If one is good, three are better!

Previously there was one purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in the brights bed and now there are three. All rejoice! Ok, if that's not enough to be excited about it rained a bit this morning, so the ground was actually fairly wet when I planted the new Echinacea, and a bunch of the Zinnia and Cosmos seedlings are sprouting up. Annelle stopped by too, and it was nice to see her and say hello. Overall the garden is quite beautiful right now (I say that a lot don't I?) so you should stop by too!

Mulching in the Rain

Despite our best efforts last volunteer day not enough mulch made it on top of the landscape fabric, so today I went out and forked mulch around to build up a nice barrier between the fabric and all of our furry dog friends who like to dig!

If you look closely in the brights bed you'll see a few seedlings coming up (Zinnia and Cosmos in a variety of bright colors). I noticed a trampled plant on the corner too, which is awfully sad because it was just getting nice and big. So please, keep dogs out of the beds, always! I also transplanted an Eriogonum umbellatum that should add some nice sulphur yellow flowers and act as a 1' x 2' groundcover once it has filled out.

The last photo is from Annie over the weekend, of the brand new Glaucium grandiflorum. I can't wait until these plants get big and covered in orange blossoms!

Fried plants

The last couple of days in San Francisco have been HOT - Juana said it was 101 degrees near the garden yesterday! I met Katie there at lunchtime to talk about plants for the Indiana Street Garden and we just about died. Frequent rests on the shady bench are key. If only there was an iced tea dispenser there...

Yesterday Emily watered the sale plants, and Arum watered the Mariposa Center Garden. On my morning walk today I admired their efforts: the latter spot was lovely and damp, and the former all looking perky. I saw a clump of Achillea wilting in the front border though, and nipped over at lunchtime to water it. Then I sort of got on a roll and watered a few other things. I also asked the young guy smoking on the bench to please take his butts with him - he was pretty reasonable about it.

We're watering the sale plants three times per week now to get them looking fab for the sale on October 16th. I think people are going to love what we have for sale this time!

Photos show a gorgeous burgundy Cosmos flowering in the left bed, and our lovely Agastache "Apricot Sprite" near the bench.

Operation: rescue

Yesterday afternoon I went back to the garden after calming down... Matt had been hard at work there propagating plants and I wanted to do something productive so I'd have something good to look back on on Monday morning.

And... I found the Yucca "Garland's Gold"! It had been thrown in the back border, taproot broken in half. I'm not sure it'll survive, but I took it home to see if it can make it.

I weeded the steps and lower pathway and some of the middle back bed, and back slope. I also moved about a dozen plants for the sale to better spots. We have a bunch of plants for the sale back there and need to set up a watering schedule so they look their best for the sale.

Emily was also in the garden, repairing the damage done to her poor newly-potted sweet peas. She repotted some, added new seeds, and set up some Rudbeckias and Cosmos for the sale, among other things.

Lastly, as we were leaving, Kepa was walking up with a friend to check out the garden. She offered her greenhouse to our seedling again - thanks Kepa!

Pic above shows the Brugmansia looking lovely, among other things.

Awesome Volunteer Workday

So many thanks to Shen and Leaanne who worked tirelessly to whip the garden into shape! There was much weeding of the middle front bed (goodbye Oxalis! see photo) along with pulling out variegated mint and bindweed. Leaanne also deadheaded the two standing rose bushes, Coreopsis, and Scabiosa 'Fama Blue'. Shen also donated a bunch of Verbena (see photo) that she grew from seed - many thanks Shen!

Other accomplishments include but are not limited to:
1. Building dirt wells around many of the plants in the red bed, mostly the Dahlias
2. Composting around the Dahlias
3. Watering all of the newer plants in the red bed especially the Cosmos, Zinnia, and Rudbeckia seedlings
4. Cut back the overgrowth on the path by the stop sign
5. Planting some Cosmos seedlings in the front left bed where the yellow Aquilegia used to be (before it was stolen! horror!)
6. Thoroughly soaked the bed along the stairs on both sides and the area with the Nicotiana.
7. Toward the front of the red bed by the tea tree (Leptospermum) planted Agastache mexicana 'Acapulco Rose'

Even though Annie had a super long day doing lots of other hard work, she still came by the garden in the late afternoon and: watered (the Mariposa Center Garden, left bed, middle back bed, potted plants on back slope, wine barrels), moved Curry Plant (Helichrysum italicum) out from under cardoon to further upslope, and cut back the Euphorbia myrsinites (Donkey Tail Spurge) that was done flowering.

Vinca, thy name is weed.

Among the pantheon of gardening mistakes I have made, one had a light shed upon it yesterday.  Namely, the planting of the supposedly happy-go-lucky blue flowering periwinkle known as Vinca major.

More like "nasty-go-evil"! It was slow to get started, due to the dryness at P Garden, and it's preference for damp, shady spots. Just as I had planned - it would not get out of control and would be a good ground cover. At least, that's what I said to Matt when he spent a lot of time telling me it was a bad idea.

Yesterday however I noticed a patch of it had taken a firm hold and Matt went on to spend a lot of time telling me "I told you so" which as we all know is one of the most annoying things a person can say. On the other hand he was so delighted to be right that he helped me yank it all out and as a result we have cleared a spot for a yellow bush lupine to be planted shortly.

In other news, Emily came back from her trip and spent several hours watering (that's me watering at left, too). The ground at P. Garden is dry, dry, dry - all the way down as far as you can dig and then reach for the digging bar (about a foot) so this is it plants: Who needs more water to make it? Right now I am looking at the standard roses, the Brugmansia, the ginger, the yellow wallflowers I recently put in, and the Dahlias that Emily's looking after. We shall see who can make it on once a week water... fingers crossed.

Emily also planted some baby burgundy Cosmos in the left bed, and some Zinnias and Rudbeckia hirta "Cherokee Sunset" in the red bed.

Photo shows yellow Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) "Coronation Gold" with California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) "White Linen" and some calla lilies in the background.

Arch and sparkle!

An old coworker of mine, in a far distant retail job, once told me the secret to sales: show the object for sale to the customer, touch the object, and "arch and sparkle!" In other works, assume a pose and expression of thrilledness, purely derived from proximity to the item for sale.

Today, there was a lot of similar "arch and sparkling" going on at P. Garden, mostly due to the excitement we got from helping Our Fearless Metalwork Artist (can we name him?) to install the brand-new-and-shiny garden arch!

8am this morning I was to be found in the Mission picking up some freebie plants (Craigslist posting forwarded to me by both John and Joan, separately!):

- 1 Ginger (Latin name unknown)
- 6 Aeoniums
- Various small bits of succulent and cactus















On arriving home I couldn't help but notice a large truck parked outside P. Garden... it turned out to be our friend, busily digging a hole for one of the posts for the arch! I gulped down my coffee and set to work digging too.... pretty soon Matt joined us, and before you know it, both posts are in. Then came the moving of the top part which weighed a lot. I was worried it would fall off and smash me flat, but no, we made it - the arch is up! Our friend went off to get his welding equipment, and on returning Jim allowed him to use his power to attach the top part.

It even has "PG" welded to it, which was painted a lovely copper color so it stands out, and the attention to detail in installing it went as far as making sure the wine barrel planters were level too. Shame the plants in them are wonky!

Lots of people stopped by to admire it - it is a huge hit. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm just thrilled at the look of our entranceway now! All that is left to do is pick the perfect, scented vine to climb up it.













We also had help in the garden today from Leah, who weeded the entire dog area as well as pruning many scraggly areas: the garden looks 1000% better, and I must get more mulch to prevent it from reverting to a weed pile.

Amar and his lovely wife Liza (sp?) came too, and they moved some wayward daffodils to a much better spot, as well as making a good start on some twig weaving. I must say it's not fair to ask a pregnant woman to help in the garden, but there you go - I'm a slave driver!

Other tasks that got done included moving a Penstemon, a Cosmos and an Acorus gramineus "Minimus Aureus" and of course a lot of weeding.

Quiet Sunday

On Sunday we planned to simply water for the week. So we got up and watered. Weeded. Collected a few Arctotis seeds. Nothing strenuous.

Then I got an email from Alison - would I like some Jade Plants, already dug up, and delivered? Shockingly lazy person that I am, of course I said yes (perfect for the back slope's succulent garden).

We went to the barn and on the way home had a hankering to see what was cheap and cheerful at Lowes. Matt wanted some Lantanas, too. Anyway, by some devious means they are able to produce 4" pots of useful stuff for about $2.50... Here's what we could not turn down:

- 4 Lantana camera (Lantana - red/orange/yellow)
- 1 Lantana camera (Lantana - purple)
- 1 Senecio kleiniiformis
- 2 Thymus praecox "Pink Chintz" (Thyme)
- 2 Cosmos bipinnatus (Cosmos)

Thyme for the steps, Lantanas for the wine barrel planters, Cosmos for the big middle bed, and so on. More holes to dig...!