Back in the day when I worked downtown as a park and recreation center supervisor we would hold weekly safety meetings. The purpose of this was to make sure employees were aware of the hazards that were a part of day to day work, and to prevent injuries and accidents as best as possible. The topics we covered included how to cleanup rat feces without breathing in the dust and hantavirus, how to address folks feeding the pigeons in the children’s playgrounds, personal protective equipment to wear while weed whipping dog poo embedded turf areas, and more.

As you can imagine, physical work over time takes a toll on the body. In particular, it punishes the weak part of the body chain which is the connections and joints. These injuries can be one time acute, like you were lifting a four hundred pound rock with co workers and they dropped the rock but you did not. Communication. Communication. In other cases, the injury is from repetitive use, like the clenching and loosening of the hand and forearm muscles as you are pollarding thousands of young sycamore tree sprouts. Or sitting in an unnatural position at a desk clicking away staring at a screen. The muscles and tendons don’t like the awkward stuck positions and the inflammation begins.

In the old times garbage collectors had to heave the cans over their shoulders and bring it to the dump truck. Remember that? That is pretty heavy work. Now imagine doing that after three hundred patrons to the park have deposited three hundred bags of wet dog poop in bags, all in the same can. Yup it gets really burdensome. The worst part is that people dont seem to realize the can is all full and they just keep throwing crap higher and higher in the can when they could be more considerate and walk a block or two to another can. Oh well. So these new plastic rolling bins, and the garbage truck’s hydraulic arms that pick them up, are an improvement. Still, even with the wheels on the bins, you gotta be aware of body mechanics and subtle twists to get the angles right in maneuvering.

Ergonomics and body mechanics is huge. Ideally every gardener would also be some kind of yogi or pilates expert or martial artist. That is what it takes. You dont have to have that ironman ironwoman 2% body fat, sinew and lean type of body. We are not riding bikes and swimming in a time based competition. We are using hoes and shovels, on our knees planting, climbing trees and cutting wood. You do need to know your own body well, and know how to move and use it in a happy way. That is all. Early morning when the muscles are not warmed up, take it easy. Friday afternoon right about when work week is about to end, take it easy. No rush. Stay focussed. Breathe. While the injury list below cites a specific activity when the injury occurred, keep in mind that sometimes, the stress and wear and tear are cumulative. Its not so much that the simple act of changing a light bulb busted out the shoulder. Its more that yesterday you did four hours with a power hedger on a 10 foot ladder cutting a hedge. The day before that was an event where you emptied fifty cans of garbage. The day before that you wore a backpack blower for three hours blowing off the paths. And the management does not hire more new people or help; they like to keep labor tight and have you on a short leash. So on and so forth. You have to learn to pace yourself for the long haul. You are number one.

There are dozens of dangers that can injure you on the job, while you are in the landscape. It is not a ‘controlled’ environment. Some risks are natural, like stinging wasps. Paper wasp nests around here get about as big as a watermelon. They are pretty easy to spot hanging off the trees. Stay away, or remove it if it may cause problems for the public.

Not so easy to see sometimes are the yellow jacket wasp nests that are in the ground, often obscured by a mat of ivy or a thicket of dried up grass and thistles. If you are paying attention you might be able to prevent an encounter. What you would observe is a steady stream of little yellow and black insects coming and going in the shafts of sunlight. Otherwise, you may step right on the nest and only acknowledge their presence when they are swarming up your pant legs and jabbing you like crazy with their stingers. Hopefully you are not allergic. If yes, then do carry that epinephrine pen needle and know how to use it.

A common piece of equipment we use daily as gardeners is the wheelbarrow. It is a great invention that enables you to leverage relatively heavy weights with a little effort and some balance. You can go darn near anywhere with a wheelbarrow! Watch out that you do not overload it. If you are loading light fluffy dry wood chips, you can probably fill it to the top. But, if you are loading gravel, wet decomposed granite, or dense clay soils, go easy! Especially if you have to go through hilly uneven terrain, over and under barricades and ramps, and navigate muddy wheel sinking low spots. Again, this is not like in a gym with restricted up down repetitive motions. It is weights with all manners of squiggly warpage twisty turn arounds. Pay attention.

Like everything over time, we have improved on the design of the wheelbarrow. The same advice applies though, do not overload. Its like pruning – its easy to cut, but remember that you have to pick it all up and clean the site afterwards. Sure you can load the plastic bin with four hundred pounds, but then can you push it up the narrow trailed 45 degree slope? Who won the race – the rabbit or the turtle?

A common injury comes from lifting and carrying weights in the garden. Bricks, Sonoma field stones, bags of concrete, plants in fifteen gallon cans, six one-gallon cans gripped by six fingers, and more. It is a balance to get the work done, but to stay healthy and not get hurt. Youth is great, so is age and experience. Sod with the clay soils of the valley are heavy. One or two rolls, no problems. A palette, its okay. A few palettes everyday for weeks on end. A few palettes of sod going from the driveway in the front yard, up the stairs, through the house, down the stairs, and repeat repeat. That is where endurance, strength and patience comes in.

A few years back it is said that our mayor went to Paris, made a deal with a French company, and then had these toilets installed all around town. They are great for spots with abundant tourists and few restroom facilities. You put a quarter in it, and have a peaceful spot for a few moments to do your business. Then walk back out to check the amazing views at Twin Peaks. In some parts of town, however, they are galleries for junkies and hoes to engage in business. Part of the work routine for us downtown was picking up hypodermic needles. Lots of them. Some days the toilet cleaning workers would leave the needles on top of our garbage cans. The workers likely did not carry the red sharps containers, or just forgot. At least they did not throw the needles into the garbage where it would have pierced the plastic bag and leaked out the contents therein. Of course removing the dirty needles from easy public access was first priority at 6:30 am, cause the last thing you want is some kid on a field trip to the museums grabbing a used needle and playing with it. Both my gardener and supervisor before me were stung by needles as they were picking up leafy debris with gloved hands. So the advice now is – do not pick stuff up with your hands! Use a rake, a scoop, a dust pan. If you do get poked, go to the hospital, get checked out. Its usually nothing, but then again, nice to be conservative in such situations.

The theme is repetition. Even something as simple as grading online can cause injuries. You like what?! How is that possible? You are a lazy paper pushing teacher! You are just weak and
out of shape! Perhaps. But the sheer amount of clicking these days is pretty staggering. Over pandemic times I know of more than a handful of people that messed up their bodies by being on a computer all the time. Your mind wants to do this and that, do it perfectly. Respond to every dumb email and followup up on every bit of new software. But the body is not equipped nor accustomed to such sedentary limited twitching motions. But what can we do? We are all in the same riverine flow of data. So rest, use a standing desk, go for a walk in between intense concentrating six hour desk sessions.

Heres some useful charts and pictures I found online with regards to how to use your body wisely. They are great tips. Even more important than the ideal postures though is that your mind and body are working in unison, that you are present in your physical activities. That you are aware of yourself and your surroundings. Because in the garden, the ground is not flat, the loads are not evenly distributed symmetrical shapes, the light and shadows can play with your vision, and there are surprises everyday.

Well here we go. Sooner or later something is going to tear or rip or crack or bulge. It is the price of engagement. After a storm you can see the branches and their fibers and torsion as they resisted but still came undone.

The same thing with the human body. If you are an omnivore and have not yet butchered or cooked flesh then it is time to do so. That way you can learn how the parts are fitted together, and distinguish between the strands of meat, the harder nuggets on the ends of the bones, the stubborn white ropes of tendons that segway into muscle fibers, and that thin veil layer of fascia that you dont see present anymore in the cut meat cubes and slabs at the grocery stores. By examining the structure of mammalian tissues, you will see and feel the same material at work in your body as you go about the yard doing this and that. Little stuff (hurts and sprains) around our house is cured with ice, or rest, or some icy hot tiger balm substance. Otherwise there is a whole host of remedies and doctors ranging from orthopedic surgeons to chiropractors to physical therapists to steroids to acupuncturists and on and on. That is much beyond our scope of discussion in talking about safety and injuries in the garden.

Well, every crew I know, or have worked for, has a map in the truck of the local hospitals, just in case. Ideally you already know this by heart cause if something does go down, you hate to be googling information while someone is in pain and in need of medical attention. Well, good luck out there and BE SAFE!!! In spite of it all, enjoy the garden!

Friend and San Bruno Mountain guide David Schooley had an art show pow wow in downtown San Francisco by North Beach, Chinatown and the Transamerica Pyramid. I don’t get out to that part of town much, especially at night – there’s a lotta neat history tucked in them alleyways and beneath the colossal high rises. Plus its always fun to meet new friends, share tales, eat snack food for dinner, and chat about the challenges in land conservation.

One of the folks there talked about the shell mounds of the native peoples in the east bay, by the cities of Berkeley and Emeryville. The story teller’s name was Chris Walker, and he is a film maker also. I watched a short animation about this project he was working on with a lady named Corinna Gould from the Confederated Village of Lisjan. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYWCqFOxhh8. They want to commemorate, remember, and unite people by turning a shell mound that is a parking lot back into something that will connect people to local nature again. The city government seems to be in favor of the idea. Maybe some cool landscape architects, innovative planners, kick ass contractors, and a whole bunch of native villagers will collaborate and make it happen.

At the art show, after the speakers had finished, people were sharing and blabbing about antelope and fog. Those are two of my most favorite creatures! Then I went home and painted a goofy mythic picture. Here is the explanation for the painting presented above – for people who are more analytical in nature, and like everything laid out in a logical fashion, not ?? nut ball weird artsy fartsy style. LOL.

If you have not yet been to San Bruno Mountain, GO!!! The wild flowers are going crazy!!! Whole slopes of checkered fritillaries, and trails paved with footsteps of spring. Check out the San Bruno Mountain Watch organization website for guided hikes and restoration efforts, or just put on your hiking shoes, grab some water and sun protection, and GO!!! You might have the latest apps to learn the names of flowers, they seem to work pretty well. Me, I’m on the old timers side. Here is my go-to when I greet somebody on the mountain I never met before, and don’t know who they are:

Calling all fishermen

I love the water and fish in almost equal measure. This painting was inspired by a long winded native California story that starred loon woman as one of the characters. Think it was Achowami or Modoc not sure. The picture in my mind occurred in synchronous time as when friend Brucey sent me a book titled Power by Linda Hogan. The setting of the book is out in the Florida swamps where the anhinga bird aka water turkey hunts with its spear of a beak. And the vision had long fluttered through the canals of my ears nose and throat with the sounds of the kingfisher in the botanical garden by the ponds.

The whole general premise is that animals and nature are endowed of consciousness, and the spirit force that is in all the universe is the bond and agreement that binds us together. If there is respect and reciprocity then the fertility of the earth will be maintained. And there will be a cornucopia of diversity and abundance. If we don’t do our part, she will pull back her gifts. Then, we will be uprooted, lost, and without our animal and plant kin as relations. Basically we are excommunicated from the webbed, branched, water infused clan that is the tree of life.

The painting is at a fishermen’s conference where the birds all come together to discuss the state of fish. And the sea, the rivers, the lakes and springs all chime in. The birds bring their offerings and put them in a basket. They sing and chat, gamble and play, and dream up what is to come. I bet they are seeing thick schools of gleaming flopping silver, tranquil mangrove bays and inlets that serve as baby fish nurseries, muddy tidal flats chock of puffing sand-spitting breathing holes, hide and seeking clams and shrimp, and deep waters gushing streams of plankton off of a rocky ledge.

Calling all fishermen. Ante up!

Luke the Wiley coyote introduced me to Joey the Roo (Kanga) who in turn was friends with Mr Horn from days of standing up in watery shacks in Chile. That is how I ended up in his backyard of sand in the sunset district of San Francisco.

Colin had already embarked upon the dream of creating his backyard paradise when I informed him that we have a design class where students draws landscape plans and submit them to clients, who in turn offer feedback and a more or less realistic not-staged design experience. He was stoked and game for the process and that is what we did. Then the class was over (Spring of 2020), and we shook hands. That was about the last time I saw his metaphoric garden boat of oxalis weeds and trash strewn dune sands sail off into the wild blue yonder.

A year passes, maybe two. Not sure. Pandemic coats time with a strange passive sheen. Surprise! Mr. Horn gives me a pamphlet/book of his garden build. Its awesome. So thought I would share it with y’all. Here’s Colin of the big red board (like Clifford the dog; I will explain the nickname later) in his own words and pictures:

A huge thank you to the students who drew the design plans:

Well, thank you to Colin for sharing his story, and documenting the build. Would like to add that most of the plants Mr Horn planted were California native plants from the north and south. Also noteworthy is that although he is not a professional landscaper and had not done this before, his did a fine job of it. He is really creative with his hands and is not afraid to ‘go’ and get mucky sweaty dirty in the process. Perhaps this will inspire another person to be a gardener and to make something fun, interactive and alive in their own yard.

Then was chatting to the Roo (Kanga) and he pulled something up on his phone from some surf film or cam. Says did you see this? I’m like no, don’t watch much screen if I can help it. And there was Colin in action, slicing across a right hand Ocean Beach slider, on what i call a two to three wave:

Joey says that is a 9’6″ board, so you go figure about how big that wave is. Dang kid is sick and charges. LOL

By the way we are still doing landscape designs and always on the lookout for potential residential projects. Send me an email at tywang@ccsf.edu if you are in SF and have a yard that fits the bill. Especially welcome are clean slate yards in the sunset or richmond districts of San Francisco. Thank you.

Like all garden pests, the management of mammalian and bird pests comes under the banner of integrated pest management. That is to say, we use a variety of techniques and methods to reduce the damage caused by these creatures in our gardens. Our goal is not total eradication and elimination, our goal is to keep the pests at a reasonable level and live with them in an uneasy balance and precarious harmony.

We generate and waste a lot of excess food, and create movement and disturbance wherever we go. As a result, creatures that enjoy our presence thrive alongside us. Without planning for it, we provide them with food and shelter. And what more can you ask for?! This is true for weeds and bugs, as well as larger animals like rodents, coyotes, skunks, pigeons and sea gulls. In old old native times, food and the density of people was pretty well matched. Some years the acorn crop was lean, others years the salmon were abundant. There was an ebb and flow to the cycles. The amount of food was constrained by the climate and weather, dependent on the water and rains, and fluctuated year to year dependent on health and disease.

As the country got flooded with settlers, they took to shooting and eating darn near everything that moved. Especially if there was a famine or a drought and the crops failed them. Plus people were hankering for meat in the markets. For a whiles there, every animal ended up in a pan, a pot, or in the side of a ditch. Then, luckily, at some point, folks realized that this was not going to be good in the long run, and enacted game laws, anti poaching laws, plus created wild life conservation areas and reserves. To keep up with the demand for animal protein, we boosted the production of domesticated animals like chickens and hogs, and cultivated acres and acres to grow fodder crops for the animals to get fat on. Fields of grain, alfalfa and corn, soy and so on.

In cities where many people now live, most people don’t hunt or trap, and are often pretty averse to the very act of killing or slaughtering an animal, even if they have a slab of one on the plate almost every day. So its a bit of a sensitive topic. When mammalian pests invade the home, some people will resort right away to poisons, or to traps. These methods are readily available at the hardware store. More often than not, other people will call the pest control company for some advice and a round up of the small beasts perturbing the peace.

Do note that for some animals, there is no protection. There is no Society for the Conservation of the Brown Rat nor the Roof Rat Chapter of California. You can kill as many as you want of these guys, and it is unlikely anyone will knock on your door or protest your actions. On the other hand, it is illegal to kill seagulls because they are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918. As are most birds. That did not stop Greg’s hungry sailor buddy from making seagull soup in the Sausalito harbor back in the day, but just to imagine the taste of that meat and broth is enough to make you want to take a really long solitary walk in a hot desert. For other animals like the crow, there is a hunting season on em; here it runs from around December through April. And sometimes you can request special permission to hunt certain animals as a nuisance. In a city, it is illegal to go shooting guns because of the potential for injury. So you would have to use a bow and arrow, or try to run and grab one with your bare hands. Check the city ordnances and find out what is on the books before you do anything silly and suspect that will land you in hot water.

Back to IPM. We roughly classify the methods of control into four categories. Physical (direct action kill or trap), cultural (preventive ways to keep animals out and away), biological (find an animal that will eat your pest animal, maybe you), and chemical (poisons and things of that nature).

For the most part, cultural is the number one method. If you put all the food away, and do not give the animals a place to live, they will go elsewhere. But in a garden, how do you put all the plants away so that the deer cannot eat them? What happens if the plants you are enjoying are the food?! And if their home is the very dirt in the garden, short of removing all the dirt and filling it all with concrete, what can you do? This is the dilemma. Screens, stainless or plastic netting and wire, electric fencing – they can do the trick. Raised beds, unpalatable plants also. Predator urine and blood, foul smell from castor oil bean extracts, fake owls, sonic noises, icky ick things that repel the animals, all potentially useful. A Jack Russel terrier or a beagle, that might do it. Not always though, like when a whole family of eight raccoons decides they really like that bowl of wet cat food on your back porch.

Traps and the back side of a shovel. These are number two – physical controls. But first you have to catch em. And that means identifying the culprit, finding out where and when they are active, and then somehow hunting them down. That is what it takes. For the most part, nobody cares that much about the rodents. Except there were protests for a while against gardeners killing gophers, and they set up a ten block stretch in Golden Gate Park where it was forbidden to catch them. Not sure if the gophers needed much help, but that is how it goes sometimes. When it comes to a little bit larger and some would say cuter mammals like squirrels, skunks, and raccoons, that is where it gets tricky. The old time gardeners would get calls about them, trap them, then just go ahead and release them into the wild somewhere nearby like the Presidio or San Bruno Mountain – which is not that far away from wherever they came from. A short happy night stroll later they would be right back where they started. Or they would be disoriented and fall fast victim to an asphalt roadway and steel belted radial tires. If you have a trappers license or are a certified pest control operator, you are supposed to catch them and put them down right away (kill them), you are not supposed to move them around. But sometimes, they just let the animals go again after they’ve been paid for their services, out of laziness or compassion or what have you. Then the animal is on the loose, again. Do note that wild animals can and do carry a number of worm parasites, invertebrate hitch hikers, as well as diseases that can affect humans in a negative way. Yes there is still the bubonic plague bacteria around here, hanta virus in the rat droppings, rabies, lyme disease once in a while from the ticks, etc. Friends in more rural places say there are not that many raccoons out in the country. Likely because there is not as much food in the wild as there is next to the garbage cans and dumpsters here in the city. Plus the comfy warm crawl spaces and rain-free under-the-deck four star accommodations. Lack of mountain lion or eagle predation earns another star. Then what do you do? What can you do? Most of the time people do nothing, which is not productive really and not helpful either. Sometimes you hear about some crazy hungry gardener that speared a raccoon, made a hat with its skin, and ate its meat over a barbecue with friends. But that is rare and almost unheard of in our modern world today. And in general not recommended for the reasons already stated above.

Biological methods often work for other pests of the garden, whether that be mites or aphids. You can go ahead and buy some beneficial insects online from an insectary, creatures like mite predators or nematodes or even praying mantises. They work. And chickens or ducks eat the slugs or snails too. But who is going to eat a 12” rat or attack a skunk? Great horned owls are predators of skunks but it is unlikely you can encourage it to come and eat that exact skunk that is camped out under your ipe ironwood boardwalk. And there are not enough peregrine falcons or hawks to eat all the pigeons under the freeway overpass. So for the most part, pass on biological control of the larger mammals and birds. Unless you are dreaming of coyote. But dens and dens of coyotes roaming in a dense urban metropolis poses its own set of challenges….For sure they will not only attack the pests. They will pick on the easy well fed cat that is playing in the yard, or the little three year old kid rolling a ball on the lawn while the parents are looking at their cell phone.

Last but not least are the poisons. For the most part these are ingested (eaten as bait), but in the old times poisonous gases like the tail pipe exhaust of a vehicle, or the sulfuric smoke from a flare would count in this category as well. Fumigants they call them. They are okay, and if you look at any public institution or commercial center you will notice the black plastic boxes full of rat poison. Still, come out at night in a densely inhabited place with food and water and you will see the shiny beady eyes of the rats. Lots of them. They will be here as long as people are here, likely longer. I won’t go into the chemical mode of action of particular poisons here. Just keep in mind that rodents can readily evolve resistance to our chemicals over generations of selection, and that whatever poisons we put out into the world work their way up and to the side of food chains. That is all for now. Good luck keeping mammalian and bird pest at bay in your garden.