Folk music Friday, "Delights from Down Under" on Saturday and 51 more shovels — all in our amazing arboretum!

The Folk Music Jam Session is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. Aug. 16. Pull out your fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeezeboxes — you name it! — and join your fellow musicians on the Wyatt Deck for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer and other world music. All skill levels welcome. Listeners, too! (Another jam session is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 30 — same time, same place.)

The Delights from Down Under program, a leisurely, guided stroll through the Australian and New Zealand collections, is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 17 on the Wyatt Deck. The collections feature plants that thrive in our Mediterranean climate and plants that have adapted in fascinating ways. Many of the plants make great additions to home gardens.

Now, about those shovels! The arboretum and the city of Davis are collecting them for a public art project in the arboretum’s California Native Plant GATEway Garden, now under construction behind the Davis Commons shopping center — where the campus connects with downtown..

Last week the arboretum threw a beer tasting event at Davis Commons, drawing about 175 people and 51 shovels — given up in return for free admission. The shovels boosted the collection total to 302, about 100 shy of the goal.

Alabama artist Christopher Fennell, chosen by a campus-city committee, plans to build a vine-inspired gateway — with old shovelheads as “leaves” on twisted steel pipe. He is expected to start the project in late September or early October.

Fennell is asking for used shovels: "The diversity of shapes, sizes and rusty patterns on used shovelheads collected from the community will give the sculpture a richness and character that would be unattainable with new materials."

More about the shovel project and and how you can donate a shovel. More about the California Native Plant GATEway Garden (and detours during the construction).

MORE AT THE ARBORETUM

• Succulents, Nolinas, Agaves — Learn about the origins and cultivation of these beautiful and extremely drought-tolerant plants. 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, Ruth Risdon Storer Garden.

All programs are free and open to the public. More information: (530) 752-4880 or arboretum.ucdavis.edu (for directions, click on “Plan Your Visit”). Keep up with arboretum news by reading The Leaflet e-newsletter. To start receiving it, send an email to arboretum@ucdavis.edu, with “newsletter” in the subject line.

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