the power of the flower

this weekend i took a few days away from the office and drove up the coast to a town called timber cove, known mostly for its thick fog, biting winds and breathtaking views. the vacation rental i stayed in clung to the edge of a cliff overlooking a still-water cove filled during the day with abalone fishers and at night with glittering reflected moonlight.

the weather those four days was practically a miracle: bright, sunny and without a breath of wind. perfect for wandering around coast sides and meadows and gardens. the plants that grow wild on the northern California coast are so different from what i plant in my own garden (lush, green tropicals), and i was amazed to see how many different colors and textures even just grass can be. but mostly i found myself focused on the flowers. tiny yellow, petal-less dainties tucked into sidewalks, spidery, lavender blooms crouched at the base of jumbled rocks, tall, ghostly yarrow standing strong above shimmering grass… it was as though they’d been invisible until that moment and suddenly there they were. and they were beautiful.

i don’t have many flowers in my garden, beyond those that precede fruit. with the exception of a single peony whose buds will never unfurl thanks to over water i haven’t planted a single one. i need to change that. i need to give the butterflies, bees, birds and other beneficials a reason to alight. and i need to give myself something simple and beautiful to enjoy.

why i garden

a few weeks back one of my twitter followers asked me what my favorite thing about gardening is. i didn't answer right away. there are just so many things i love about it. the smell of damp soil. the stunning variability in the color green. the way that the scent of a tomato plant can stay on your skin all day. the way even the hardest of work makes you hurt in all the right ways. the way it inspires you to breathe deeper and easier. the way lilacs always remind me of one grandmother and calla lilies the other. the overwhelming, rich abundance a garden gifts us with in terms of beauty, joy, food, shelter, perfume, habitat... but none of those are what i love best.

what i love best is participating in the act of creation. taking a seed, a leaf, a stalk, a stem and transforming it into another plant. and then standing by to help it grow, blossom, fruit and deliver next season's seeds. more seeds than one person could ever use, practically demanding that we leave our tiny corners of our tiny worlds to go out and share.

creation is the only antidote to the distruction that runs rampant in our world. literature, art, music... they can inspire the mind and free the soul. but the garden. it can do all that and more. it can literally, physically sustain you. keep you alive. the work of my hands can feed this body, the bodies of my friends, my family. the work of many hands can feed the world.

ah, books

today two books i ordered several weeks ago arrived. the first one i saw on PBS. i watched the philadelphia episode over and over. and now i can flip through the pictures over and over and read about the other cities as i go.



the second just spoke to me. i started reading it as soon as the envelope was opened. only a few sentences since i was sitting in my cubicle at work at the time, but just those few words were lovely. i can't wait to read more.

hot but productive

there's nothing quite like speding the day doing heavy yardwork in 100 degree weather. luckily, i was only the support crew and got to spend much of the day sitting in the shade repotting euphorbia and bamboo starts.

you see, in the highly fertile soil and fantastic, sheltered location that is this yard, even regular plants grow wild. throw in something even remotely invasive and you can find yourself in deep trouble as we did in this case.

still, the euphorbia is stunning in bloom and the bamboo... well, that is also lovely. it just needs to be kept in pots. and pots we had, some from an assortment of ferns that went into the ground. here are the stats:

bamboo potted: 7 - 5 gallon pots, 1 - 15 gallon pot, 1 - 25 gallon pot
euphorbia potted: 6 - 1 gallon pots, 2 - 5 gallon pots
ferns planted: 6 black-trunked tree ferns, 3 lace ferns
chip wood spread: 8 cubic yards (by someone else, thank goodness)

not bad. especially since i have the perfect (potted) place to plant one of the bamboos.

approved!

as long as no one complains and we don't attract rats or bugs i can plant whatever i want in whetever balcony planter i can find. we can plant. we can find.

building community (gardens) with what you have at hand

some of you may remember my pitch for a community garden at work that was denied. well, it may have a second, albeit much smaller, chance at life. it turns out there are planters on the balconies of some of our conference rooms. right now those planters contain dead grass. these pots aren't huge, but they are big enough and deep enough to hold, say, a dwarf orange tree or a couple of roma tomatoes or, yes, an artichoke.

i have sent an email to our facilities asking to take over ownership of these planters for a mini community container garden. will let you know how it goes.

a lovely day

today i spent the morning on my little patio communing with the plants. the tomatoes have gotten so big and one, my favorite little stupice, is full of yellow flowers. you've gotta love an early ripener. the snails have been at the rhubarb leaves and have shorn some other poor plant off right at the ground. unfortunately i failed to mark the pot so I have no idea what it was.

tomorrow, mother's may, will be spent with my parents, building a raised bed in their backyard. the soil where they live is full of rocks and gravel, so the only really viable way to grow veggies is to do it above that inhospitible ground. i hope to take some video of the process and post it to onegarden, hopefully monday, so be sure to check it out.

while i'm at the store buying materials for the bed, i have to remember to pick up a bag or two of potting soil for myself. my jerulsalem artichoke and horseradish are still in the tiny pots they came in — never a good idea for a root vegetable.

i hope the gorgeous weather holds. stacking cinderblocks in the blazine sun is never fun. but it will be worth it. mom deserved a decent vegetable bed, and she's already got the plants to fill it. we're going to have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.

a garden writer to know/remember

garden writer eleanor perenyi died yesterday. i feel a little weird posting about this because until today, i had never heard of her. then again, if my friend hadn't seen the article and sent me the link, i might never have known who she was. strange how the universe works. especially knowing that i was looking for literary inspiration. or inspiration in general. her personal history sounds fascinating and i look forward to discovering more about her.

on gardening literature

i have been thinking about books. i get like that when i go too long between bouts of fiction. not that i don’t love my gardening books, but as a writer, i am one who needs stories to keep my mind and imagination running rich, which is why i was so inspired by gayla trail’s recent post on yougrowgirl.com.

it made me think about some of my favorite works of fiction and how they weave gardening into their stories, often along with social and political commentary. here are a few of my favorites:

- the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett
- the poisonwood bible by barbara kinsolver
- the parable of the sower by octavia butler
- in the heart of the valley of love by cynthia kadohata
- swan song by robert mccammon

as a gardener with activist leanings, it’s no wonder i am drawn to these kinds of books. they speak to me on so many levels. but mostly, they speak to me of our amazing power to rebuild and renew. to reseed and become reborn. even the bleakest of these novels fills me with optimism, because wherever a seed can grow, we can see a brighter future. or, as my mother always says: “where there’s life, there’s hope.”

in short, these stories illustrate one of my most basic belief, that gardening can (and will) save the world.

and yes, i will definitely be reading some of kincaid's work as soon as i can get my hands on them:

apple blossoms, azaleas and more

the parade was lovely. the theme was "lights, cameras, apple blossoms" which meant every marching band, motorcade and float had a hollywood them. there were pink ponies and dachshunds dressed up like the wizard of oz. there were many marching renditions of the rocky theme song and the cast of the high school's production of beauty and the beast in full costume -- everything i expected and more.

what i didn't expect was a post-lunch trip to the sonoma horticultural nursery, and what an amazing surprise that was. i'd been there one before one rainy october day and was impressed even then by the different forms and shapes and greens of their specialty -- rhododendrons and azaleas -- even with nothing in bloom. but this weekend, everything was in bloom. blossom of every imaginable color spilled out into the roadway even before we reached the nursery. i had never imagined rhoddies came in so many colors. they even had a rich selection of rare yellows from cream to canary to practically orange. (yes, there will be pictures i promise.) but the garden didn't stop there. there were dogwoods in white and pink, wisteria in lavendars, pinks, whites and purples. there were flowering cherries and irises and clematis and peonies... oh, the peonies.



an arched colonnade nearly brought me to tears it was so beautiful. and it was not the only sublime surprise waiting around a corner.

a back lit white columbine bobbed its head next to a bench. a fountain spilled from a lion's mouth. a picnic bench sat resting as a breathtaking riot of flowers opened before anyone who decided to stop there. i did.

i walked out of there without a single plant -- my tiny patio doesn't have the room or the climate to support that particular variety of flower, but i packed my camera to the gills with photos. so many that i didn't have the battery left to capture the garden i visited later that same afternoon. but that's another story. perhaps tomorrow.

small town loveliness

this weekend i'm heading up to sebastopol for their annual apple blossom festival. we'll be arriving early so there's time for breakfast before the parade, then spend the day wandering through the quilt show, art show, watching the bands, snacking on funnel cakes...

it makes me a little sad that the once gravenstein-rich apple orchards are dissappearing--replaced by more lucrative wine grapes, but i love that the festival lives on.

Apple Blossom Festival History

Sebastopol's celebration of apples dates back to 1910, when the first
great Apple Shows capped the annual harvest with all the excitement of a state fair. The shows were first sponsored by the American Legion and brought renown to the agricultural area from which a few thousand freight-car-loads of apples were shipped annually. Eventually, the Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce took over sponsorship of the event.

In 1947, George E. Keefe, Jr. originated the idea of the Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival. This spring-time event has run almost continuously since then, and became the Chamber's biggest community promotion project. Apple Blossom Queens were originally gradeschool girls. Later, the honor went to the high-school girl who presold the most festival tickets.

By 1965, the Sebastopol Apple Blossom Tour was listed as one of the U.S.'s top 20 events for the month of April, according to ratings from the National Association of Travel Organizations.

Today, the festival's tradition lives on despite the fact that apples are no longer Sebastopol's largest industry. Residents continue to celebrate the heritage that gave rise to this beautiful and unique community in Western Sonoma County.

someday, i will make this town my home and have apple trees of my own.

new seedlings coming up

this morning i walked out onto my little patio and noticed that the radish seeds i planted on monday morning have already begun to poke their leafy heads out of the soil.

so, too, this morning, my new gardening website onegardenonline.com sent it's first shoots out into the world. it's little now, with just a few articles to help people get started growing vegetables in their garden, patio or apartment, but it will grow.

seeing this site come into the world makes me unbelievably happy. i love writing about plants almost as much as i love growing them, and every morning i wake up full of ideas for what to write next. and now that the logistics of getting the site live are over, i should have more time for the actual writing.

i'd love to hear what you think, what you'd like to see added, whatever comments you may have. check it out when you have a little time. enjoy!

play day

today i took the day off for a little photographic and gardening rehab. it was partly because i needed some photos for a project i'm working on, but also because i haven't done anything really creative for a while and i've needed to.

i started at lowe's where i bought four 1.5 cubic foot bags of organic potting soil and took 33 pictures. after that i went to sloat garden center and bought a whole tray of veggies including the longed-for artichoke. i also bought, on a complete whim, a climbing hydrangea for a friend and a shirley temple double peony and a dark green ceramic pot to put it in.
what can i say? i've always wanted a shirly temple double peony and this one is just bursting with future blooms. of course, those three whims accounted for nearly half of the total bill, but what fun is a day off for gardening indulgence if you don't actually get to indulge?

now it's time for a little snack break and photo upload and then it's out into the garden to get these beauties into the ground. with my camera, of course. it's been way too long since my last garden update and you'll be amazed at how different it looks from my last post.

the uncertainty of climate zones

thanks to the information font that is twitter, i came across an interesting article on how the USGA is revising the plant hardiness zone maps due to global warming. this isn't a big surprise, except perhaps in that it took so long (the last revision was in 1990).

now personally, i've never relied much on those zones. partly because here in northern california, you find a multitude of microclimates often even within a single yard. my current location, for example is a zone 8, but because i have an enclosed patio with full afternoon sun exposure surrounded by a concrete parking lot and sheltering trees, i'm probably closer to a zone 9 with the high temperatures of a zone 10 (in summer it can be an oven out there).

which points out another inadequacy of the current zone structure: it focuses on lows and largely ignores highs. just because a plant can't take freezing weather doesn't mean it can handle scorching heat. take for example the artichoke, which loves the temperate northern california coastal marine zone for its fog and even, year-round 50-60 degree temperatures.

also, because i am often taken with plants outside my zone, i have found that plenty of plants, given the right placement and attention, can survive just fine outside their zone (often by several numbers).

i am curious to see how the remapping unfolds, but for me, i'll stick with the sunset western garden book which does a much better job of accommodating the intricacies of our california microclimates than zone mapping does.

more educational options

uc berkeley extension now offers a certificate in sustainable design.

flowers & gardens

the show was fantastic. i spoke to strangers. i gathered a ton of great information (which i hope to share soon). i took a ton of pictures. and best of all, it will be coming back next year.

i was especially excited by the huge number of edible gardens and living walls. here's a little taste.

edible green wall

i've posted before about the living wall planters where you can take advantage of unused vertical space to garden, but today a friend sent over a great link showing a woman who created her own living wall using an old riddling rack to plant a wall of edible greens. now that's a great idea!

sad news for bay area gardeners

this will be the last year for the san francisco flower and garden show -- the third largest show in the country behind philadelphia (#1) and seattle (#2) which had its last run last weekend. the event planners who have run the seattle and san francisco shows for the past 20 years have decided to move on to other things and have been unable to find responsible folks to take over where they are leaving off.

this is sad for so many reasons:

- exceptionally creative gardens built by some of the best in the field
- a marketplace featuring tons of plants, products and people to help you make informed purchases
- fantastic seminars on everything from containers to sustainable design
- a kids' craft area
- an amazing networking opportunity for gardeners, designers, landscapers, etc.

this is especially sad for me for even more reasons:

- this year one of my favorite fellow garden bloggers, ellen zachos will be leading two seminars both on topics close to my heart: small space gardening and container gardening. unfortunately i won't be able to attend because i have to work.
- i had hoped to use the show to help advertise my new site once it's up as well as to connect with local food gardening enthusiasts and professionals; unfortunately, the site won't be ready in time for this year's show and next year, well, it won't be there anymore

i do plan to try and make it out to philadelphia next march to feed my flower show appetite, but it just won't be the same as a local show with my local community.

great idea

recently the park seed garden journal ran a contest asking for readers' best homemade seed starting ideas. they got some great ones, but my favorite was transforming old, mate-less cotton socks into compostable grow pots. i've been wondering what to do with old socks once their useful life is done. (thanks to harley frederickson and park seed.)

the three sisters

yes, i'll admit it: when you live in one climate zone too long, it's easy to get complacent. you know which plants will grow and which won't, you find the ones you love and you stick with them.

which i did, with the exception of my complete unwillingness to give up on the idea of garden-fresh tomatoes despite the fact that they failed every year until i discovered the resilient little "stupice" (whose nick-name "the apocalypse tomato" only made me love it more). but then, i suppose that's only further proof of my stubbornness.

so here i am, my second planting season away from my beloved fog belt, and what am i doing? dreaming of artichokes. not that i've actually moved that far -- 25 miles, 1 zone (from 10 to 9), and from the ocean to the bay, but micro-climate-wise, i'm in a whole different world. my huge, tree-shaded yard has been replaced by a covered cement porch surrounded by a parking lot. where before, ocean breezes kept temperatures a near-constant 55 degrees and cool fog kept even the tenderest lettuce from scorching, here, afternoon sun piles the heat into my little convection oven baking everything that wasn't designed for the heat.

luckily i do have some measure of shade to protect the ferns and pygmy date palm i brought with me, but i also realize all this heat and sun open up a whole world of possibilities that i was denied all those years in the fog, most excitingly for me: corn. even more exciting, you can now buy dwarf varieties suitable for growing in small spaces, including containers.

and that corn brings us back to the subject of this post: the three sisters. according to native american legend, the three sisters, corn, beans and squash grow best when inter-planted, providing support and nourishment for each other and, when eaten together, a complete protein for the person eating them.

now the fog did yield a bounty of squash and even a few beans, but this will be the first time i've lived somewhere i could grow corn so the sisters can finally come together in my garden, even if it's just in one large pot.

corporate community garden

my proposal was officially rejected today. turns out the land around our office is all slated for development in the immediate to near future. i started to try and push back to see if we could use current grass areas, but it became very clear the topic was closed.

i'm disappointed, but that just leaves more energy for me to focus on other projects.

inspiration

the san francisco flower and garden show is just weeks away and this year they've moved the venue so it will be much closer to home. last year i attended a great seminar by landscape architect michelle van de voorde on gardening in small spaces that was incredibly inspiring. can't wait to see what's on the schedule this year.

small pleasures

yesterday i retrieved my eureka lemon from my sister's house where it has been living since i sold my home in the city. driving back to my apartment, the wonderful scent of lemon leaves filled the car.

it needs some fertilizer (more likely, composts), to have the soil topped off in the pot and i need to inspect the new leaves to figure out which pest is causing the curl, but other than that, it's in beautiful shape and i am so happy to have it back with me.

speaking of coconut

in october 2007 i visited hawaii for the first time. among the souveneirs i brought back was the sprouted nut of a coconut palm which i bought at the hawaii tropical botanical garden on the big island just north of hilo. at the time the man who sold it to me wished me luck thinking it unlikely it would survive. today it is almost three feet tall and gloriously green.

common name: coconut palm
scientific name: cocos nucifera
family: arecaceae/palmae
origin: west pacific
type: palm
exposure: full sun
height: 70-100'
width: 40'
growth rate: fast
water use: average
zone(s): 11-12
WARNING: be wary of walking under palms bearing ripe coconuts. falling nuts can cause severe injury.

of course the real question is what i'm going to do with a tree that requires tropical heat and humidity once it gets too big for the house, but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it.

connecting with coconut

so the other day i'm having dinner with good friend jhazen and i'm telling him about my new project and he tells me about this woman (a former coworker of both of ours but who i don't think i ever met) who has recently launched a site very like the one i'm planning but with a food focus instead of a garden focus.

of course i neglected to get the url from him or snag an introduction, but today he posted a link to her blog which links to her site complete with a cool contest that i am entering as i type this (by typing this, even). so, go forth and check out both the contest to win a copy of "cooking with coconut" and one of my favorite new sites.

featured plant: pygmy date palm

common name: pygmy date palm
scientific name: phoenix roebelenii
family: arecaceae/palmae
origin: laos
type: palm
exposure: part shade
height: 6-12'
width: 8'
spacing: 10'
growth rate: slow
water use: average
zone(s): 9-11
cold hardiness: 24 degrees
WARNING: sharp, needle-like spikes at the base of each frond, puncture can cause serious injury including nerve damage; sap may cause skin irritation

(apologies for the photo, my camera has decided it is time to retire. i will post a better photo as soon as i get a new camera.)



the pygmy date palm is slow growing (especially in a pot) and because of that, larger sized specimens can get really pricey. but for those who can afford them they are worth the price. mature specimens can get up to 15' high on graceful arching stems topped with long, fine fronds. the multi-trunked varieties are especially gorgeous.

i've had mine for almost 4 years and it has not grown any noticeable amount in all that time, but it is still one of my favorites. when i had the house in the city it lived in the small entry tunnel, protected from cold weather and when i moved to san bruno it did quite nicely as an indoor plant. now that i've moved again, it's out on the patio. it did suffer some small amount of damage with our recent cold spell (you can see some browning on some of the fronds), but seems to be faring well otherwise. come spring it will definitely require a soil top-off or a larger pot.

reaching out

one of my favorite things about the corporation are the two free volunteer days we get each year. basically it's like PTO but the day has to be spent on volunteer activity with an approved non-profit. because our fiscal year is winding down all our internal do-gooders are busily trying to recruit people to their favorite causes before we lose those precious days. but thank god there are those do-gooders out there, because between crazy amounts of work, the holidays and moving, i haven't had a minute to spare getting my favorite causes added to the list. or even to decide what those causes might be. fortunately, others have come to my rescue providing me with two fantastic volunteer opportunities:

ploughshares nursery: an environmentally sustainable retail and wholesale nursery located in Alameda, California that specialize in locally grown native, drought tolerant and food plants.

hidden villa: a nonprofit educational organization that uses its organic farm, wilderness, and community to teach and provide opportunities to learn about the environment and social justice.

i could not have picked two more personally inspiring and relevant causes had i searched for months. i will be counting down the days.

one small piece of the puzzle

this blog, these links, the connections i am starting to make are all very small pieces in a very large puzzle.

as many of you know i have been trying to find a better path for my life. a path that is healthier, more fulfilling and makes the world a better place. i have looked into freelance writing, which i have done before, as one way to finance my dreams but the truth is, it isn't that different from what i do now except it's significantly less financially secure. i have also been looking into landscape design and architecture and though i have a great love for them and i've been told, some talent, they still feel like one part of a larger picture.

this past october, many of these pieces started falling into place and what felt like random skills and interests and connections began to weave themselves together into a pattern that made sense. my goal for this year, is to document that pattern, map the path to its completion, and build each of these small pieces into a sturdy brick that can support the castle that holds the garden i hope to build with them.
starting here.

again, stay tuned.

carrot

yesterday while picking up a few supplies at OSH i spied a perfect little water feature for the patio. it's a miniature version of one i had when i lived in campbell. it looks like it's made of lava rock so will fit in perfectly with my theme (despite the groaning of my friends and family who no doubt remember that i broke my finger moving the last one). smaller is better. perhaps if i get my unpacking done today i can pick one up tomorrow. nothing like a little incentive to renew a girl's motivation. lyngso is open too, so perhaps i'll grab myself a few of those lava rocks as well...