22nd Street Jungle Stairs

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22nd Street Jungle Stairs

Since 2012, 22nd street Jungle Stairs has been on a mission to rehabilitate, beautify and maintain the steps along 22nd between Diamond & Castro.

Imagine two public staircases leading up and down an oxalis-infested San Francisco hillside. Now imagine that a group of neighbors determined to turn that hillside into a botanical tapestry. That’s what we at 22nd Street Jungle Stairs have been up since 2012. It’s been a daunting endeavor, one that has challenged our psychological and physical staying power, and it’s far from finished. But as a re

ward we now have two increasingly beautiful areas that are attracting oohs and aahs not just from the people who walk by but also from bees, butterflies and a myriad of birds. Our plantings are largely California natives, with a few Mediterranean “cousins” mixed in. On the shady western side, we have red-flowering currant, California bush anemone, evergreen currant, coffeeberry, hummingbird sage, coastal wood fern and snowberry. On the sunny eastern side, we have a multitude of California lilacs, both blue-flowering and white-flowering. We have monkey flowers, buckwheats, manzanitas and a solitary flannel bush with yellow saucer-size flowers.Also in the mix are perennials like scorpion w**d, yarrow, blue-eyed grass and Douglas Iris. Among the plants we—along with the birds and bees— like best are the ground-cover California lilacs and coyote brush, which help us in our battle against w**ds. We are likewise partial to the spectacular torch aloes, which were introduced by earlier landscaping efforts, and to the California poppies, which have sown themselves far and wide. Barring holiday weekends, our regular workdays are the first Sunday of every month starting around 10 AM. New volunteers are always welcome. For more information email [email protected]

Location: 22nd Street Stairs between Diamond and Castro

Maintenance: Neighborhood Volunteers

Sponsor: San Francisco Parks Alliance

Design:

Phase I Brendan Cox

Phase II Todd Gilens

Size: 11,418 square feet

Year Started: 2012

Enduring Challenges: The size of the site; the steepness of the terrain; the persistence of w**ds.

04/08/2024

Thanks to Colin Braun, the Jungle Stairs bulletin boards now have a color guide to our plants!

04/07/2024

Here's an interesting history of the western side of Jungle Stairs. Note the lack of any kind of stairway in 1919.

Northeast Corner of 22nd and Diamond, not graded. Now the site of a stairway, Grocery Store building still stands. June 30 1920.

03/14/2024

Our official workdays now fall on the second Sunday of every other month starting ca 10 and going til noon or so. Meetup is at the top of 22nd Street, usually on the western side.
2024
May 5 CHANGED FROM MAY 12 DUE TO MOTHER'S DAY
July. 14
Sept 8
Nov 10
2025
Jan 12

03/11/2024

We had a super turnout on the Stairs today, with a reward at the end in the form of a BBQ hosted by Christian Byza. Many bags of w**ds are now waiting for pickup! Thanks everyone! Photos of Larry getting ready to go knee-deep into fields of oxalis, the BBQ'd Bratwurst we're getting ready to dig into and Morgan communing with the w**ds.

07/17/2023

On Saturday Ken got busy and added this to the pickup pile! Thanks to Eva Chang at San Francisco's Department of Public Works, it was all gone by early afternoon!

07/12/2023

Just look at what our small but energetic team accomplished in less than two hours today! We are expecting a pickup from the San Francisco Department of Public Works on Saturday July 15. Miqdaad in the foreground, Madeleine, Gerda and Peter in the background. Jean Lee did some work too but had to leave early Along the fence our collection of green waste , including heavy palm fronds and selective prunings from overgrown/collapsed Echium candicans and Aloe ciliaris.

11/25/2022

Took a walk along the stairs today, Thanksgiving Day, and spotted Gerda extending the rail painting job that she and a few dedicated others started about a month ago. A big thanks to Gerda from us all!

11/05/2022

Planting for the Rain: On Saturday Nov. 5 Marc and Jennifer Mondfrans did some planting on the west side to take advantage of the coming rain. They were joined by Fermi Photino, their charming Labradoodle. Newly planted and set up with irrigation are three more coffeeberrys plus an additional six Hummingbird Sages. Thanks to the California Native Plant Society, we will have still more plants to get into the ground on our Nov. 13 workday.

11/02/2022

Here's a candidate for a pre or post workday excursion:
On Saturday -Sunday, November 12 - 13, 10am - 4pm the San Francisco Botanical Garden will be hosting a November Plant Sale. There'll be multiple varieties of California Natives for fall planting plus blooming Salvias, Correa, Helleborus, hardy Herbs and Pelargoniums. Venue is the Plant Shop adjacent to the Bookstore, located by the Main Entrance to the San Francisco Botanical Garden near 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way.

06/18/2022

It is my sad task to post the following piece about our wonderful Pierre.

We at 22nd Street Jungle Stairs mourn the loss of our friend and colleague Pierre Hurter, who died suddenly on May 27 at the age of 68. Warm, witty and wise, he was among our group’s m…

03/28/2022

Just returned from a trip to SoCal. Because of the drought, compounded by heat, the landscape was scary brown—for the most part. A glorious exception was the Antelope Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, CA, where we found lacy phacelia carving rivers of blue through fields of orange poppies.
But that wasn’t all.
Within our view field were solar farms that had paved over areas once resplendent with poppies and phacelia. We are clearly at the beginning of a massive solar push across the living landscapes of the state. But why do this when the built landscape already has so many places for solar panels? Why sterilize soils that --because of the life they now support--serve as lockboxes for atmospheric carbon?

Address

22nd Street Stairs Between Castro & Diamond
San Francisco, CA
94114

Website

http://junglestairs.wordpress.com/

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