Ecology

Matt's new project

Today I met Crima and hr group of 16 ecology students from City College at the garden to give them a tour of the PG, and of the SPUR project (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden) and Mariposa Center Garden down the street too. They were all nice and asked lots of questions - hopefully I answered them without rambling to much!

In the meantime, Matt was busy on a project. He cleared out under the Pittosporum tree at the top of the garden and planted three Echium pininana (Giant Viper's bugloss), surrounded by lots of the Lychnis coronaria (Rose Campion) that John gave us recently. Should make for quite a dramatic little bed!

After the tour left I weeded the bed formerly known as the red bed, but which we are now calling the "bright bed" since it contains bright colored flowering perennials. Calling it the red bed led to an obsessive fixation with buying only red-flowered plants for that area which was becoming quite monotonous!

Morel mushrooms

I planted a variegated Dianella tasmanica, an orangey Kniphofia "Yellow Cheer," several Alstroemeria "Third Harmonic," a group of three Helichrysum bracteatum "Monster Rose," and another group of three Oenothera versicolor "Endless Orange."

Got everything watered in, mulched and done. Pow! 


Bottom pic shows some morel mushrooms that Dee pointed out to me yesterday. Fancy!

Sun!

Red bed makeover
part deux.

After the last week of perishing cold, rain and hail, we are back to sun. Matt and I met Emily in the garden today and knocked a few tasks off the list.

First we removed all the plants from the south end of the red bed and rearranged them. We had too many red colored planted there (hazard of calling it the "red bed" I suppose!) and too many tall plants at the front/short ones in the back.

First we pulled out the giant clump of lavender Watsonias out - about to start flowering, their subtle color is lost in that bed. Matt took out a clump of Dianella tasmanica in the left bed and replaced it with the Watsonias.

Osteospermum and lavender

We brought a yellow variegated Phormium to the front, added a yellow Santolina virens, a lime green Euphorbia characias and a purple and lime green Salvia mexicana "Limelight" to one group. Next we uncovered a group of three Kniphofia uvaria "Flamenco" from the front middle bed for a dose of orange hues, and rearranged the purple bearded Irises there.

Blue skies and daffodils!

Next we replanted three Dianthus "Fire Star" and five burgundy Gazanias at the very front, and rearranged the Anemones and Ranunculus too. After Emily left I planted a Plectranthus argenatus and a Salvia curviflora too.

Matt propagated from Cortaderias and I mulched and watered things in.

Garden neglected

Emily's Ranunculus looking
gorgeous

Last weekend I didn't set foot in the garden once. What with the short days and competing holiday-themed tasks to do, it was pretty sad for me not to check in with my little plants.

I did, however, make it to the San Francisco Botanical Garden 2 for 1 sale. I was looking for two xeric shrubs. One to put near the bench to replace a black sage (Salvia mellifera) which I find a bit boring, and another to anchor the bed we cleared the week before.

I had a list of potential candidates, and found none of them. I did however get a few plants that I hope will do instead. And a few others for various other spots in the garden. I got:

Hibbertia astera
Cussonia spicata
Carpenteria californica
Dianella tasmanica (variagated)
Daphne odora

I know all these guys will do fantastically in the garden, and I can't wait to plant them next weekend!

Busy, busy, busy, work, work, work

Today Emily, Matt and I convened at ultra-fresh new spot Mr & Mrs Miscellaneous for ice cream and a meeting with Friends of the Urban Forest. They're planning to plant trees in our area, and they need to coordinate with the locals to get it done. Just so happens we need 30 trees planted on the 100 block of Penn Ave, so that's convenient! (Do you want a tree in front of your place? Let us know!)

After that we went to the garden. What did we get done? In 3+ hours we did the following:

Planted 4 Achillea "Red Velvet" and 6 Achillea "Feuerland" in the red bed.
Watered just about everything.

Replanted a Cordyline.
Planted a Salvia apiana (White Sage) and a Lupinus arboreus (Yellow Bush Lupine) and rearranged a Nassella tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) and an Oenothera of unknown species in the left bed.
Removed two clumps of Dianella tasmanica.
Planted half a dozen Gazanias along the front border.
Planted three Achillea tomentosa (Woolly Yarrow) along the steps.
Deadheaded lots of Arctotis and Gazanias,
Pondered the red bed and it's deficiencies and how to remedy them.
Removed corn marigolds from the Wrong Way sign area, edged the spot in pavers, and planted half a dozen Calandrinia grandiflora (Rock Purslane) there.

Gosh that's a lot of work: 9 person hours of kicking ass! A glass of Belle Glos pinot noir from Monterey for me and a Corona for Matt, I think.

What you can get done in 6 hours:

1. Water all the plant sale plants. Using a watering can. Why doesn't the hose reach all the way to the back of the garden? Hateful hose. Must buy another 100' long one.

2. Rearrange same after getting prickled too many times by the drought-loving Agaves at the front, while trying to reach past them to the water-hungry roses at the back.

3. Plant two Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) in the middle back bed.

4. Plant two types of Pelargonium by the wrong way sign. It's hot and dry and the geraniums love it there. And to think I looked askance at geraniums at one time in my life. Hah!

5. Cut back the over-enthusiastic corn marigolds by the brick path.

6. Notice that some Irises I forgot about are flowering, and they're the most wacky combo of lavender/pink and yellow, but that they are right behind the lavender Watsonias so blend right in. Note to self: move 'em!

7. Receive 2 lovely Acanthus mollis (Bear's Breeches) from lovely John and plant one of them behind the bench. Long-held desire: satisfied!

8. Weed, weed, weed.

9. Deadhead, deadhead, deadhead.

10. Chat with Gary. Greg. Frank. Rick. Boj, Michelle and Bundy. And 6 other people whose names I didn't get but who were enjoying the garden heartily!

11. Sort out several Aeoniums for Fumiko.

12. Pot up and Aloe.

13. Water the front bed.

14. Notice new flowers: Cistus, Dianella, Ursinia!

15. Plant Iberis (Candytuft) under the cherry-plums.

16. Move all the plants for the sale left at the front, to the back. Note that 27 pots need to be unpotted/weeded/sorted/repotted. Note that am too tired. Go home. Sit down on couch.

17. Realize you left the car behind. Go back and get it.

Photos from top: Purple shades in the middle back bed. Leptospermum in flower. Irises showing their colors.  Drosanthemum bicolor (Dew Flower.)

Got garden?

I live on Pennsylvania Avenue with my boyfriend Matt. We have no garden, which is a bit sad. The patch of land that the Mariposa St exit curves around is up the street from us, and we though it would be an ideal spot to plant a few things on. It gets full sun, is in warm Potrero Hill, and the Department of Public Works shows up annually and just mulches the tar out of it.

I emailed DPW, and they said getting a permit from CalTrans who owns the land could take months or even years. But the woman I spoke to told me to just go ahead and plant stuff (no trees) and she would tell the works guys to keep an eye out and try not to demolish them... but it's at our own risk!

Yesterday I found myself at the Strybing Arboretum plant sale... everything half off! I went into a plant buying frenzy, and with the help of the friendly volunteers came home with a car full of plants for just $35! When they found out where I was planting them, they gave me a big discount and lots of encouragement - I'll be going back there, for sure!

The plants I got were (after dividing some of them up):

4 Dietes
8 Agapanthus
3 Hakea suaveolens
3 Kunzea baxterii
1 Coprosma australis (variegated)
2 Geranium maderense
3 Ceanothus "King Sip" (ground covering/low)
2 Geranium macrorhizum
2 Dianella Tasmanica
1 Aeonium

Next post: the planting adventure begins...