View of the mulched bed from the accessible path

This weekend brought the first major storm of the season to the Bay Area. It rained off and on all day Saturday and Sunday. Despite the drizzle and the rain, volunteers from Foothill College, West Valley College, and Milpitas High showed up on Sunday to help out. Job one was loading and spreading a thick mulch layer in the bed facing Park Road and rearranging the logs to make them more visible. It was quite a workout. After a short rehydration break, we switched gears to remove invasive grasses at the base of a young coast live oak and several coyote bushes; below them we spread a thinner mulch layer to keep the weeds out and let the water through. We pruned up the coyote bushes to improve visibility and make it easier to work near them. The rain didn’t discourage the wildlife: we spotted a fence lizard, many Anna’s hummingbirds near the California fuchsia, and a scrub jay on the blue elderberry.