By Brett Stephens

San Francisco Landscapes had the opportunity to help the Portola neighborhood by installing a native garden on Alemany Island. This median strip sits at the junction of San Bruno Avenue, Alemany Boulevard and the I-101 and I-280 freeway on-ramps. The site is one of the entry points to the Portola neighborhood. This site already exhibits a beautiful SF garter snake and Mission blue butterfly mural, designed by Cory Ferris, on a pillar for the freeway. The Alemany Island Beautification is a project of Portola Neighborhood Association and funded in part by a Community Challenge Grant.

By Booka Alon

On Feb 2nd, and 9th, in true 'barn-raising' fashion, the Alemany Farm Community in collaboration with many urban farmers and nearby residents all jumped in to refurbish the former hoop house structure into a new productive greenhouse. Volunteers, youth, residents and skilled carpenters came forward to lend their time, energy and tools for this special project. Using lots of re-purposed materials and a shoestring budget, the crew installed a new plastic covering, plumbing, benches, a new door, and windows. The totally transformed greenhouse is a few minor adjustments away from production.

By Booka Alon

A dedicated group of men and women converge and express unfettered appreciation of the mighty fruit tree. This event is called the Scion Exchange, and it took place recently on January 19 in Berkeley. Backyard gardeners and fruit lovers rejoice around a buffet of sticks and stalks. Just what are these sticks and stalks? Unlike perennials and annuals, fruit trees are truly a unique specimen of plant. This is because all fruit trees are propogated through a cloning technique called grafting. Its a bit of a frankenstein-type undertaking, whereby a stick, or scion, which is really an 8-12” piece of wood clipped from a host tree, is carved down to an arrow-like formation on one end, and jammed (with some degree of precision) into the branch or trunk of another tree. The stock refers to the rootstock, which is the foundation of any deciduous tree, selected often for its size, resistence to disease and compatibility with fresh scion wood.