Panhandle Park Native Plant Garden
Ashbury St. at Fell St.

Around 2010, a native plant garden was proposed in the middle of the busy space. In 2013 it was finally planted. Today, it includes a rain garden with diverse native plantings and a berm anchored by Island Snapdragon (Gambelia speciosa) – a Channel Island specialty and hummingbird favorite.

The rain garden is a lovely place to be on a drizzly day. The noise from Fell Street traffic, cheering aerobics classes and basketball contests won’t keep you from enjoying the raindrops bouncing off of ferns, heucheras, tellimas, and a number of Heracleum giganteum (Cow parsnip) with their white flowers on tall stalks. Take a closer look. Perhaps you’ll get to see the red-stem dogwoods putting out their white flowers and the birds that hide among their cover. On the south side of the rain garden you’ll find Potentilla gracilis (graceful cinquefoil). Its bright yellow flowers bloom in summer-fall. Some part of the garden are so successful that even the native plants are being weeded out due to crowding.

Wildlife sightings
Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Anna’s Hummingbird.

Biggest challenge
Invasive grasses with running roots that require constant digging and pulling.

Volunteer workdays
The second Saturday of every month, 10am.