22nd Street Jungle Stairs

Thanks to Colin Braun, the Jungle Stairs bulletin boards now have a color guide to our plants!

Here's an interesting history of the western side of Jungle Stairs. Note the lack of any kind of stairway in 1919.

22nd and Diamond Then and Now - FoundSF Northeast Corner of 22nd and Diamond, not graded. Now the site of a stairway, Grocery Store building still stands. June 30 1920.

Our official workdays now fall on the second Sunday of every other month starting ca 10 and going til noon or so. Meetup is at the top of 22nd Street, usually on the western side.
2024
May 5 CHANGED FROM MAY 12 DUE TO MOTHER'S DAY
July. 14
Sept 8
Nov 10
2025
Jan 12

We had a super turnout on the Stairs today, with a reward at the end in the form of a BBQ hosted by Christian Byza. Many bags of w**ds are now waiting for pickup! Thanks everyone! Photos of Larry getting ready to go knee-deep into fields of oxalis, the BBQ'd Bratwurst we're getting ready to dig into and Morgan communing with the w**ds.

On Saturday Ken got busy and added this to the pickup pile! Thanks to Eva Chang at San Francisco's Department of Public Works, it was all gone by early afternoon!

Just look at what our small but energetic team accomplished in less than two hours today! We are expecting a pickup from the San Francisco Department of Public Works on Saturday July 15. Miqdaad in the foreground, Madeleine, Gerda and Peter in the background. Jean Lee did some work too but had to leave early Along the fence our collection of green waste , including heavy palm fronds and selective prunings from overgrown/collapsed Echium candicans and Aloe ciliaris.

Took a walk along the stairs today, Thanksgiving Day, and spotted Gerda extending the rail painting job that she and a few dedicated others started about a month ago. A big thanks to Gerda from us all!

Planting for the Rain: On Saturday Nov. 5 Marc and Jennifer Mondfrans did some planting on the west side to take advantage of the coming rain. They were joined by Fermi Photino, their charming Labradoodle. Newly planted and set up with irrigation are three more coffeeberrys plus an additional six Hummingbird Sages. Thanks to the California Native Plant Society, we will have still more plants to get into the ground on our Nov. 13 workday.

Here's a candidate for a pre or post workday excursion:
On Saturday -Sunday, November 12 - 13, 10am - 4pm the San Francisco Botanical Garden will be hosting a November Plant Sale. There'll be multiple varieties of California Natives for fall planting plus blooming Salvias, Correa, Helleborus, hardy Herbs and Pelargoniums. Venue is the Plant Shop adjacent to the Bookstore, located by the Main Entrance to the San Francisco Botanical Garden near 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way.

It is my sad task to post the following piece about our wonderful Pierre.

Adieu, Pierre    We at 22nd Street Jungle Stairs mourn the loss of our friend and colleague Pierre Hurter, who died suddenly on May 27 at the age of 68. Warm, witty and wise, he was among our group’s m…

Just returned from a trip to SoCal. Because of the drought, compounded by heat, the landscape was scary brown—for the most part. A glorious exception was the Antelope Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, CA, where we found lacy phacelia carving rivers of blue through fields of orange poppies.
But that wasn’t all.
Within our view field were solar farms that had paved over areas once resplendent with poppies and phacelia. We are clearly at the beginning of a massive solar push across the living landscapes of the state. But why do this when the built landscape already has so many places for solar panels? Why sterilize soils that --because of the life they now support--serve as lockboxes for atmospheric carbon?