Friday, 26 July 2013

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Filoli

It was a hot and bright afternoon on the day we visited Filoli Gardens during the Garden Bloggers Fling. I'd never visited Filoli, a historic garden some thirty minutes south of San Francisco, before.The light blew out any normal photo-taking efforts, but it was fun to visit the gardens.  I loved...

Sunday, 7 July 2013

The Wave Garden (East Bay, CA)

Towards Pt. Richmond, a neighborhood of houses with bay views, but also close to the nearby refineries, harbored a spectacular garden. entrance gate The Wave Garden was developed as a private garden, but is open as public space to visitors -- the best sort of shared space.Strongly envisioned...

Saturday, 6 July 2013

Ferns, Yucca, Beautyberry, Snow Squarestem, and a Recipe

Ferns create a soft edge between the woods and the lawn.FernsI've always loved ferns in the landscape. It's just so relaxing not to have to worry about whether there will be nice flowers and that their color coordinates with others. With ferns, there are never any flowers, so I can just enjoy their...

Succulents and containers

It makes sense that succulents, agave, and cacti are popular in SF/East Bay gardens (and throughout Mediterranean climate zones, too!)  They sail through the dry summer months looking great, and most overwinter, too, in the mild temperatures along the coast.  (In contrast, my sedum bed in...

Friday, 5 July 2013

A SF sculpture garden

Succulents were a primary theme of Bay Area gardensAn entry plantingA second urban garden was right under the I-280 freeway, tucked below a steep rocky cliff in a still industrial area. It reminded me of a very dicey field site that I had in Hunter's Point (nearby) from decades ago!But magic had been...

A secret SF garden (Organic Mechanic)

Our first fling garden had a compelling entry --wow is what I thought.  Pulling up in front of a concrete-surrounded apartment building, walking down a long apartment hallway,and then pow!Amazing.  The gardeners here (Organic Mechanic) have been working on this area (transformed from back...

Thursday, 4 July 2013

Rain, rain, and more rain

Here in Western North Carolina, it just keeps raining. We're already above the average for the year (and we're only halfway through!) It's raining heavily now (again) and we're well over 3 inches today already.rain from deckHere's a view out the back from the deck into the ravine forest from earlier...

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Returning to a veritable tropical forest

After a long week away, visiting gardens during the Garden Bloggers Fling, and being on vacation in San Francisco, my overwhelming thought coming home to the mountains, was WOW!  It's been raining a lot.My vegetable beds are verdant -- geez, I harvested (and we ate) chard and leeks just before...