC Berkeley owned slopes and hillsides, cutting back the browned out invasive grasses and thistles to the ground. I got a heads up that the crew would begin work May 12th. To prep for this we did a few things:
- Fence the plot + put up a sign about the project. We debated whether we needed to fence this plot but decided we should demarcate the area for brush clearance (and to help us not feel too overwhelmed by the size of the area!)
- Vinegar spray inside the plot (3 rounds through March-April. See pics of the trial here)
- Weed whip a 15’ buffer upwind of the plot
- Flag newly plants outside the plot (mainly existing naked buckwheat)
A few days before the crew arrived, we also did an emergency weed whack inside the plot and around the fence to make it spotless. With 2 electric string trimmers going, we got it done in an hour (thank you Sandra!). I checked out the plot today and am happy to report the men with machines stayed out of our area! Things are growing in nicely with weeding and spot watering the shrubs as the sole forms of care.
︎PLANTS SIGHTINGS: April showers bring May Flowers. There is definitely herbivory happening, most likely by deer that have gotten into the property. Many flower stalks have been decapitated. In terms of blooms, I noticed:
Grown from locally collected seed by Margaret:
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Gilia tricolor / Bird’s Eye Gilia we have both white flowers with lavender and pink edges
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Gilia capitata / Blue Field Gilia with blue spherical flower cluster
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Hemizonia congesta / Hayfield Tarweed
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Madia elegans / Elegant Tarweed fragrant leaves, growing large, no flowers yet
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Achilliea millefolium — Yarrow naturally occurring in the seed bank. We discovered a patch and have been weeding around it
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Artemisia douglasiana — Mugwort
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Chlorogalum pomeidianum var. Pomeridianum— Soap plant (at the bottom near fence) The plants outside the fence were all weed whipped bye bye.
- Dipterostemon capitatus — Blue dicks also naturally occuring. Found 2. One flower stalk got chomped.
- Marah fabaceae
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Wild cucumber
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Pteridium aquilinum — Bracken fern
Planted from Xerces Society:
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Arctostaphylos densiflora subsp. — Manzanita
- Baccharis pilularis — Coyotebrush
- Ceanothus 'Concha' — California lilac
- Diplacus aurantiacus — Sticky monkeyflower
- Lupinus albifrons — Silver bush lupine
- Phacelia californica — California phacelia
- Phacelia imbricata — Imbricate phacelia
- Ribes malvaceum — Chaparral currant
- Solidago velutina ssp. californica — California goldenrod
- Stipa pulchra — Purple needlegrass
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Verbena lasiostachys —Western vervain
Planted by not observed:
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Grindelia camporum — Gumplant
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Penstemon heterophyllus — Foothill penstemon
- Symphyotrichum chilense — Pacific aster
︎WEED SIGHTINGS:
- Euphorbia
- Chinese St. John’s Wort (newly cropping up)
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Wild oats (mainly gone to seed, though areas where we weed whipped are still green and growing back. I hand pulled a dozen that had new flower stalks)
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Vetch (mainly gone via weed whip)
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Russian thistle (present at the fence edges)
WILDFLIFE SIGHTINGS: 2 Turkeys
GARDENING IN THE GERMAN SPEAKING WORLD
By Max Kanter
Test Plot board member and owner of Saturate
DATE: May 1st 2025
Aside from having my hands in the soil or on a pair of hand pruners, there’s nothing more satisfying than talking shop and exchanging with other gardeners. I take even more joy if they’re gardeners from another part of the world. I’m fascinated by the role of the gardener in every society. So fascinated that I’ve
invested in 6 trips overseas since 2022 to explore what it’s like gardening in other parts of the world. There’s one area of the world I’m particularly fond of and that's the German speaking part of Europe. This may sound romanticized but I believe Germany, Switzerland and Austria resemble a sort of gardener/ horticultures’ paradise. Here are my joyful field notes of observations so far from my journeys.
In the German speaking world (I’m sure other places too) gardeners play a foundational role in society. In order to understand this I’ve had to learn German so I can speak to locals and go deep into what it means to be a gardener there. In my experience so far it appears nearly everyone has an interest in gardening and plants, it’s engrained in their culture. They did invent the garden gnome after all! This deep appreciation for all things green is evident everywhere in the landscape.
Perhaps the popularity of gardening in the German speaking world relates to the core value of trade-work or “Handwerk” in the foundations of the German, Austrian and Swiss societies and economies. Gardening is considered a trade and treated as a trained profession. To become a gardener one must finish 2 years of schooling and 2 years of an apprenticeship with a test at the end just to become employed as a gardener. A true commitment to the trade. As for gardening and landscape businesses, they tend not to be as segmented into design vs maintenance/care camps, but rather gardening businesses are more often expected to provide full garden services with the ongoing client//garden
er relationship at the core of the value proposition. Taking it further, many “firms” here have their own nurseries, seed banks, maintenance crews and garden designers/builders.
As for design ethos, there tends to be a resistance to designing with too much control and an embrace and fascination for the “wild”. Wildness is more effortlessly displayed in the landscape here, with purity, control and uniformity not as common and resource intensive gardening efforts are almost illogical to the German gardener. Perhaps it’s the age of the societies and the generations of land practitioners passing on knowledge, but the goal of a perfect version of nature or 100% native plant garden isn’t really the goal there. The goal is more that the process of gardening produces a beneficial garden, with practical uses, enhanced biodiversity and less labor needed to sustain. As a gardener I find relief from the dogmatic thinking I encounter in the US (not everyone in the US but it’s more prevalent). It makes me feel less burnout and more longevity in what I do and allows for more enjoyment in the craft.
The German gardening cultural framework results in a different looking landscape too. The landscape appears to be a more woven patchwork of gardener infiltrations, a citizen stewardship approach vs an expectation that the land is highly segmented and compartmentalized and cared for by “others” and not by “us”. Locals there more often sweep their own sidewalks, tidy public plots under street trees, plant flowers on neglected strips of land überall (everywhere), with these small plots left untouched and respected. The quiet acts of stewardship and sense of shared space is a mindset there. Of course in LA the citizens are doing this as well, but quite literally every street in Berlin has examples of citizens taking the urban landscape into their own hands. The scale is just much more impressive and common.
Because of the “handwerk” culture, big difference is that the role of gardener in society is elevated and treated with respect along the lines of a doctor, lawyer or accountant.
In Germany, the role of the gardener is treated with a level of respect and professionalism that’s rare in the U.S. It’s considered a skilled, essential trade—often requiring a formal Ausbildung, or apprenticeship, that combines hands-on training with classroom education over several years. Gardeners are not just laborers; they’re specialists in plant knowledge, soil health, ecology, and design. Many belong to professional Vereine (associations), where gardeners exchange knowledge, set industry standards, and even lobby the government together for resources. This infrastructure reinforces the idea that caring for land, shaping green space, and supporting biodiversity are careers worthy of investment, education, and pride. Gardening isn’t a fallback job, rather a respected profession with roots in both tradition and innovation.
It makes sense that the German speaking world always tops the world rankings in urban green space access, local food production, biodiversity initiatives and an über robust gardening industry. This was super clear after attending the Perennial and Native Plant Festival at the Botanical Gardens in West Berlin, an extravaganza with 30,000 attentees and over 190 individual small scale, local plant sellers, s
eed specialists and of course several beer gardens. I was blown away that there are so many small scale plant growers which reflects a value in small and medium scale operations, vs. large scale production. Again, I’m so impressed at the scale and variety. During my next trip I plan to visit the “IPM-Essen”, the largest horticulture conference in Germany that brings together 40,000 people with thousands of vendors and booths from across the country. Who’s coming with me?!
I plan to go back to Germany very soon to continue my pursuit in understanding the German gardener mind. Next time it’s my hope to even do some gardening. These opportunities for exchange enrich and inspire me as a gardener, and while these trips are a privilege I highly encourage all gardeners to participate in an exchange of their own to gain universal perspective and awareness of the vast diversity of gardeners and garden culture that exists on our beautiful planet. More fieldnotes to come, but for now dankeschön (thank you) for your ear. Happy Gardening!
VINEGAR SPRAY TRIALSOhlone Hillside at Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
"xǔčyun" the region that is part of the ancestral and unceded homeland of the East Bay Ohlone (pronounced "HOOCH-
yoon" in Chochenyo language)
By Jen Toy
Test Plot Director
DATE: April 4th, 2024
Last fall, we got a grant from the Xerces Society (more insects!) to plant milkweed and other nectar plants. We quickly mobilized to make a new home for them on a degraded hillside overlooking the SF Bay, just outside the Lawrence Hall of Science, a beloved science museum operated by UC Berkeley. Our partnership includes Vincent and Luis, Ohlone tribal members and the phenoms behind Cafe Ohlone/mak-’amham, Dee their business manager, Jedda from The Lawrence and Story and Sarah from Terremoto SF.
Long term, we have big plans to restore the former grazing land, currently dominated by fireprone annual grasses, into a T
est Plot that establishes native food and medicinal plants across 1.5 acres. In the meantime, we’re getting going, experimenting with a site preparation strategy using vinegar spray. We’re fortunate that we have been learning from the stellar restoration project down the road called Skyline Gardens. As we share a similar geology - the Sibley Volcanic Ridge - we are able to share seeds and continue supporting hyperlocal genetic diversity. Here’s a summary of our process so far:
OCT 24 2024
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Inventory existing species both native and introduced (natives include a couple oak trees, coyote brush, naked buckwheat, horse weed, bracken fern, rooreh, goldenrod and wild cucumber.)
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Rake off dead thatch from annual grasses that browned out and finished their reproductive cycle
OCT 31 / NOV 8 / DEC 8 2024
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Three planting days (thank you volunteers and Xerces Society for the plants!)
JAN 23 2025
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The fall rains got things going and by January the hillside is looking green with non native grasses.
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“Collar” around existing plants by hand pulling immediate weeds and spray new weeds with vinegar spray. The “collar” protects them from inadvertent contact with the vinegar.
- Weeds included: six weeks fescue, plantain, thistle, vetch, oats and bromes
- We attempted to spray, but the fog rolled in as we were finishing and it rained over night so it did not work
MARCH-APRIL 2025
Two rounds of vinegar spray. We selected a small area at the top of the plot to spray. After we “collared” around the existing native plants we wanted to keep, we sprayed using a Solo backpack pressure applicator. The formula is:
- 5-7% vinegar (can use the 5% white vinegar from Costco - 2g pack for $7)
- Mix in a teaspoon of dish soap (to help with adherence to the plant material)
Tip: Spray on a sunny clear day when the plants are photosynthesizing a lot. You want the vinegar to burn the material. The motion should feel like you are “painting the plants.” Keep pumping to maintain a strong steady pressure to shoot the vinegar down into the roots. Go slower than you think. Come back after a day or two to evaluate your work and you’ll see where you missed a spot.
SUMMARY
The spray is effective, particularly on broadleaf dicots. The oat grasses with larger seeds that are below the soil (in the white part of the plant) are harder to kill and it takes multiple rounds of vinegar because they keep growing back. It is not 100% effective by any means, but the vinegar definitely slows things down. The patch that we concentrated on has noticeably less weeds and we are letting the yarrow and wildflowers and purple needlegrass do their thing.
I’m also happy that this year we were able to mow the grasses before they produced viable seed. We waited until they expended energy producing a nice flower stalk, but cut them back before the seeds ripened. We concentrated on doing this within the plot and in a 15’ buffer upwind. It will be interesting to see if there are fewer grasses next year.
“PLANT MVPs” UNDER THE EUCALYPTUS (2 YRS)San Bruno Test Plot
By Jen Toy
DATE: March 31 2025
TIME: noon-1pm
TEMP: 53 degrees
︎WEATHER: Sunny
WIND (SPEED/DIRECTION): not noticeable
SOIL MOISTURE: Damp with lots of insects under the eucalyptus debirs
︎PLANTS SIGHTINGS: I didn’t have a lot of time so I just did a visual survey of the most noticeable plants. I did not go hunting under the rooreh and weeds to search for small plants.
︎WEED SIGHTINGS: The weeds have been left to grow since the December workday.
WILDFLIFE SIGHTINGS: When you pull out weeds, you’ll see a scattering of insects that are thriving in the leaf litter. I didn’t have time to ID.
︎HUMAN ACTIVITY: As usual, there were many walkers out on the path.
The plot is now two years old. It was first planted in March 2023. For the first year, we hosted monthly workdays (11 in total), weeding the oxalis, rattlesnake grass, ivies and himalayan blackberry. For the second year, we have intentionally done very little management. I’ve been interested to see which plants thrive and can hold their own despite the constant raining down of leaves, bark and branches in allelopathic conditions. Watching this happen, I’ve been contemplating how the test should evolve. Rather than trying to maximize species diveristy, perhaps we should document the species that can take up space and thrive... “the heavy hitters.” I’ve also been thinking about how to measure this. I was initially thinking of this as biomass, but I recently learned that biomass is usually measured by weight of plant material. I think the metric is actually “percent coverage,” though it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well. Basically we’re looking for the weedy natives that aren’t fussy or delicate and will take over and self seed with very little work.
︎A note on documentation: This is the first time I’ve been able to photograph the plot since I got a drone. The low canopy of eucalyptus directly above makes it impossible to get an orthographic view of the entire plot. I was able to capture a few oblique angles.
SCRUB MX: On this visit I noticed that the rooreh (miner’s lettuce) is completely dominant. The buckwheat and sagebrush are poking through the rooreh and monkeyflower is hanging on in the back. The self-sown red elderberry is doing great. That’s 4 species, compared to last year when I identified 15 species. At that time the dominant species included beach strawberry, CA fuschia, and miner's lettuce (rooreh). I estimated that 60% of the plot was composed of these 3 species.
PRAIRIE GRASSLAND: This plot is also dominated by the rooreh, though hummingbird sage and phacelia are still thriving. Last year I noticed 12 species, including clear winners CA phacelia, hummingbird sage, and woodland strawberry.
OAK WOODLAND: This visit I noticed the cow parsnip has remerged, and the snowberry, honeysuckle, buckeye, pearly everlasting and mugwort and strawberry are still present (7 species). The cinquefoil and heucheras have not made it thorugh, buried under the rooreh and weeds. Last year, I documented 19 species, including Symphoricarpos sp., Pink honeysuckle, buckeye, pearly everlasting and mugwort, woodland strawberry, sticky cinquefoil, and heucheras.
SEEP/FRESHWATER MARSH: Last year there were 16 species and the clear winner was Bee plant. This is still true, though the dogwood, fringecups, goldenrod and rush are still thriving (5 species).
WEEDS: The oxalis is largely gone (more present in the oak woodland and scrub plots). No cape or english ivy and very little himalayan blackberry. Pretty impressive for only 2 seasons of hand weeding. These species are still hugely dominant outside the plot fence. Other species that I noticed include bur chevril, common sow thistle, hordeum, cut leaf geranium, sheep sorrel and galium.
