Pumpkins in the Park Certified as a Zero Waste Event

The City of San Jose has just certified Pumpkins in the Park as a Zero Waste Event!

Even the snake is spoiled

Our gopher snake's heating pad broke so Education Coordinator Linda McCabe has been heating towels in the microwave for him. Snakes need a warmer body temperature to digest their food and Ar-Kel loves the warm towels :) We inherited this snake from the old Ranger office at Kelley Park's Visitor & Education Center. While they are undergoing renovations, we get to have a terrific educational experience for our Visitor & Education Center! In addition to Ar-Kel (named after the Archer/ Kelley estate) we have El Capitan the King snake, Trevor and Teva the Western Toads, The Five Amigos (madagascar hissing cockroaches) and Yertle the Mississippi Mud Turtle. Come and check it out!

Trail Travail

The trail system through downtown was designed to withstand flooding during heavy rains. This is one of those occasions; the trail is under water in places, causing an inconvenience for trail commuters and other users but no lasting damage. Just Mother Nature is giving the flood control project a minor workout.

Raging River

Most of the time San Jose's Guadalupe River seems like a mere stream. Today's storm proves that the Guadalupe is no demure drainage ditch - it's surging along, carrying large logs and flooding the lower trail.

Pumpkins in the Park

Whether it was their first PIP or their 15th, everyone seemed to have a great time on Saturday.

Radio Disney and Wild Zones made their Pumpkins in the Park debuts to rave reviews.

Favorites Joi Ying Lion and Dragon Dance Group, Grupo Folklorico Valencia, Andy Z, Banana Slug String Band, and Zun Zun entertained a record crowd on a picture perfect fall day.

Mark your calendars for next year's PIP - Oct. 9, 2010

Worm Casting Experiment

A friend of our recently discovered that Costco was selling large bags of worm casting for quite a steal...in fact the price made all of us feel that perhaps it might be too good to be true. Surely the casting were diluted with something? We decided to put these store bought castings up against our home made castings in an experiment. We mixed equal parts castings to potting soil of both groups of castings and put them in clay pots. We plants sugar snap peas and watered them equally over several weeks. The pots with a blue ribbon around them are our castings, the ones without are the store bought castings. Ours were better right out of the gate, though over time, the other stuff did catch up. We sell castings here in our gift shop where the proceeds go to benefit our education programs! (408) 298-7657

Community Garden gets ready for Grand Opening

The Guadalupe Community Gardeners were hard at work Sunday - mostly working on the new compost bins. After a compost workshop, with Master Composter Brian Debasitis, we learned why the new bins weren't composting very quickly. When we started taking apart the piles, it became obvious that we needed a better plan for adding new materials to the bins. And with a borrowed shredder and strong backs, the bins are going to be in great shape for the Grand Opening - Friday, August 14. This would be a great time to come and check out this new garden it's open to the public - there will be lots of activities, food, music and fun for families - and it's all free!