Alley Flowers July 20, 2009

The back alley is our usual access point for biking or walking up to the local school playground for some running-off-energy time for my daughter. On the way lately, we have seen more than the usual bindweed and overgrown honeysuckle that usually are visible.

This clematis (Jackmanii? or something similar) was putting on a big show the other week.  I just planted a related vine on a small metal trellis, and now I wonder if I’m going to have to rethink the structure if it’s ever going to get this big (6 feet high at least):

These pink campanula were so showy, it’s too bad they only lasted a few days. I enjoyed them a lot while they were around. Not sure of the variety, maybe C. medium, ‘Bells of Holland’? They are so sweet and cottage-gardeny, they really evoke England to me. Oh, you can see some bindweed crawling up to strangle the campanula, I think these neighbors don’t know what a bane it is. Or maybe they do and have given up, who can blame them?

In my part of the alley, I have a neglected but seemingly carefree ceanothus which has now reverted to its boring phase (the 50 weeks of the year without blue bee-magnet fragrant blooms), one struggling Spanish lavender, some osmanthus that always scrapes the car when I drive by it, and a bunch of scary weeds. I will spare you a photo here.

Do you have a back alley? If so, what’s growing in it? Is it the last spot you think of when deciding to work on or plant anything in your garden? It is for me, for sure, but I do appreciate when a little beauty creeps over the fence or is otherwise out there for we back-alley travelers to enjoy.

Field Trip to P-town February 27, 2009

My family made a whirlwind trek down to Portland, Oregon last weekend and one of the top things on my list to see if I could locate a neighborhood with a lot of parking strip gardens. I know, I’m obsessed. In a previous post, I had received a few helpful comments about this. So, with only a few minutes to spare during our brief time in town, I did my best to find a few.

On a hot tip, we headed to Northeast Portland to a neighborhood known as Irvington, home to many large and lovely Craftsman houses and fabulous gardens, plus this really spiffy looking club that I would probably be denied membership to even if I could afford it (ha). Not a lot in the way of parking strip gardens, though, that I was able to find.

This house had a really mind-blowing ornamental/conifer/topiary thing going on, I guess it’s kinda famous. I got a chuckle when I saw it, since I recognized it from this post of Nestmaker’s.

Irvington has lots of stately trees, though, so maybe that’s more the vibe and people don’t like to mess with the established tradition. Here were some crocuses that looked as if they’d naturalized in the understory.

This garden was a real exception to my general findings. It had obviously been planted with love and care, and although it might have been fairly new, contained some great stuff like reticulated iris and a lovely reddish witch hazel, maybe the currently hot cultivar ‘Diane’?

What I didn’t find in the way of street gardens was more than made up for by the beauty of the houses and the amazing color palate used by their inhabitants. Here in Seattle, we seem to be afraid of color – grey, beige, white, sage green, dusty blue and mushroom brown predominate. But in Portland, I saw everything from deep forest green to crazy orange to this one, a funky and friendly combo that I’d never seen before.

Even the streetcars are more colorful in Portland. Sorry for the from-the-car pic, we were on the way out of town and I realized I hadn’t taken any of the trollies.

We took public transit pretty much everywhere, but the reason for the trip was that we had the loan of a pretty vroomy car, a Chrysler 300C SRT8. Since I usually tool around in a 20 year old Volvo wagon, this was a comparatively cushy ride. Not great on the gas mileage, but surprisingly better than our Subaru, from our calculations. Looks pretty good with a backdrop of bamboo, I think.

My other garden-related coup was to convince my family that they needed to let me go to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, also a tip from Nestmaker, who has posted often about her visits there. That’s going to have to be a whole separate post, since it was breathtakingly amazing, I took about 13 hundred pictures, and learned a lot about what I should have planted in my garden if I wanted it to look nice in winter!

I wished I’d had more time and maybe a couple of cross-streets to check out for the hell strip greats in town, though – maybe someone will comment here and suggest some for my next visit?

SF’s Mission High Garden December 2, 2008

During our visit to San Francisco, I was keeping my eye out for sidewalk gardens. On a rainy day, walking down to the packed-to-the-gills Bi-Rite Market (independent fancy food store) the day before Thanksgiving, we passed by Mission High School. Located on the beautiful palm-lined boulevard of Dolores Street, Mission High is the oldest high school in SF, dedicated as it was in 1897. In fact, it’s the oldest comprehensive high school west of the Rockies, something I didn’t know until looking at the school’s web site just now.

As we walked along, I noticed that a tiny (maybe 18 inch) width of the sidewalk adjoining the school had been planted with a somewhat sparse but tidy array of perennials, underneath the otherwise prison-esque gray wall and chainlink fence that encloses the school’s parking lot.

Then I saw this sign:

Seems like it’s a partnership between the community and the school. Nice!

There was not a single piece of trash or wad of gum to be seen, which is a real marvel outside ANY high school. Maybe signs like this help remind people to be kind to the garden (if not necessarily to the sign):

I’m going to have to take a complete pass on plant ID, these are not familiar to me. Anyone want to take a gander?

Quite a variety of leaf shapes and sizes, lots of nifty bright colors to jazz up the street.

All in all, a delightful find and one I hope to return and see again as the plants fill in.

Spooky Plants October 30, 2008

In honor of Halloween, I offer you a few of the spookier members of the plant kingdom (most of which I’ve never seen growing in a Seattle parking strip, but oh well)…

Eyeball plant (Spilanthes oleracea)

Native to Brazil, this odd-looking South American medicinal plant (also known as ‘Toothache Plant’) can be grown as an annual or tender perennial elsewhere. Its flowers look like scary bloody red and yellow eyeballs, and ingesting the leaves can cause your tongue to go numb. All in all, the perfect Halloween plant!

Eyeball Plant photo courtesy of Univ. of Wisconsin

Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum)

I missed the stinky blooming of the University of Washington’s specimen, nicknamed “Waldo,” by about two days this year. Just the flower itself was impressive (and kinda disgusting), but people line up inside the greenhouse for a chance to inhale the distinctive stench that gives this Sumatra, Indonesia native its common name. Somehow, I’m not really that sad to have missed it.

Strangler fig (Ficus aurea)

This native to the Florida Keys and the West Indies is a parasitic plant, beginning its growth when seeds lodge in the bark of its host. It then puts out air roots and lives off nutrients from the host and air. Eventually the roots reach the ground and develop there as well. Also known as the ‘Golden fig,’ if left to its own devices it will often kill off its host. What a bad guest!

Strangler Fig photo by rayb777, Flickr Creative Commons License

Bloodwort (Rumex sanguineus)

Also known as ‘Bloody dock’ for its red-veined leaves, this plant is usually tap-rooted and hard to eradicate once planted. Semi-poisonous if ingested and causes skin irritation if touched. Scared yet?

Bloodwort photo courtesy of Bluestone Perennials

Ghost plant (Monotropa uniflora)

Also known as ‘Indian Pipe,’ this member of the blueberry family lacks chlorophyll and therefore thrives in very dark forest conditions. I would love to come upon these growing in the wild sometime, maybe just not at night. For a fascinating look at how this plant gets its energy, click here.

Ghost Plant/Indian Pipe photo by nordique, via Creative Commons

Witch hazel

Scary name, great plant. Mine is all done with its foliage show for the year, but I still have the winter blossoms to look forward to. I’m not including a picture here because I plan to do a post about it later this week.

Wolf’s bane (Aconitum lyoctonum)

This relative of Monkshood is a perennial native to northern Europe (hm, wonder if it’s found in Transylvania?) bearing yellow or purple flowers in mid- to late summer. All parts of the plant are extremely toxic if ingested, and even the leaves can cause skin irritation if touched. This one is not going in my garden, for sure.

And lastly, I would just like to add, even though its name doesn’t sound at all scary, the howlingly horrible annual weed and #1 scourge of my garden…

Morning glory (bindweed)

I made the very bad mistake of reading Scott Smith’s horror novel, “The Ruins,” and the carnivorous vines in that book come to mind every time I see the twisting strands of this weed attempting to throttle my other plants to death. It really does seem to grow tangibly larger overnight. I just hope it never comes indoors to try and get me as I sleep! There is an actual parasitic “vampire” plant called dodder vine. This link has photos of it “sniffing out” its prey and going to strangle it. Ewwwww!

What are your favorite scary plants, in name, looks or habit?

Feline Invasion October 16, 2008

I love cats. We don’t have any at home at the moment, but our previous feline person was so wonderful, and is so missed, that it’s almost hard to contemplate starting over with someone new.

Hank was adopted from the San Francisco SPCA, the model in this country for a no-kill animal shelter. He came to us as a one year old, having been found on the street as a kitten, cared for by foster parents, adopted by someone, and then returned to the shelter (for spraying, since the adopter didn’t honor the signed contract to have him neutered FOR FREE, and also, inexplicably, for being “too affectionate”!?!). Needless to say, he was a very confused kitty when we brought him home. For cats, territory is (practically) everything, and one animal behaviorist told us that when you move a cat to a new territory, it’s like you burned down his house. But gradually, with lots of love and patience, he relaxed into his new family, and before (and after) we had a human child, he was our furry baby. We often imagined how hilarious he would be as a shrunken old-man kitty of 17, so when he was diagnosed with incurable lymphoma and had to be euthanized at the age of only 8, it just seemed like we hadn’t had him for even half the amount of time we we’d expected. Needless to say, we were heartbroken.

All of this is to preface today’s topic, the random neighborhood cats who consider my garden their own territory because we don’t have any animals policing it to tell them otherwise. I looked out my living room window the other day to see what looked like a cat convention on my front steps.

Some of these guys are familiar, but the bigger, longer-haired of the two gray and white kitties was new to me. I’m not a big fan of interfering in wildlife conflicts, but I’ve had to break up enough cat fights that I wanted to make sure this wasn’t something brewing. When I went out to see what they were up to, they turned and looked at me like I was some kind of alien interloper.

That made the two short-haired ones disappear, but the other guy stood his ground. I went over to see if he was willing to be friendly, and he started making some scary growling noises so I politely invited him to take his dominant, trespassing self somewhere else.

Later that same day, I saw this large and furry fellow poking around in the neighbor’s yard. He arrived in the neighborhood recently and has been beating up a lot of other cats – he’s big and mean, and he has no respect for territory or boundaries. He’s a kitty Napoleon, except for the size aspect.

I could hardly believe it when my daughter looked out her window just a few hours later, still the same day, to say that one of the cats from the morning’s pow-wow was posing like a statue on the rock wall near her room. His eyes were halfway open and he was looking right at her, it freaked her out a bit even though she loves cats.

In Seattle, there is a leash law for dogs but cats are legally able to roam free unless they are causing a problem (specifically, from the City of Seattle web site, “it is unlawful for any owner to allow their cat to damage the private property of another or be a threat to public peace, health or safety.”) Personally, I am a big believer in keeping cats indoors, both for their own safety and to protect wildlife. That said, my childhood pet cat was out and about for most of every day but was far too cross-eyed and lovably incompetent to catch anything (well, he did find a dead snake once, and also brought in a bird that had hit the window and was stunned). But I have seen neighborhood cats catch juncos and other ground-feeding birds, and it makes me so sad – these are very well-fed cats who are just doing it for sport and the enjoyment of the hunt. Bells help sometimes but none of these guys wears one. It’s not the cats’ fault – I just wish their humans would be more responsible!

Hank was an indoor kitty his entire life. Friends and family sometimes chided us for keeping him inside, listing all the things they felt were missing from his existence, like sniffing the fresh air not just through a window, chasing butterflies, and napping under a tree. The payoff was supposed to be a long and peaceful life, but things didn’t turn out that way. I still think we did the right thing – he was a happy kitty until he got sick, and he never suffered from fang bites, rabies, or any of the other awful fates that can befall an outdoor animal. We miss him terribly, but are starting to feel like it might be time to head down to the shelter and find ourselves a new furry baby.

What do you favor, free-range or indoor kitties?

Fall Flowers October 8, 2008

There’s a tradition among some of the Blotanical garden bloggers to post pictures of what’s blooming in their gardens on Tuesdays. I never seem to get around to it, although sometimes I at least take the pictures. So, one day late, here are some things that are still going strong, or at least surviving, as of October 7.

My mom grew these marigolds from seed and gave me them in early summer. I plunked them in at the corner of the parking strip, right on the street, forgot to water them, probably stepped on them a few times getting out of the car, but still they survived. I like to give them to friends who celebrate Dia de los Muertos at the end of the month, as there are usually a few left by then.

I’ve posted about these guys before, cute and prolific alyssum with its honey scent, and the steadily creeping and adorably named ‘Pink Panda’ ornamental strawberry. These ones live happily at the very edge of the parking strip, where it meets the sidewalk. No adverse affects from the occasional dog footprint, apparently.

The previous gardener put in a million trailing rosemary plants to grow over and cover the boring cement retaining wall on the street. I’m so glad he did – the tiny, delicate leaves are gently fragrant, and it flowers twice per year, including in the late fall, providing nearly endless food for the bees. I’ve never watered it once in three years, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s a water-wise plant once established.

I planted blanket flower for the first time this year and didn’t take very good care of it, but it made it through the summer and is still blooming. I like how the seed heads look like little yellow pincushions.

This pink windflower (Japanese anemone) took a year or so to get established and finally bloom. It’s not in the greatest site, but I see it every time I come and go from the front porch, and I’ve seen them massed in parking strips so I know they can take the extra punishment of a street garden.

Hey, who put my variegated nasturtium in jail? That’s right on the street too, and I think a few car doors have hit the wire fence that encloses the veggie/herb patch, so it’s a little askew. The feathery fennel and deep purple shiso leaves are visible as well.

Finally, the California fuschia that is somehow managing to grow amidst the densely-packed cedar roots is still putting out a few last blooms for the hummingbirds to enjoy. This would be a great plant for the parking strip, as it’s fairly tough and drought-tolerant. I love the silvery quality of its leaves.

What about you, anything interesting still going on, flower-wise, in your garden?

Pocket Planting October 5, 2008

Every gardener with fair to poor soil is faced with a dilemma – to dig it out and replace it with a variety of possible soil amendments, or… not? One solution to this question, for those with limited money, time, soil dig-ability and/or back strength, is something known as “pocket planting.” I have practiced this method for years, with some success, but only just learned that there is a name for it.

Basically, the idea is to dig out a space for a plant, amend the dug-out area with as much good soil/compost as you can, being sure to mix at least some of the original soil in, and hope for the best. It’s not the most scientific way to give your new babies a good start in life, but in cases where the alternative is to leave a rocky, weedy, or clay-filled site bare, it may be better than nothing. In the case of a parking strip, unless you’re extra industrious, feeling really flush or having a landscaper take care of getting it started for you, it might be your only viable choice.

Here is a link to a Portland nursery’s page with ideas for “hellstrip” plantings, complete with before/after photos of their pocket planting site. The “after” photos say it all!

Has anyone else used this method where you would otherwise have had to dig out the entire area? How did it work for you? Or are you more in favor of the garden advice that it’s pointless to “plant a $50 plant in a $10 hole”?

Plant Sale Semi-Madness October 2, 2008

Since I missed my favorite fall plant sale this year (probably a good thing for the old bank account, but not for the garden), I feel like I have a bit of a free pass to pick up a few little things here and there, since it still probably won’t add up to what I would have spent. I think Calvin Trillin described this in his book “The Tummy Trilogy” as “Alice’s Law of Compensatory Cash Flow,” a principle he named for his beloved and now-late wife. The (cracked but makes-sense-to-me) theory is that if you were going to spend money on something but then you didn’t, you get to spend it elsewhere without having to feel guilty. I’m not advocating it as a financial strategy, but it’s a mental process I find myself enacting on a semi-regular basis.

After writing a post on sedums, I figured I needed to pick up at least one to plant this fall in the parking strip. I haven’t seen one of the dramatic purple-foliage ones yet, but I’m going to keep looking. In the meantime, I got that good old standby, ‘Autumn Joy.’ It’s ubiquitous here in Seattle, but probably for good reason – it’s a regular performer and it blooms late when much of the garden is getting pooped out. Mine is on the small side, but it only cost $4, from a cutting grown at the Pat Calvert Greenhouse at the University of Washington Arboretum (I’ll be back there this weekend for the annual craziness of their bulb sale).

Another plant I’ve been wanting to put in the street garden is a Gaura. I’ve seen it growing nicely in many sidewalk gardens in my neck of the woods, and I love the way its star-like blossoms seem to float on their thin stems, high above the green mass of slender leaves. It’s a long-term bloomer, always a plus. This one was on sale when I went to buy compost earlier in the week. Score! It’s Gaura lindheimeri ‘Geyser White.’

Of course, the gaura went into a box and then there was room in the box for more plants… yes, this is how my brain works, and why I don’t allow myself to go plant shopping very often. I ended up with just a few more babies to bring home – two cute little pink-flowered Heron’s Bill groundcovers, a sweet marjoram, and a small hebe (‘Autumn Glory,’ hm, maybe it can be friends with my sedum?). I didn’t even fill up the box, how restrained!

Now, to plant it all. It’s raining lightly today, perfect transplanting weather. So what am I doing in here?!

Dazzling Dahlias October 1, 2008

It’s foggy here today, so I thought I’d put up some pics of a couple of really impressive dahlias I saw in a street garden near my house recently, to chase the blahs away.

I will come straight out and say that I’m not much of a dahlia grower myself. I have a few dwarf annual ones that my mom gave me this year, but I think my garden lacks the proper combo of good soil, excellent drainage and regular watering to provide a good home for them. That’s just way too much cultivation for this lazy gardener! But for those interested in the basics of dahlia growing, one of the local dahlia groups near Seattle has this handy list of do’s and dont’s to get you on the right track.

Part of my resistance to this plant is that it’s one of those that has a “society” devoted to it, or many societies as it happens. I’ve seen entire home gardens devoted to dahlias, and while I admire the dedication of folks who specialize in one flower or kind of plant, it seems a little sad to me to pick one that is only in bloom for a few months and goes completely below ground for much of the year, leaving a bare patch of nothingness in its wake.

That said, I always enjoy seeing the really pretty ones my neighbor’s on-street garden produces every summer. This orange one had the shaggy look of Dorothy’s friend the Cowardly Lion:

I’m pretty hopeless with dahlia types. I know there are many, but I’m not up on them so won’t even try to categorize the ones shown here. If you really want to get into the minutae, this site has photos of all the different dahlia classifications.

I loved this one for its gentle lilac edging and lovely white and greenish-tinged underlayer.

What about you? Love to grow dahlias or prefer to admire them in other people’s gardens? Or do they just leave you cold?

Freak tiny corn September 27, 2008

It’s always funny to me to hear about the weirdo volunteer seedlings that sprout in people’s gardens, whether from compost, bird leavings, or another mysterious process. Probably my most unusual sprout this summer was this freakishly miniature corn that showed up on the edge of my veggie patch, despite the fact that neither I nor anyone else on the street has ever grown corn that I know of.

When it first came up, I thought it looked like corn but wasn’t sure. As it matured and its little tassels showed up, I let it stick around and wondered if I’d get to “harvest” something that maybe looked a little bit like the baby corn that usually gets tossed into bad vegetarian Chinese food.

But one day I got tired of looking at the broken-necked sunflowers and ripped them out (thanks, Mr/Ms Squirrel), and when I came back to the garden later I found this:

I don’t have a spycam but I’m just going to take a wild guess and say that the pissed-off squirrel, not finding any more sunflowers to break/devour, decided to see if the corn was worth gnawing on, ripped it out, took one bite, and tossed it. Either that or it has weirdly accurate perception of which plants I like, and decided to show me who’s the boss in the garden (after what I learned about crows this week, I wouldn’t be that surprised). Oh well, it probably wouldn’t have been edible anyway.