All Business

Monday: Annie and I met up at lunchtime to garden at the Mariposa Center Garden.

Bougainvillea and Dietes were planted, everything was watered. Weeding occurred with furry. No photos tell the tale.
Friday: Before lunch I met with a UCSF representative about the 100 Pennsylvania Garden and showed her the site for 100 Pennsylvania Garden (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden).

If UCSF can help us even in a small way, it would be very appreciated!
After work I planted red Cosmos, a Helianthus 'Teddy Bear Sunflower' and Geum quellyon var. flora plena ‘Blazing Sunset’ all in the red bed. I also moved the Knautia out from under the Cardoon. See photos for garden newness and beauty.

Steps, part deux

Today we finished the steps. I put black plastic under the bricks, and finished bricking the whole stairway. Gary cut off the one bit of rebar that was sticking up. It's done! Phew.

Joan dropped by and we had a lovely chat. If we had our bench done we could have chatted all day!

We also planted some plants that had been waiting:

- 4 Yucca flaccida "Garland's Gold" in one huge pot, from John
- 1 Doryanthes palmeri (Spear Lily) - John again
- 1 Campanula portenschlagiana (Dalmation Bellflower) "Get Mee" from my lovely friend Lise.
1 Bougainvillea - a nice golden yellow-colored one.

Quick watering for this week's new plants, and we are done. Now, what shall we plant by the steps...?

Getting stuck in (the ground) today

Things that got the dubious pleasure of being planted in P. Garden today include:

2 Solanum laciniatum (Kangaroo apple)
2 Heuchera (Coral Bells) "Snow Angel" and a dark purple one.
2 Impatiens niamniamensis "African Queen"
1 Bougainvillea (top - the "before" pic. Wonder what the "after" will look like!)
1 Hardenbergia violacea (Purple Coral Pea vine - below)
1 Cactus of unknown sort

Also: Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), Iris, Fragaria vesca (Alpine Strawberry), Cineraria and 3 Gasteria bicolor (Lawyer's Tongue) - all from craigslister Emma - thank you so much!

Hopefully the Bougainvillea and Hardenbergia will cover up the nasty chainlink fence, and deter people from climbing over it back there. I found several needles too - I should buy thicker gloves...

Our neighbor from up the hill David came by and offered us a lovely wooden garden arbor, which looks fantastic at the top of the steps. Thanks! He also brought us a massive bag of gorgeous lemons from his tree (how I covet that tree!) and I met his pretty daughter Julia too. Good times.

On top of that, Ron the Iron Maverick came by and man, is he a double espresso! In no time he had the arch picked up, put in place and staked. Then he put bricks on the steps. Oh and he added landscape stones to some plants on the hillside so they don't slide off. Oh and he shored up the downhill side of the path to the steps. Oh and he moved a big branch for me, and experimented with wavy bricks and, and, and... most of this time I was standing gabbing away with his lovely wife Gina and his dog Tank, so you know I felt like a loser when he drove off. What can I say - thanks for giving up almost a whole Saturday to P. Garden - I truly appreciate it :)

I did manage to scrape all the leaves and junk out of the gully and form them into a compost heap of sorts (left - not one that will decompose into usable compost as apparently cordyline leaves have a half life of 763,000 years), as well as weaving the front round border edge from all the leftover branches. I have to say branch weaving has been my favorite project at P. Garden - it doesn't murder my back, and they results are instant, useful and look good! I have spied more branches at Jackson field round the corner, and will try to get some (before they are wood-chipped) so I can weave edges for the remaining three borders.

I also extended the front edge border so the compost pile is gone (left.) The compost-and-branch pile is gone at last! What on earth shall we plant there?

Serious rain now

It is chucking it down right now. I no longer fear drought for the Bay area, let's just put it that way. But on to the planty happenings...

A neighboring craigslister replied to my plant begging ad and we went over in the rain this morning to pick up a nice collection of Zantedeschia (Callas) Cannas, a cool Bolivian Fuchsia, ornamental grass, borage, (Borago officinalis) lovely African blue basil (Ocimum kilimandscharicum x basilicum 'Dark Opal'), a Bougainvillea, a Wisteria, 2 standard roses, a Hydrangea and something else I am racking my brain over now!

Anyway, Kepa was also kind enough to offer the use of her greenhouse for our Leah-donated Australian seedlings. Hopefully the little sprouts will do even better with more light. Thanks Kepa!

A break in the rain and we went out to plant. Hydrangea in a shady spot. The 2 standard roses either side of the top of the steps Matt dug yesterday. Cannas in what's fast becoming canna-opolis (i.e. by the water supply) and holes dug for other things when the rain stops. Diana and her handsome Labrador Billy drop by, as does Jim with George the Rottie.

But wait! That's not all...

I was scanning craigslist earlier in the day and spotted a post from a guy called Jared giving away lots of perennials. I'd emailed him quickly, and he replied ready to give us a lot of stuff as he was moving house. We hightailed it down to Pacifica and our ghast was flabbered: a big collection of very cool stuff ready to give away!

Among other things we got a variegated Echium, Clivias, big Tibouchina, Aloe, Agave, ferns, bromeliads, Solanum laciniatum, Anisodontea (false mallow), Impatiens niamniamensis "African queen" - all sorts of cool stuff. Hopefully with labels on them. We stuffed the car full, sat some things on our knees, and made off. Thanks very much Jared - sorry you had to part with your plants, but lots of people will enjoy them.