A gutter box planting

I walked down Haywood Street in West Asheville a couple of times today and yesterday, while getting my car window shield replaced (a chip morphed into a long crack on either side).

A high point were these "gutter" plantings, in ordinary galvanized gutters, filled with attractive sedums.

In the front, the owners had faced the gutters with brick. On the side, they were just suspended like miniature window boxes.

sedums in a window gutter

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Rudbeckia triloba and Ceratostigma (Plumago)

After the second season, the Rudbeckia triloba plants in front were unceremoniously moved to the back, above the wall.  It's a short-lived perennial species, but self-sows freely, in quantities not well-behaved in the full-sun conditions in front of my raised bed vegetables.

They don't flourish quite so well in partial shade, but that seems to be a good thing, and they're looking quite nice as the backdrop to the hardy plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) that's also in flower right now.

Rudbeckia triloba and Ceratostigma plumbaginoides

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Brooklyn Bridge Park (in NYC)

It's always inspiring to read about new urban parks like this one; this article in the New York Times describes a vibrant, naturalistically-planted park full of meadows and other plantings.

Bringing nature to the city is a good thing.  And large scale plantings make a distinct difference in places where concrete is the norm.

It's inspiration for our smaller cities and towns, too, where perhaps we don't always value the green spaces that we have, and access to everyday nature, too.

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Sunflowers in the morning

Sunflowers at Biltmore

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Morning glory magic

The telephone pole out front has enjoyed our morning glory plantings for a number of years.

Yes, they're weedy.  Yes, they require thinning.  Yes, we have to pull them down before they reach the transformer.

But they're wonderful, regardless.  This year, there's a mixture of blue-purple and maroon-pink flowers.  Lovely.

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An exuburant front vegetable garden

The filet pole beans are coming in now, as are the climbing squash (winter squash varieties). 

And, I've been harvesting tomatoes and early peppers for weeks now.  There are paste tomatoes, slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes -- hard to beat that, along with the ancho and romano peppers.

front raised beds

It's remarkable how healthy everything is looking -- no bean beetles (knock on wood), no powdery mildew on the squash leaves, no squash bugs or squash vine borers

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Natural neighborhoods: re-knitting the fabric of life

What's interesting me now, especially, as I've transitioned to volunteer outreach, is how those of us who are keen and passionate about gardening for nature (especially with native plants in mind) can help reach more folks.

And even more importantly, how do we create neighborhoods that help sustain life, both ours and the birds, bees, toads, butterflies, squirrels, insects, etc. that support the ecological underpinnings of life on our planet.

a pollinator-friendly pocket meadow

I've seen lots of people gravitate to wildlife-friendly gardening from more "traditional" gardening practices (and from plants that don't work for a living in our environment to ones that do), as they realize that they don't have the biological diversity of birds, insects, and other wildlife in sterile, ornamental landscapes filled with lawns, specimen trees and ornamental shrubs.  But there's a lot to do in our urban and suburban landscapes...

How do we encourage more folks to become part of the process of re-knitting our urban and suburban landscapes with strong threads of native plants, pollinator and wildlife-friendly corridors made up of our personal home gardens?  How do we encourage similar plantings in public and commercial landscapes?

I'm not really sure.

I've been involved with teaching about these things for my entire career, and I'm still not always sure about what works the best, aside from inspiring through story and example, encouragement, and sharing ideas and suggestions. 

My basic level ideas simply start by encouraging folks to grow things, preferably native or edible, and learn more about them.

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