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Bees On Their Knees, Gardeners To The Rescue
By Alison Rood
Special to The Chronicle
(Published Saturday, March 3, 2007)
Garden blooms where dead lie in Sacramento/A pioneer
cemetery tended by dedicated volunteers is also a
nursery for native bees
A
graveyard on a cold January morning is the last place
you'd expect to find a flurry of gardening activity, but
Sacramento's oldest cemetery was teeming with life.
Men
with shovels and rakes were grooming the premises while
individual gardeners tended various plants. The
temperature had barely inched above freezing, so, like
everyone else, I was wearing a heavy jacket, scarf and
gloves.
The
full glory of the garden managed by Sharon Patrician in
the section referred to as Hamilton Square wasn't
evident this winter day, but her smile was warming just
as surely as her lavish collection of perennials will
warm the souls of visitors later in the year. During
spring and summer, her extensive collection of
Mediterranean plants provides a colorful setting for the
somber tombstones. Her garden is also home to a large
population of native bees.
Last
spring, the impressive number of native pollinators that
visit Patrician's cemetery garden came to the attention
of Professor Gordon Frankie, a research entomologist at
UC Berkeley who is leading an urban bee project. The
wildlands that sustain native bees are disappearing, so
Frankie has turned his attention to urban gardens.
"Dr.
Frankie and his students would go to the places where
they had seen native bees the previous year, and the
bees would be gone, victims of human development,"
Patrician said.
"He
learned about the cemetery garden while visiting another
public garden in Sacramento and, when he saw all the
native bees here, he got very excited."
Frankie identified about 85 species of native bees in
Patrician's garden and will continue his work at
Hamilton Square this year. The fact that her garden has
attracted so many bees was a happy accident, she said,
but this year, as she plans additions to her acre,
she'll include many of the recommended plants from
Frankie's bee-friendly list.
Unlike
honeybees, which collect pollen on their hind legs,
Patrician said, certain native bee families collect
pollen on hairs on the underside of their abdomens so
they require flowers with a flat surface where they can
wiggle belly down. "Nepeta, salvia, echinacea, solidago
and asters are some of my favorites," she said -- and,
undeniably, some of the bees' favorites, too.
"This
year's generations are larvae packed into holes in the
ground or in wood," she said. The irony was inescapable:
So much life under our feet, occupying the same ground
as the dead.
Now in
her 60s, Patrician was one of Sacramento's first master
gardeners. But her job as a consultant with the state
meant frequent business travel, and she couldn't keep up
with the continuing education needed to maintain her
master gardener credential.
After
she retired, she discovered the graveyard and leaped at
the opportunity to return to the gardening life she
loved. She began as a volunteer at the cemetery in 1994
through its "adopt-a-plot" program, in which volunteers
care for the grave sites of the many pioneer families
buried there. She cleaned and beautified a single plot,
then looked around and saw a hundred more that needed
attention.
"I
didn't intend to get so involved," she said, "but I
don't have room at home for more than a few container
plants, and the cemetery garden gives me a chance to
experiment with perennials on a large scale."
A
restoration project funded by grants and donations from
local businesses at Hamilton Square began in 1997, the
year Patrician became manager. Then, the only things
growing on her acre were a few trees and rosebushes.
Today the list of perennials is so long it's best viewed
at either the cemetery Web site or the Web site for the
Sacramento Perennial Plant Club. Patrician has been a
club member since 1992, and Hamilton Square is now its
pet project.
"I
went to the other members and said we needed to be a
club that does more than just conduct garden tours," she
said. The club's fundraisers are now an important source
of revenue for the garden.
Volunteers help Patrician with garden chores; a crew
from the county work-release program shows up on
weekends to assist with routine maintenance. (That
explained the number of orange-vested workers.)
Patrician spends about 80 hours a month in the garden,
coordinates the adopt-a-plot program and serves as
cemetery committee secretary. As we talked, volunteers
came to her with questions and concerns.
The
Sacramento River lies just west of the cemetery. At one
time – before levees were constructed and the cemetery
was established -- the area where Patrician gardens was
marshland. It makes sense, then, that she favors plants
that flourish in sandy, loamy soil. Her plants must also
endure periods of harsh sunlight and extreme heat.
"Only
about 50 percent of what I plant survives," she said.
"I'm constantly editing. One year I had a beautiful
monkey flower. Oh, it was glorious! But the next year it
died. 'What did I do wrong?' I wondered."
Gophers are another problem. She called them "downright
malicious" but said she's learned to co-exist with them.
"The
city agrees with us that no spraying of herbicides or
pesticides can be allowed here. If we used poisons, we
wouldn't have our bees, our butterflies or our barn
owls."
In the
past, barn owls have nested in boxes in the elm trees
that surround the cemetery, but most of the trees have
been damaged by disease and will be removed.
"I
need to consult with Audubon about trees suitable for
new boxes," she said, and added that birding is another
activity that attracts people to the cemetery. Two
birding tours are planned later this year.
As for
the gophers, Patrician has found that "intensely
scented" plants such as salvia, rosemary, nepeta, cistus
and Siberian iris are good repellents. There is,
however, an additional side effect to gopher activity
when the landscape happens to be a cemetery. Gopher
excavations sometimes yield items from graves.
"We've
seen bones make their way to the top of grave sites, and
sometimes other things appear also," Patrician said.
As if
to prove her point, a volunteer came over during the
interview holding the pieces of a tarnished belt buckle
in her gloved hand. "One of the work crew found this and
thought it might be important," she said. "It was found
near the grave of a Sgt. Parker, but there's no date on
the
headstone."
Patrician pieced the buckle together and studied it. It
certainly looked like a very old bit of hardware from a
military uniform. She pocketed the pieces to check their
authenticity later.
The
cemetery where Patrician gardens was established in 1849
and holds the remains of many dignitaries from
California's past. It's also the final resting place for
more than 25,000 pioneers and immigrants, as well as
victims of an 1850 cholera epidemic. Large family plots
and tall, stately monuments crowd the grounds of what
the cemetery's Web site calls an "outdoor museum."
Although the city has authority over the site, it wasn't
until recent years that the historic graveyard enjoyed a
much-needed makeover. The Old City Cemetery Committee is
a tax-exempt organization that was formed in 1986 by
local residents who were concerned about the neglect and
vandalism at the cemetery. They banded together to
restore and preserve the roughly 30-acre site.
In
addition to the Hamilton Square garden, the cemetery
contains two other gardens: a rose garden with vintage
roses from the Gold Rush to the Victorian-Edwardian eras
(roughly 1850-1915), and a native plants demonstration
garden.
The
site is named for William Stephen Hamilton, the youngest
son of American Revolutionary figure Alexander Hamilton.
"He
came to California in 1849, hoping to find gold, and
died in 1850, from either cholera or dysentery,"
Patrician said. "Initially his identity wasn't known and
he was buried with victims of the cholera epidemic.
Later his family had his body exhumed and moved to a
more 'fashionable' place in the cemetery."
Sometimes the cemetery is "too peaceful," Patrician
said. "There are always ghoulish types who enjoy
graveyards, and others lurk about looking for something
to steal. I encourage my volunteers who have dogs to
bring their pets with them."
Although she gardens among the tombstones, Patrician
doesn't believe in ghosts and she isn't sentimental
about death. Epitaphs carved into stone surround her,
but as she tends her plants, her work in the graveyard
garden is her living epitaph.
"I
suppose if I had to have an epitaph," she said, "it
would read: 'She planted a garden.'
Resources
Historic City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway, Sacramento, CA
95818; (916) 448-0811;
www.oldcitycemetery.com.
Sacramento Perennial Plant Club,
www.sacramentoperennialplantclub.org.
For
more information on the cemetery or events, call (916)
448-0811 or visit
www.oldcitycemetery.com. Forthcoming events include:
"What's Blooming in the Cemetery," a garden tour led by
Sharon Patrician. 10 a.m. March 10.
"Irish
Ancestors," a history tour with guides Suzanne Sanchez,
Marilyn Fuqua and Jane Howell. 10 a.m. March 17.
"Birding in the Cemetery," led by Maureen Geiger. 7:30
a.m. April 4 (rain cancels).
"Sacramento and California History," a tour led by Bill
Mahan. 10 a.m. April 7.
Open
house, with garden tours and heirloom rose sales. 9
a.m.-3 p.m. April 21.
E-mail
comments to
home@sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle
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