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Welcome to the Test Plot log. Please check back for seasonal updates from our volunteers and stewards. You can also search by location in the footer.

2024

11/21 STARR KING TEST PLOT PHASE 2 BEGINS
by Elena Fox

10/24 RAINBOW CANYON KICKOFF 
by Tatianna Velicer 

10/22 GREEN RAVINE  @ CATALINA ISLAND TURNS 1!
by Alex Robinson

7/08 DISTURBANCE
by Jenny Jones

6/20 SUMMER SOLSTICE CHECK-IN
by Anthony Martin

6/08 BALDWIN HILLS TURNS 3!
by Jen Toy

6/07 DEBS FIRST FRIDAYS
by Cody Porter

5/25  EUCALYPTUS UNDERSTORY 
1 YEAR EVALUATION
by Jen Toy

1/15 EUCALYPTUS 2nd PLANTING
by Jen Toy



2023

11/13 UNDER THE EUCALYPTUS
by Victoria Bevington

11/06 STARR KING INTRO
by Terremoto SF

10/16 WATCHING WEATHER
Q&A with Joey Farewell

9/18 CATALINA SOIL TEST #1
Q&A with Alia Harris and Emersyn Klick

7/10 DEBS FIELD SKETCHES
by Hannah Pae

6/08 IT’S RAINING OAKS 
by Joey Farewell

5/25 SECRET SUPERBLOOM
by Jenny Jones

3/29 RAINBOW RIVER
by Dani Vonlehe, Jenny Jones, Dante Inguinez

3/23 VERTICAL MULCH
by Nina Weithorn

3/10 SPRING AT DEBS
by Adrian Tenney

3/07 WHAT’S IN BLOOM AT BALDWIN
by Arely Media Perez

2/15 USC NEW PLANTS
by Nina Weithorn

VALENTINE’S DAY AT RIO
by Daniela Velazco

1/30 ELEPHANT HILL RAINS
by Joey Farewell


2022

FIELD DRAWINGS FROM SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN
by Lian Mae Tualla, Tera Johnson

10/22 RIO FIELD NOTES
by Daniela Velazco

STARTING THE USC CAMPUS PLOTS
by Alex Robinson

10/13 ELYSIAN AFTER 3 YEARS
Q&A with Jenny Jones

10/06 RIO AFTER 2 YEARS
Q&A with Jen Toy


2021

STARTING BALDWIN HILLS
by Daniela Velazco



MEET THE SUPER STEWARDS
All interviews by Daniela Velazco + Hannah Flynn

TANIA ROMERO

DANTE INIGUEZ + ANTHONY MARTIN

LUIS RINCON




PORTAL * INTERNAL USE
DISTURBANCE 
Elysian Test Plot 
By Jenny Jones
Test Plot Co-Founder, Terremoto Partner
July 08 2024

This post is long overdue. I kept meaning to write, but each time I was ready to document the latest events in the plots, something exciting would happen. Or, something devastating—making it hard to write an objective update without being clouded by emotion. But time has passed, dust has settled, and hopefully this entry has just the right amount of both objectivity and heart. 

We started the year extremely hopeful, bolstered by the success of the Rainbow River and our experiments with seed in 2023. We planned to expand the Rainbow River with wildflowers from seed, but also created a new plot, our biggest one yet, to test establishing shrubs from seed. We call this new area the Row Plots, as we decided to lay out the plots into agricultural rows, to make for ease of weeding and management. The Row Plots are also a nice foil to the snaking form of the Rainbow River.

The first seeding of the season started very organically: we were simply inspired by the beautiful tufts of seedheads that were proliferating on our goldenbush, goldenrod, and coyote bush plants within the existing plots. One original dream of the Test Plots at Elysian was for them to serve as seed sources for further expansion of native ecologies, outward from the plots. This past fall, it was obvious that the plots were ready to play this role. The seedheads were calling to us, and were just begging to be cast around. Over a series of weeks when I was at the park alone, on a daily walk, I would stop at the plots, and simply break the branches of the bountiful plants. Then I would walk the adjacent hillsides, beating the branches together to dislodge and spread the seed. I felt like a true plant witch, casting spells with my wands, sending dreamy drifts of seeds floating through the air.  It was easy, free, joyful work. 


Then we got a little more serious and made our plans. We re-seeded the Rainbow River, unable to let ourselves be patient and see if it would reseed itself. It was simply too beautiful last year to not do it again. Maybe next year we’ll hold back and see what comes up on its own. We also laid out the Row Plots, and used flags to carefully mark both seeded areas. While the Rainbow River was about putting on a show of wildflowers, in the Row Plots, we seeded mostly shrub species. We dappled in some clarkia and poppies for a little splash of color in the first year. The rains blessed us big time this year, and our adorable seedlings quickly started coming up.




Enter the first setback. One day in February we showed up to work at the plots, to weed among the seedlings. And we found every single one of the hundreds of flags we had laid out, simply gone. We were confused for a bit, wondering if possibly Rec and Parks didn’t like what we were doing this year and had intervened. But then we found all the flags, along with some lovely hand-painted signs we had made, all thrown down the hill scattered in the brush. We still haven’t found the logic in this act, as none of the plants themselves were damaged. All of our work was technically still intact, which was a relief, but it still felt like a violation, nonetheless. We collected the flags we could reach, some of us getting poison oak in the process, and we re-placed the flags as best we could. And kept going.

In March we held several events to bring in and train new volunteers. It was heartwarming to see so many folks come out to lovingly tend to the seedlings, pulling invasive grass and mustard by hand to allow the wildflowers a chance to compete. In addition to hand-weeding, we did a lot of scything this year. We had been experimenting with simple hand-mowers for a few years, but this year Terremoto acquired two real scythes, and we sure had a lot of fun with them. We decided to scythe all around the Rainbow River, thinking it might just be helpful to slowly beat back the mustard and interrupt is cycle of going to seed. We also used the scythes in the Row Plots, both to do the initial site clearing, as well as to keep the weeds between the rows in check. We found that the scything is indeed helpful, and gets a lot of work done in a short amount of time. We also found success in the Row Plots with scything as the only site prep. When timed perfectly before a big rain, no other soil or site prep was needed to see seedlings come up and compete with the invasives. This bodes well for expanding, getting more seedlings established at a larger scale throughout the park, because the labor inputs are fairly low.



By April we had blooms coming along nicely, and we kept weeding out the grass and mustard. Critters started appearing on the blooms, butterflies, bees, flies, and moths. We suffered another little setback when someone decided to walk through the Rainbow River, leaving a little path of destruction in their wake. We decided to not assume it was intentional, and we simply adjusted some of the wood stakes we had out there marking where to walk across the river. We propped some of the seedlings back up and hoped they’d bounce back. The Row Plots were a few weeks behind the Rainbow River in terms of growth, a mixture of slightly later seeding and the fact that they are on a north-facing slope.



When May came, so did the flowers. The Rainbow River seemed to pop overnight, into a technicolor array of blooms: Owl’s Clover, Phacelia, Poppies, Lupines, Chia, and of course Clarkia. This year we added in Clarkia bottae that we had collected from the next ridge over in Elysian Park. It’s a tall, striking Clarkia with flowers that are perfectly freckled with dark pink spots. We hope to do even more seed collection from around the park this fall. This year did not bring the massive amount of White Lined Sphinx Moth Caterpillars that we saw in 2023. We did see a few, but nothing like the hundreds if not thousands that were on the Rainbow River last year. We can’t say whether that was just nature’s way, or whether it’s because we did something different. We can’t control all the variables at the plots, and we’re ok with that. We still worshipped the few that showed up.


Then on the morning of May 22nd, I went to check on the blooms, and saw that the Rainbow River had been trampled. I was devastated. I wondered if there’s any way it could have been coyotes having a romp, or someone accidentally walking through at night when they couldn’t see. But then I noticed that all the flags in the Row Plots were gone again, and my only conclusion was that it was another intentional act of vandalism.  My heart was broken at the thought of someone deciding to trample all those heavenly beings. After all the hours and hours of loving care that dozens of people put into bringing these wildflowers into the world, over months and months, one person in one night trampled it all. I couldn’t understand, and I was angry.

But I called Jen Toy, who kindly commiserated with me, but then also wisely reminded me that we are working in an urban park, where realities like this are inevitable. She reframed this event as simply one of Disturbance, just another Test for us. Once that sank in, I calmed down and was able to see the trampling as an event to witness and to work with, not one to get defeated by. I moved through the sadness to see the good: that our Row Plots were still coming in, and miraculously hadn’t been damaged; that all of our original plots with fencing were unharmed and were in full glory of flower and abundance; and that actually, people walking through the park were still stopping to tell me how beautiful the flowers were, even though they were now lying down on the ground, broken and withering. And in fact, the bees were still visiting them.

However there was more Disturbance to come. A few weeks later, the brush clearance crews swept through the park. Despite the fact that we had already cleared most everything with scythes, the weed whackers still came through and went scorched earth on the land. A saving grace for me after the flower trampling was that there were still many tiny goldenbush and coyote bush seedlings that were coming up all over. But the crews came through and cut down everything in their path, unless we had a fence around it, or there was a flag marking it. I realized when I witnessed the crews doing this, how very violent and counterproductive this annual brush clearance is. Any tiny native that tries to come up in the spring is destined to get mowed down, essentially maintaining the park as a constantly disturbed site where no native ecology is allowed to live. Not to mention the countless birds, insects and small mammals whose lives are disrupted or destroyed when an army of men with machines tear through the park. Rec and Parks should be caring for the park, not inflicting this violence upon the land. Their brush clearance this year has upset other community members as well, when they destroyed a beloved children’s garden that was full of mature native plants, all in the name of fire safety.





So.

What can we do? We’re trying to help regenerate an urban park that suffers from constant vandalism and violence, from without and within. We plan to speak with our coalition of concerned community members to see what we can change with the overall management of the park. We have a proposal brewing for a pilot project of turning brush clearance duty in and around the plots over to our coalition of community groups. Although we were hoping to be able to not always need fences at Elysian, we’ve learned the hard way that the plants need protection. The disturbance we experienced this winter has lit a fire in our bellies, and we are planning to go even bigger with our scything and seeding work in the years to come.

And as it turns out, a few of the goldenbush that were whacked down are actually still alive, eager to persist. We’ve marked them, protected them, and are watering them this summer. We will keep going with our steady acts of care, moving slowly, gently, and lovingly, inspired by the resilience and persistence of our beloved California plants.





OUR SECRET SUPERBLOOM
Elysian Test Plot 
By Jenny Jones 

Elysian volunteer, Terremoto partner
May 25 2023

The Rainbow River is here, y'all! If you're anywhere near Elysian Park this week, run over to Marian Harlow Grove to see our own secret superbloom. This past January, at the first ever Test Plot, we improvised and manifested a spontaneous vision to plant a chaotic mix of wildflowers in the shape of a serpent. And the vision has finally taken form, snaking up and down the hillside. Clarkia is dominating but we're not mad about it, as she's hosting a tremendous amount of caterpillars, and putting on quite a show. This was definitely the year for Clarkia, but we also had many other flowers come up: Poppies, Owl's Clover, Tidy Tips, Baby Blue Eyes, Lupines, Chia, and Phacelia. And there are currently hundreds of caterpillars on the Clarkia, mostly all White-Lined Sphinx Moth, whose colors range dramatically from black, to green, to striped. The shape of the Rainbow River even looks a bit like a caterpillar! Check out our previous post called RAINBOW RIVER AT ELYSIAN to read more about the humble origins: a simple scythe, the sweet little seedlings, and some light hand weeding. This dream was all about timing and patience. The incredible rains plus the gentle hands of our devoted volunteers made it come true. Thank you to all who helped.

Drone pics by Nina Weithorn
On the ground pics by Rio Asch Phoenix



Weather 

With more than 28 inches of rainfall since July 2022, the 2022-2023 rain season (ending June 2023), is now L.A.'s 8th wettest season in 145 years.

Seed mixes from Theodore Payne Foundation:

Rainbow mix: 
  • Clarkia amoena (Farewell-to-Spring)
  • Clarkia unguiculata (Elegant Clarkia)
  • Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy)
  • Eschscholzia californica var. maritima (Coastal Poppy)
  • Gilia capitata (Globe Gilia)
  • Lasthenia californica (Goldfields)
  • Layia platyglossa (Tidy Tips)
  • Lupinus succulentus (Arroyo Lupine)
  • Phacelia campanularia (Desert Bluebells)
  • Phacelia tanacetifolia (Lacy Phacelia)

Hummingbird mix: 
  • Castilleja exserta (Purple Owl's Clover)
  • Clarkia unguiculata (Elegant Clarkia)
  • Peritoma arborea (Bladderpod)
  • Mimulus aurantiacus (Sticky Monkey Flower)
  • Penstemon centranthifolius (Scarlet Bugler)
  • Penstemon spectabilis (Showy Penstemon)
  • Salvia columbariae (Chia)
  • Salvia mellifera (Black Sage)



RAINBOW RIVER

Elysian Test Plot 
By Jenny Jones,  Dani Vonlehe, Dante Iniguez  
Elysian volunteers

March 29 2023

We eagerly await the growth and flowering of our seed mix that includes Phacelias, Clarkias, and Poppies. We call it the Rainbow River as we hope the curving path that we’ve scythed into the hillside will soon bloom into a winding curve of purples, pinks, oranges and blues. We’ve staked our river with wood triangles to indicate its path to those who will be carrying out future brush clearance. The unpredictability is somewhat tense, not knowing if the test would work when we began, and not knowing if it will be weed-whacked away after it’s bloomed. We enjoy the act of experimenting though.


 
︎ Weather and what’s blooming

It has been a wet winter! As of March 25, we’ve received 26.32” of rain. A lot of cloudy days, sun appears in between rainstorms for a day or two. Mudslides elsewhere in park, but Test Plots have not been impacted. High winds.

︎New plants installed in Plot 4 are:

  • Salvia mellifera
  • Artemisia californica
  • Heteromeles arbutifolia
  • Penstemon spectabilis
  • Rhus integrifolia
  • Eriogonum fasciculatum
  • Salvia apiana
  • Quercus agrifolia
  • Ceanothus ‘frosty blue’
  • Isocoma menziesii
  • Baccharis pilularis
  • Epilobium canum
  • Yucca whipplei

︎ What have you been working on?
Plot 4: The big move this season has been dismantling the circular fence shape around the very first plot that Test Plot ever installed. Most of the plants in this plot are well-established, including black sage, Artemesia californica, and Penstemon.
The hope is to stop supplemental watering to these established plants, which means we are in a new phase in this greater Test Plot project–that of seeing how well our established plants can do on their own!

We opened up the original circular form, and reused the fence pieces, laying them out in lines to follow the topography as it steps both up and downhill. We have also expanded the planting upslope, towards the main trail. We planted about 50 plants in front of the newly laid out fences, and seeded behind them. We’ve had numerous volunteer days with our core group of volunteers this winter - planting, mulching, weeding, caring for this plot.

︎Seed

As noted, we’ve seeded behind the fences in Plot 4 - a combination of Rainbow and Hummingbird mixes from TPF, as well as Lupine seed that Jenny gathered and soaked. We seeded TPF shade mix in Plot 3. We also are in process of a large seeding experiment outside of the plot boundaries themselves. We call it the Rainbow River - a snaking path that starts south of Plot 4 and weaves around and behind it. The Rainbow River has been seeded with the Rainbow and Hummingbird mix from TPF, along with some random seed from the Terremoto office. We first scythed the path, roughed up the ground just a bit, then seeded on top of the scything, and have been weeding it every couple of weeks this winter to allow the seeds room to grow. There has been no additional watering. The path is marked by pyramidal wood stakes along its length.

︎What kind of maintenance strategies are you trying out? 

When weeding around newly seeded areas, we haven’t been pulling the weeds out from the roots. Instead, we’ve been leaving a couple inches at the base and have been trimming off everything else, either by grabbing a bunch in our hand and simply ripping, or by using a hand sickle. We’ve found that leaving the weeds in the ground has actually been protecting the seedlings because it shades them and keeping the ground moist. Not pulling out weeds by the roots also reduces the risk of pulling out any seedlings when weeding around them.

︎What’s been happening with volunteers? 

We’ve been really working with a smaller volunteer group this season composed of a core of about 5-6 of us. Rather than bimonthly larger group efforts, this core group meets every couple of weeks for a couple hours. Dante organized the big planting we did this winter. With all this rain, we’ve stopped using the weekly watering sign-up sheet. We might test doing monthly watering sessions for the first time this summer rather than weekly waterings.

︎︎Plant success and failures?

The new plants that we’ve planted in Plot 4  have been very successful. Satureja douglasii in Plot 3 has really died back. Out of the many species we’ve seeded, the Clarkias seem to be the most prolific. Lupines have also been successful from seed. White sage, buckwheat, and artemisia not so much — but curious to test out other seed propagation techniques in the future for shrubs. Other successes include: Penstemon, Mugwort, Pitcher Sage. Our one Yerba Santa failed, and we’re not sure why. Maybe we’ll try again…

︎Wildlife?

Gophers are still around, but don’t seem to be affecting the Plots as negatively. A hypothesis for this could be that we have continued to plant plants that are somewhat resistant, or just not as tasty, to gophers. We’ve also used gopher cages on most of our new plantings, which seems to be working! We’ve spotted numerous lizards, hawks, owls and a scorpion.

︎ General reflections


Dani - I think the smaller volunteer workdays have been a great, lower stress way of getting  together than have been the bigger volunteer events that we’ve historically coordinated. We also have a small group text which is has been an effective way to communicate - much easier than some of the app-based platforms that we’ve tried to coordinate before. 

Dante - Some rogue volunteers have just started planting and flagging non-natives in the Plot so we’re going to have to find a way to manage community planting in Test Plot that is not directly affiliated with Test Plot.

Jenny - opening up the original Test Plot by removing and rearranging the fences felt like a symbolic, important moment for the plots. Like we entered a new phase, one more bold and open. Being in our 3rd year at Elysian feels momentous as well, as a new phase of
experimenting with how well ‘establishment’ goes. 

ELYSIAN AFTER 3 YEARS
Q&A with Jenny Jones 
Test Plot Co-Founder, Partner at Terremoto

Oct 13 2022

The Elysian plots were first planted in the Winter of 2019. After three years, we wanted to share some reflections on how they are doing and what we have leanred. 

Q: Will people show up? 

Yes. Young professionals sign up and self organize via a google sheet to water weekly. Plus we’ve hosted semi-monthly “plant church” community events.

Q: What are the minimum inputs to establish a native ecosystem?

  • We planted over 600 plants with 50% survival rate.  Only caveat on this stat is that we don't actually need ALL the plants to survive. The Micro Forest idea.
  • Fencing, gopher cages, signage, signs of care, and programs help.
  • Success in location. A lot of people see the test plots during their routine daily use of the park and reach out to volunteer as a result of this visibility
  • Initial mulching and adding new mulch year to year, plus chop and drop from in-situ pruning.
  • Planted while mounding berms for new planting to stabilize
  • Enhanced watering basins for more efficient watering, seems to be working well.

Q: What are your key lessons learned so far? 

  • Method of watering has been adapted to the age and success of the plots. Watering with round diameter sprinkler at first, as plants age water changes to direct contact hose watering. Volunteers seem to prefer this method
  • Dialing in the planting palette has taken years. We’ve monitored gopher activity and its relation to certain species and replanted those plants that were gopher resistant during the second/third years. The plant palette was quite broad and has narrowed over time to reflect what are the most successful species
  • Seed plot was a mild success. Annuals did well, very few perennials or shrubs grew from seed and survived.
  • Influence from neighboring trees (pine and eucalyptus) has played a role in the health of the plots
  • Consistency of volunteer base has a lot to do with keeping up with community volunteer events. Sense of collaboration with others has been important.
  • Some plants that were thriving in years 1-2 are now declining (Satureja). Shade plot looked amazing first 2 years, now has seen a little decline. Could be Pine Tree’s influence?

What questions are you thinking about moving forward? 

  • How to maintain a consistent and diffuse volunteer base so that the task of watering every weekend doesn’t get left to a handful of ultra-dedicated volunteers?
  • Method of establishing new test plots while accounting for water restrictions and changing climate?




DANTE INIGUEZANTHONY MARTIN,
LOS ANGELES SUPER STEWARDS

Elysian Park 
By Daniela Velazco & Hannah Flynn
current and former Test Plot interns
We are Dani and Hannah, current and former Test Plot interns. Starting in early 2022, we conducted a series of seven interviews with “Super Stewards” - members of the Test Plot community who are stewards of community and of the environment. Our conversations covered personal histories, what it means to be a steward, and what the future of community-tended green space can be.



We met Dante Iniguez and Anthony Martin at the Elysian Park Test Plot on a chilly late afternoon as they were watering what was at the time the newest plot, a plot mostly filled with wildflowers grown from seed. Dante and Anthony are more than regular volunteers at Elysian Park - their reliable presence is a pillar of the Test Plot.


Dante, a designer, and Anthony, a microbiologist, live in an apartment together with no room for a garden to tend to. Dante spent formative years in San Luis Obispo, where widespread native plants and protected nature areas instilled a deep appreciation for the nature of California. Anthony’s parents, immigrants from the Philippines, took him camping frequently throughout the state as a child. His father developed his own deep connection to the land by studying agriculture, a connection that was practically “genetically transferred” to Anthony, citing his father’s own interest in agriculture.



They were both drawn to the opportunity to be outdoors and work with people with similar values to theirs. In spending so many hours working, they quickly bonded with the plots. Dante’s reasoning behind his choice of favorite plant in the plots, the Manzanita, reflects this: they are “really sculptural, beautiful….[and] unique”, but they also  take a long time to grow”.. Anthony’s favorite part of the plots isn’t a plant, but the whole picture - including the soil in which the plants grow. He’s “excited by…the idea of creating habitat and returning the land to how it needs to be.” He draws a comparison with his work studying gut microbiomes: like our own digestive systems that power us, “there’s a whole ecology of microbiomes that affect the soil’s health.”

Spending quality hands-on time with the plots has taught them a lot. Anthony feels that he’s getting to see the life he studies in the lab “being its full self outdoors”, understanding how plants interact with each other and with the climate. Test Plot has become like “a game”, experimenting with parameters like pH and soil composition to see how plants will grow – or not. And it’s not just the volunteers who get to learn: as people walk by, they get curious and ask about them. These interactions have the potential to be valuable opportunities to help people who aren’t as exposed to ecology “understand the value of what [Test Plot is about] and why native plants are better than other plants.”


Dante and Anthony strongly believe exposure leads to understanding, which leads to an appreciation of ecological systems much larger than the Test Plots themselves: a greater understanding of how our gardens connect to the broader ecological context of the city, to “our food systems, the clothes we wear, and where [that all] is coming from.” An understanding that our plant palettes “can be aesthetic and still building an ecology.”



Who would benefit from this hands-on exposure? A lot of people are already showing their desire to work with plants, say Dante and Anthony, citing beautiful balcony gardens that they’ve noticed hanging down from apartment balconies throughout the city. If apartment gardeners had a plot to care for, they would bond to it, just like Dante and Anthony did. Neglected public spaces - like the mustard-filled spots at Elysian before the plots were established - are a “missed opportunity to give the land back to the people” so that they can get their hands dirty and build that connection, plant by plant.


Thank you, Anthony and Dante

Photos by Robert Flynn