Another productive day

Some days I look around at the garden and think "how am I ever going to get everything done?" Today, however, I had help from Emily. So we got a lot done ;)

I stared by visiting Joe at The Benches garden on 18th at San Bruno. he gave me a lot of Chasmanthe bulbs and some Bird of Paradise roots. Thanks Joe!

I then picked up Emily and we rushed off to get a rosemary, sage and avocado tree (potted) from Craigslister Ebbe. Sage and avocaodo for the plant sale, rosemary planted today (see below)

Then we went down to the new Mariposa Center Garden opposite Center Hardware, on Mariposa at Pennsylvania. Denise, Emily and I had been weeding the area and today Emily and I planted 10 clumps of Dietes (Fortnight lily) along the front, the rosemary and 4-5 clumps of Chasmanthe from Joe. The top photo shows Emily just as we were finishing up. It looks great!

We had lunch and went back to put up a sign so passing people could find out what was going on (directing them to the blog). Then we pruned and moved the Buddleja "Ellen's Blue" up to the red bed in P. Garden, watered, potted up some plants for the sale, and were completely exhausted by about 4pm. Hot, sunny day, too! Bottom photo shows sunny orange Arctotis and Calendulas.

Gnashing of teeth!

Today we had lots to do in the garden. Weeds abound, and lots of plants needed to be rearranged, potted up, and otherwise fussed over.

First I went to see Jo, who gave me Aloe arborescens and Aeonium cuttings, and an Agave attenuata pup! I was almost late due to chatting with Alison, Rick and the world's most enthusiastic dog, Peekaboo.

I got back to the garden and met a lady called Jackie her dog. She made a point of telling me that she always picks up her dog poop, and often other people's too. I thought "how nice... and this is not the first time someone has impressed on my how responsible they are regarding dog poop..."

Max came by and asked to be put to work. I gave him a sharp tool and let him loose on the Cannas, which he cut down really quickly. Next he cleared the bed behind the Wrong Way sign of evil baby Nasturtiums. Thanks Max!

While he was doing that a really nice lady whose name is Juana asked what was up with the sign. What sign? Why this sign taped to the poop bag dispenser at the top! (left) Oh my. Someone is really annoyed by dog poop - a dog owner no less. Don't read it if you are sensitive! I pondered what to do with the sign. I do appreciate the sentiment (some people don't pick up - is is nasty) but worried people might think I put it there. And it's not very friendly.

I left it up til the afternoon, and speaking to Jim found out this is version 2 of the sign - another one was posted several days ago. OK, so I think by now everyone has seen it, so I removed it. Sign posting person, thanks for trying to make the garden nicer for everyone - I appreciate the effort.

In the meantime Matt was busy in the Aloe area of the succulent slope, having moved a specimen from the middle back bed. We added Aptenia cordifolia from Leah as groundcover all around, and weeded a lot. We also moved a Crassula erosula "Campfire", Aloe glauca (Blue Aloe), Sedum nevii "Silver Frost" and Aeonium around in the middle back bed (photo top), moved the Salvia "Anthony Parker" to the red bed, and a clump of Hemerocallis (Daylily) to where it was, and potted up about 20 Aster "Bill's Big Blue" for the sale, as well as two roses.

Let's get started

Rob, Matt and I (residents of 1025 17th st) met with several DPW people on February 10th to discuss the mess that is the Pennsylvania Ave/17th st area.
Main points:

1. This street is "unaccepted" (not maintained by the city) but may become "accepted" (and therefore cleaned and resurfaced) if we contact the right people and pressure them a bit. Not sure yet who to contact.

2. In the meantime Mohammed Nuru of DPW authorized removal of broken fence and guardrails, and a work crew to remove weeds. He will put in a kerb (an aspahlt one is free, a concrete one is $$$$) and fill potholes, then we can plant up the edge with noise reducing plants like trees.

Matt and I will create a scale drawing for him this weekend of our proposed planting areas, which he suggested should include "green islands" sticking out from the kerb every 12 cars' width, and the bottom corner too. This will provide visibility for law enforcement and neighbors to prevent further dumping. Rob has connections who may be able to expand on Matt's drawings at a later date.

3. They also agreed to place signs about illegal dumping, which they will provide. I'm afraid we didn't have time to discuss stop signs, speed bumps or Caltrain-horn-shushing ideas.

4. The side opposite the tracks is the responsibility of business owners there. Rob says the Dorsett Jackson people will help. We need to contact Fregosi, Angotti-Reilly and Hilti to ask for their support in improving this area with a proper sidewalk.

5. I have learned from my experiences working with DPW, Caltrans and SFPT that community involvement is vital. They will support a project if the community turns up and shows support and a commitment to see it through. When we have a work day to clean up weeds, we need to try and get as many of our neighbors and businesses involved as possible. Apparently the key to that is free doughnuts and coffee ;)

6. It costs $150 to get a permit for a block party. The Arts Commission will grant $2500 to pay for a party. I think we should have a block party! We could sell... food? and can use funds generated to landscape the green areas and pay for trees.

Any input or comments?

Plant profile: Cestrum fasciculatum

Closeup of the flowers

When we moved into our new house the previous owner left a potted plant behind. We had no idea what it was, but knowing the flowers were red, and disliking it’s constant need for watering (being potted is hard on both plant and owner) I moved it out to the garden. Still no idea what it was, despite asking around. Finally I recently stumbled upon it while browsing the web!

Latin name: Cestrum fasciculatum ("SES-trum fass-kik-yoo-LAH-tum")
Common name: Red Cestrum, Early Flowering Jessamine
Originally from: Mexico.
Blooms: Pretty much all the time. Flowers are deep red bunches of little tubes.
Light: Likes full sun to part shade
Water: Average.

Where to find in P. Garden: In the back of the red bed.

Nicely filled in.

It makes a gangly 10’ tall shrub, but to avoid excessive legginess one can prune all branches back to 4 to 6 buds. I didn’t know it would get this big but that’s OK. It’s a favorite of hummingbirds, but bees and butterflies like it too, and seems to flower all the time. Our specimen is looking a bit winter-ragged, but I'll update the photo later in the year so you can see it's progress. Update: new picture and it's looking much better!

UPDATE December 2015:
After 6 years in the ground and 4 years of drought, this plant grew to 10' tall but finally succumbed to the drought. It was pretty drought tolerant for a long time, but sadly it finally bit it.

Gary and Annelle tell me they often have lunch in the garden. So do I, and a few other people - pretty soon we're going to need another bench, Gary... ;) Anyway, when Gary and Annelle eat in the garden they leave a sign on their door to tell customers where to find them (left) which I thought was cute.

We don't have a trash can by the bench for the same reason you rarely find them in city-run parks: they require emptying, they attract wasps, they smell and they're just too much work. So far most people have been very good about taking their trash with them, although I think a nice sign reminding people to respect the area wouldn't go amiss.

Another thing that's cute right no is the Arctotis "Peachy Mango" by the Wrong Way sign (another mislabeled Arctotis? The colors seem dark!), as well as the Geraniums and Corn Marigolds that are filling in that area fast, making a nice lush green area and choking out the weeds. A few leftover Gaillardias add to the color quotient. It's a very hot, dry area with shallow dirt so if anyone can make a go of it there, these guys can. Good luck, kids!

Last night Matt and I went to eat at Goat Hill Pizza in support of the Starr King Openspace donation mentioned in the previous post. The place was packed! Hope they got lots of donations.

Oh, almost forgot to add - this morning there was a new mystery plant in the cactus wall bed. Very pretty succulent with silvery, heart-shaped leaves. Thanks, whoever left it!

Eat pizza, protect open space.

Several people forwarded this to me and it's really a fundelicious way to support our local open space. So get down there on Wednesday and eat pizza, willya!

GOAT HILL PIZZA hosts STARR KING OPENSPACE DAY

-- A fundraising event to protect Starr King Openspace --

Wednesday February 10, 2010

Eat in or carry out only, ALL DAY -- 11 AM until 10:30 PM!

20% of your order benefits the SKOS

Help protect our neighborhood Openspace! Eat at Goat Hill Pizza (Connecticut at 18th) on Wednesday, February 10th, and mention Starr King Openspace and a generous 20% of your order will be donated to your local SKOS nonprofit help maintain and protect this Potrero Hill treasure.

Please share the word and invite your neighbors to this fun and yummy fundraiser! Meet your neighbors who serve on the SKOS Board of Directors for dinner at 7 PM -- or stop by anytime all day, any meal, and tell your server you'd like to support the Openspace with your order.

With help from our community, we can protect the Starr King Openspace as the only area of its kind in San Francisco -- a designated openspace owned and administrated by the people of the neighborhood where it resides. The folks at Goat Hill Pizza care about our neighborhood too, and offered this generous fundraising night -- and when it means enjoying their awesome pizza, how could we possibly say no?

Join board members and hear about the latest developments for the Openspace at this generous fundraising event at Goat Hill Pizza. We'll aim to seat around 7 PM with our families, and will place a sign on our table so you can come by and say hello, and hear about what's new at the Openspace. (And find how you can be involved in helping to protect it!)

Remember:

- Eat-in or carry out only - (sorry, delivery orders are not eligible to donate)

- You must mention Starr King Openspace

Skip doing dishes and bring the whole family to Wednesday dinner at Goat Hill Pizza, and enjoy supporting SKOS and eating our neighborhood' s most famous pizza, all at once.

The Starr King Openspace is a 501(c)3 organization. The SKOS Board thanks Michael, Ondrea and the staff of Goat Hill Pizza for their generous contribution. See you on the 10th!

Join us & meet your SKOS board members at 7 PM for dinner!

Further diggings

Today Matt and I set out to remove some conifers that I planted a year ago, and which didn't prove to be as drought tolerant as I'd hoped. I figure they can go in the plant sale and find better homes.

We removed them from the area by the Brugmansia (all 5 of them) and potted them. We replaced them with two ornamental grasses (what kind, you ask? Miscanthus.... um... can't remember. Time will tell!), moved 2 ivory-colored Gazanias from behind the Wrong Way sign, moved the Yucca "Garland's Gold" out from under the Coprosma x Kirkii "Variegata," and brought John's deep burgundy Phormium to the front of the Brugmansia. The whole effect is a lot better, I think, and now, instead of having a conifer area we have an ornamental grass area - trendy!

We also moved a Hakea suaveolens (Sweet Hakea) a couple meters so it's not fighting with the Brugmansia.

We got an Aloe striata donated by Anita today - yippee! Got to find it a good spot. Also on the donations tip we got a watering can (yay!), and a bag of compost from Brad - thanks! Max and his friend-whose-name-might-have-been-Eric dropped by and we enjoyed the idea that it is Superbowl Sunday and the streets are nice and quiet. Sorry, I'm not good at names. I'm just not. Sorry.

I prepared three flats of the useful succulent ground cover Aptenia cordifolia from Leah. She gave us so much I could have made 15 flats, but I ran out of containers! We also moved an Opuntia from under the variagated Echium along with a lot of Sedum rubrotinctum ground cover. They went on the cactus wall, in a spot we made after removing a couple Agave americanas. I got covered in tiny glochids - the spines these Opuntias are covered in. Ouch!

Prep work

In order to prepare for the plant sale today I decided to organize the back area by the tool shed. Matt and I potted a load of plants donated to us, cleared out some old Euphorbia cacti that were not looking good and noticed that last night someone went through and stole a potted Aeonium/succulent garden, and tore an Agave parryi right out of the ground.

Must have happened while I was asleep, as I saw them there last night and stayed til dark, Lame.

Later:
Went out again to pot up some Cannas for the sale. Leah was there and on a pruning frenzy! Many plants are now looking a lot smaller than before ;)

I got the Cannas potted (photo bottom) and took a before and after shot of a Salvia that Leah pruned (photos top, middle).  I also planted a section of Tree Dahlia at the base of the original one - hope it creates a nice grove of them next year.

Organizational whatnot

Today I made an email list for the site - it's in the right column entitled "Subscribe to our email list!" if you'd like to receive very occasional emails about happenings at the garden (plant sales, tours etc) then please sign up! I promise not to SPAM you.

I also moved the list of P. Garden sponsors to their own page, clickable from the right hand menu at the top of the page. The list was getting rather long - how wonderful that so many people support the garden! Thanks guys!

Lastly in other housekeeping news I have decided to hold a plant sale to benefit the garden. DPW and SFPT support this so I consulted with a few of P. Garden's closest friends and we talked about a few ideas. Looks like this will happen in late April or early May, and we are already propagating plants and looking for plant donations for the sale. I very much hope that this will fund some upcoming projects and also pave the way for us to receive grants from various agencies to make the garden better than ever.

Pic above shows a view of downtown over Gary's wall, and some nice orange Calendulas flowering away, in february!

New tee-shirt design debuts!

Those of you out there on the intarwebnets who like to wear clothes (anyone?) will be fascinated to hear that I have recently created a new essential item of apparel that will appeal to a) gardeners, b) people who like trowels, c) people who feel guilty because they want to help P. Garden but they don't really like weeding and just can't make it to volunteer days, and d) people who either like clothes or are just a bit cold right now.

So - that's almost everyone in the world!

CafePress.com gives us $5 for every "trowel and error" item sold, and I hope this will fund the information kiosk I'd like to put up in the garden, or some other useful item. I think it's rather tasteful and sure to appeal to the stylish garden-liker, if I do say so myself. The idea for the text came from my mum, so thanks for that!

If you want to see the first design, it's still available: "runs with pruners" is pretty edgy. Wear at your own risk!

P.S. it comes in garden-appropriate mud tones too!

I'd like to thank...

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the banner at the top of the blog, which I change every few months whether it needs it or not, has been embellished with three new logos today. They are (top to bottom) the logos of Caltrans, San Francisco Parks Trust, and San Francisco Department of Public Works.

This mysterious tripartite accord of governmental agencies has come together to allow Pennsylvania Garden to remain in place. In fact, they seem to really like it! So I'm giving them some props by branding my blog with their stylish logos. Look out for sponsor logos on other brandable spots soon - the arch, the bench, the gap between my tee shirt and jeans when I am bent over pulling out a weed... (not!)

Plant profile: Prunus cerasifera

February 2010

Way back in the dawn of humanity, Caltrans planted some Monterey pines at P. Garden, along with a lot of ivy (boo, hiss). Many aeons passed, and one day Annelle went out and said “lo – these trees don’t look so hot” She told Caltrans who concurred, diagnosing a plague of malicious beetle that was killing the trees. So they came out the next day and chopped them down without so much as a how d’you do.
In order to mitigate the barren wasteland left over, they planted three Cherry Plum trees. By the time P. Garden was started the trees were well established. Leah came and pruned them into submission, and they have been fairly well behaved ever since.

Latin name: Prunus cerasifera ("PROO-nus ser-ass-IFF-er-ah")
Common name: Cherry Plum, Myrobalan Plum
Originally from: central and eastern Europe, southwest and central Asia.
Blooms: January-February finds this tree covered in fragrant pale pink flowers.
Light: Likes full sun
Water: Once established, no extra water is required.
Where to find in P. Garden: Three of them can be seen in a group at the top left of the garden.

February 2013

“As with all the purple-leaved plums, this tree has been used to the point of monotony in landscapes.” Well, as the author of that quote points out they are common, but if you head to the garden now they’re just beginning to flower and nobody can deny it’s a very pretty effect. Gardening clichés come about because the plants that fall foul of overuse are tough, easy to maintain, and pretty, so everyone wants them. Is that really a bad thing?

This reminds me of another saying I like to repeat from up on my high horse: “Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.” Take that, hater of monotony! Anyway, if these trees do become seriously tiresome it’s worth noting that they only live about 20 years, and I estimate we’ve got about 10 to go.

There are a number of cultivars of this tree, and ours could easily be any of them – “Pissardii” “Thundercloud” and “Nigra” seem most likely. These purple-foliage forms (often called Purple leaf plum), also have dark purple fruit, which make an attractive, intensely colored jam.

February 2010

I haven’t tried the fruit – they’re hard to make out among the dark leaves and anyway, probably covered in freeway dirt. I let the birds have them!

Underneath these trees we have a grouping of Amaryllis belladonna (Naked Ladies) bulbs, whose lush green leaves are filling the area right now. Several Agave desmettiana are under there too, along with some Alstroemerias.