Rain?!?

Last night it rained a bit. Not in any meaningful way - just enough to make the patio wet - but the garden felt "fresh" when Matt and I went out there this morning.

Between 10am and 3pm we took care of quite a few things:

- Watered the left bed, Canna area, front border, back border, steps, sale plants, and the back half of the middle back bed.
- Deadheaded Cannas, daylilies

- Trimmed up the Watsonias
- Noticed that the Aster "Bill's Big Blue" is starting to flower (left)
- Tied the Mexican fan palm fronds together as they had a case of the flops.
- Planted two Artemisias donated by a neighbor (photo above), and potted two lavenders (ditto) to save for the lavender hedge in fall. Hate to plant anything now, but it was plant and water, or pot up and water... neither is ideal!

- Visited with our little orange cat friend (left), who was hunting mice in the borders. Also chatted with Arum, Ron, Nate and Tanya!

Tomorrow afternoon I hope to water the cactus wall and bamboo areas.

Read more ...

Trimming

 

Today I got to the garden around 3pm, and stayed til 7pm. Matt propagated 3+ flats of Calandrinias donated by Deborah for the back border, while I hand watered the cactus wall, left bed, lavender hedge, sale plants and bamboo.

The Gazanas in the red bed are looking lovely - the colors fade in an interesting way. Shame the flowers only open in full sun. (left)

I also trimmed up the last of the Watsonias in the red bed. Youc an see from the photo, left, that they are growing in all nice and green and the dried up brown parts had to go. Which meant carefully nipping them out... quite tedious work! This clump is mixed red and white Watsonias that I need to separate out when they next flower - I think I'll have to put tags on the white corms and dig them up when they're done flowering, to move to the left bed.

Lastly I went along the cactus wall deadheading and tidying. The Puya venusta (left) is looking quite lovely in a twirly, serrated way - I wonder when it'll flower?

Read more ...

Plant profile: Crassula capitella "Campfire"

This Crassula is one member of that large genus you won't forget. Words used to describe this plant include: Incendiary! Glowing! Hot! Wow! And as you can see from the photo, they're quite apt.

Latin name: Crassula erosula. ("KRASS-you-lah er-oz-YOU-lah")

Common name: Crassula, Campfire Plant
Originally from: Coastal southeastern South Africa.
Blooms: In the fall this plant has inconspicuous white flowers. Ignore them. It's the foliage that really wows!
Sun: Full sun to light shade.
Water: Rain is enough - the more stressed the plant is, the redder it gets!
Where to find in P. Garden: In the middle back bed.

This lovely plant is another xeric garden winner, requiring little to no water and looking stunning all the time. The leaves color up best in bright light, drought or cold temperatures. The plant offsets fairly quickly to form wide mats, and actually give off significant heat to warm your hands on a cold day (OK, that last bit is not true)

The only downside is that it gets a bit burned in frosty weather. Luckily this year it sprang right back,

Read more ...

Calling all dog owners! Win a prize!

Great day for dog owners at P. Garden: we’re having a contest, and you can win some excellent prizes!

We have 6 fantastic sets of dog poop bag dispensers and biodegradable bags up for grabs in this contest. All you have to do is answer this one simple question by emailing me: annie at psgsf.org

Name ONE dog who visits the garden regularly and who has been mentioned in this blog!

Yeah, pretty easy, but we want to give away these prizes so send your answers in right away! Spread the word on the contest and cleanup day (see rules) so we can get as many hands on deck as possible - we need to get things looking lovely for the plant sale on October 16th, where 100% of proceeds go towards improving the dog area.


UPDATE! We have some winners already.... just TWO more prizes left to grab folks!
Michelle and Gypsy
Alison and Peeka
Dorothy and bella (I think?)
Gina and Tank

The Rules:
The first 6 correct answers win a prize.
Closing date for entires is whenever we get 6 correct answers!
You must pick up your prize in person at the volunteer days on October 2nd or October 9th, when we will be cleaning up the dog area a little in preparation for the plant sale on October 16th.
That sale is a benefit for the dog area’s new fence! If you can stay and pull a few weeds, great!
No substitutions, no whining, no howling!

Read more ...

Power corrupts (me!)

I was asked to be a judge at a plant competition that happened today at the inaugural planting of the Indiana Street "Progress Park." Naturally this brought every officious, power-hungry, judgemental fiber of my being to attention. Fun times ahead!

I asked John to join me and he arrived at P. Garden with some plants for me. This never gets old! To my delight, he had 2 Yucca aloifolia cuttings (Spanish Bayonet - awesome. As in, awe-inspiringly pointy!) as well as 2 Agave americanas for Sharon (special request) and 2 leetle pups of a very special variegated Agave that I will be hiding on my patio until they are ready for their debut at PG. Pictures at bottom of this post.

My pals Bill, Bruce, Katie and all their crew were there today with a massive selection of gorgeous plants from (where else?) Flora Grubb. Katie had arranged the plants ready for planting, and my co-judge, John and I enjoyed overthinking such categories as "Most Dog Friendly" (friendly to dogs, or dog-proof?), "Greenest Plant" (in hue, or ecological terms?)  and "Tallest Plant" (current height? Eventual height?)

Eventually, after much deliberation, we decided on our first-through-third selections, consulting the iPhone to determine which plants were least toxic to pets and so on. Ribbons were awarded and the planting began. John and I hadn't realized there'd be planting (could it be I did not read the emails carefully enough?) so were no dressed for the task, but what the heck! We put a few in the ground anyway.

So it's nearing noon, and it's hotter than a dutch oven in the city this week (I want a dutch oven. But I don't want to be in a dutch oven). John and I had to go, so we took the pots the Indiana Street gang were going to throw out, and scarpered.

Later on, I went to P Garden and watered for about 4 hours. I happened upon Nate who was passing by in the street, and he offered me his help for an hour. We propagated a flat of Calandrinia cuttings from Deborah. I also deadheaded the Scabiosas, and tied the Mexican Fan Palm to it's stake. Need another stake. H'm. Then I potted up half a dozen Aloe brevifolia and inventoried the sale plants.

Read more ...

Neighborhood Getting Greener All the Time

The Mission Bay neighborhood may be getting a new public green space in the future. I met with Bekah and Julie about their plans to get a new community garden going somewhere (maybe you can help them secure a spot?) in Mission Bay. Here's their official blurb and call to action:

GRASS ROOTS ACTION: COMMUNITY GARDEN AT MB
Online petition available now for signature
There is a grassroots movement to get a community garden going at Mission Bay, and UCSF student/staff/faculty support is really needed. If you want dirt under your nails or just think this is an idea worth doing, add your name to the online petition at http://tiny.cc/xaodd . It won’t add you to any listserves or involve more participation. More info: mbcommunitygarden@gmail.com

Read more ...

Berkeley Arboretum Sale trip

Yesterday John and I went to the Berkeley Arboretum sale and silent auction. We got there 15 minutes before the members-only time opened, and the line was already huge. When the gates opened it was mayhem!

We scurried in and picked out some plants (Agave ovatifolia, Aloe speciosa and a Dudleya for me), then looked at the silent aution items. They had several impressive, rare specimens up for bid,a nd it was very hard for me to stop myself bidding on a Yucca "Bright Star" that ended up going for $85 and a Dendroseris litoralis (Cabbage Tree - photo above) that went for $63... but I managed to stay sane.

I felt the prices on most plants were comparable to retail - some a good bit higher though. On the whole I think it's good to support the Arboretum though, so that's OK with me.

After the sale we drove to the CVS Pharmacy in Oakland that John said had some nice plants... and he was right! Oddly labelled, oddly priced, and many of them looking like they'd been dropped on their heads, but I got an Aloe polyphylla and another Dudleya (unnamed). I somewhat regret leaving behind some nice Agaves there though...

Next we went in search of some Aloe "Goliath" plants reputed to be at the Piedmont ACE hardware. They ended up only having the more-desireable (to me) Aloe "Hercules" but it was a 10 gallon plant in poor shape, for $80... so I skipped it (think about it - coulda had a much rarer plant for less at Berkeley Arboretum!).

We went home via Berkeley Horticultural Nursery (grabbed some large pots for the garden) and so ended our plant shopping odyssey. Good times. Second pic shows the middle back bed this morning, looking lovely with all the flowers.

Read more ...