Want to dress up your fence or gate? Just hang a glass jar or tin can as an impromptu flower vase, as this Seattle gardener did, fill it with flowers and greens, and give the passers-by a lift:
Bonus points for a carefully balanced pile of perfectly lusciously rounded apples (maybe they became “art” due to those telltale critter holes).
One of the reasons I like gardening in the parking strip area is that I get to meet the friendlier of my neighbors. I live in kind of a funny neighborhood, where a lot of people will walk right past without a glace or a word, which is fine by me. But when someone stops to say hello or says something nice about the garden, it makes my day.
Sometimes, the visitors are not of the human variety. I have watched many jays, flickers, crows and hummingbirds out there, so much so that I feel like their daily dramas (must find food! must protect babies!) are a vital part of my life. Finding a ladybug on a leaf, surprising two flies in an act of, um, love as I did the other day, or observing the flight path of a lazy bumblebee can all make me feel like all the work and labor of struggling with the soil conditions, baking heat in the summer, and challenges of getting everything the water it needs worthwhile.
Here is someone who stops by now and again. He doesn’t usually come over for a chat, but he does flop down and roll around on the sidewalk and stay awhile if I leave him be.
Who is visiting your garden these days?
I saw this while driving home from the school run last week. I had to stop and take photos, the sight warmed my heart so much.
This is a corner lot on a fairly busy thoroughfare, but the beds are located on the side street. Five of them! No idea what’s going in but I’m going to be keeping a close eye on them to see how they are planted.
Looks like the sod was maybe smothered with cardboard and then stripped and turned over in the spring.
Then, in with the black gold!
The guy who made them was in his garage, headphones on and table saw blazing. I didn’t have the nerve or heart to hover and stop him to ask about the raised beds, but it looks like either he or someone else there is already an avid structure-builder and gardener, judging from the house-side street garden.
A little leftover good soil, dumped into the arterial side of the parking strip. Guess maybe something’s going in there too!
Extra wood, board ends or fodder for the next garden building project?
I know, I’m a freak, but stuff like this just sends me over the moon. There are so many folks in my neighborhood adding raised beds, ripping up sod, and otherwise making more space for gardens right now. It’s a revolution!
These bright red berries, still clinging to their vine in mid-winter, were hanging over a retaining wall near my house when I walked by the other day. Does anyone know what they are?
It seems odd that they would have been left by hungry birds and animals – maybe they can’t reach them (they’re halfway down a very high and otherwise bare cement wall). Or are they poisonous? I hope they’re not Deadly Nightshade berries – this garden is quite close to both a preschool and an elementary school which many kids walk to and from every day. Eek.
In any case, I did enjoy seeing a bit of color on an otherwise gray and frigid morning. It’s snowing here again today for the umpteenth time this winter – I guess we’re just going to have to get used to it (or move back to California!)
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.
Part of our recent vacation to the Bay Area of California was spent in our old stomping grounds of San Francisco. We lived there from 1992-2000 in a never-quite-gentrified part of the city that was equal parts noisy, diverse, crazy and wonderful. We are lucky to have family members who live just a few blocks from our old apartment, so when we come to visit, it feels like coming home. Surprisingly little has changed in the past eight years, and the grocery store folks even remember us!
We were only there for about 48 hours this trip, much of it spent shopping for Thanksgiving fixings and then making the various dishes we were bringing to the feast (two kinds of stuffing, a sweet potato puree with pecan/brown sugar crust, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin ravioli in sage butter sauce for the vegetarians), but I tried to take a few photos of street gardens in the neighborhood. There aren’t really parking strips, at least not in that part of SF, so trees and any other greenery are forced to live in small containers or other gaps in the concrete. This row of trees in small, square planter boxes was installed by the builders of a spiffy condo complex a few years ago:
I’m sorry not to know the tree variety. Any guesses? They have been nicely underplanted with succulents:
Further down the same short block is a thriving bottle brush (Callistemon), in full bloom here in the last days of November:
That tree really says California to me (even though technically it’s from Australia), as does this one, Angel’s trumpets or brugmansia, located directly across the street:
There were Bougainvillea vines in full bloom everywhere in the city right now – I didn’t get a good shot of any but a purple one is visible peeking out from under the spectacular tree in this next shot (I should know what the tree is but have forgotten – again, any guesses?):
I love that their pumpkins are still out and spiffy – ours all had to be dumped due to gigantic black rotten spots and/or squirrel destruction. The only wildlife we saw on the street was pigeons, and I guess they are not interested in eating squash.
Ah, SF… we love and miss you, but it was good to come home to Seattle too.
I’ve been frantically working (like a squirrel in late autumn? Hm, maybe Dr. Destructo and I have more in common than I thought!) on a couple of bigger posts but nothing is quite ready to put up yet. Today is busy, no time to write, so all I have to offer is this photo from a recent walk.
I hope this weekend brings you time to commune with your garden, or at least a moment to think about it and plan for next year!
Strolling around my neighborhood on errands, for exercise, or just to see what’s growing in people’s gardens, I seldom go so far that I need to stop to rest. My daughter, however, despite her seemingly boundless energy inside our house (usually manifested in racing around or jumping on the furniture), does have the miniature legs of a five year old and therefore sometimes need to stop for a break if we walk somewhere. She’s usually fine to just plop down on the sidewalk, but when there’s something more interesting to sit on, we are both happier about it.
None of the bus stops near where we live have benches, but occasionally a kindly neighbor has built or placed seating on the street for others to use. I find this very touching, the thoughtful and considerate act of providing a nice resting spot for passers-by.
We’ve tried them all out many times. This one is particularly useful, and was perhaps built for our annual 4th of July street party, which has been going on for over 50 years. It seats quite a few! Or just one, in this case.
Just a few houses down is an incredible garden that I keep meaning, but forgetting, to feature on this site. Their bench looks like it belongs in a princess’ castle rose garden, but it’s just on the sidewalk for anyone to sit upon.
I wasn’t sure if this was meant to be an actual bench, or if it was more of a sculpture, actually useful sawhorse, or ?? You’d have to be pretty tall and skinny-reared to find it comfy.
My daughter and I used to sit on these stump chairs when she was smaller. I remember watching the “big kids” play on the elementary school playground from this vantage point when she was two – and now she’s one of them (at a different school)! The stumps aren’t exactly level but they’re perfectly irresistible to kids, which is why I imagine they were put there.
This gardener has a whole “fairy garden” set-up, including this adorably tiny bench complete with flower pots and straw hat. There’s also a little house with a hinged lid and a sign on it that says “Please Open.” It’s way cute.
What about you, have you ever put out a seat for strangers? Or enjoyed one that someone else (besides the city) built?
Today’s probably going to be the only dry day this week, so instead of attempting to craft a profound and epic post-election essay, I’m going to keep it short and head out to the garden instead.
I’m having a hard time leaving politics and pumpkins behind. They seemed to go hand in hand for me this year, with the two big fall events (Halloween and the election) colliding in space, time and my thoughts so often. At times the presidential race got so farcical it seemed like the two events were switching places! But in the end I was happy with the result and look forward to moving past all the craziness. Today the squirrel-gnawed pumpkins are going in the compost and I hope at least a few of the neighbors’ election signs will make it to the recycling.
This was my favorite sidewalk Halloween decoration, seen yesterday as I walked home from the polls (as I found out later, it was our last time to vote in person here in Washington state, something I’m very sad about). Mini pumpkins on a skewer! I won’t make any election analogies, except to wonder how much Tina Fey’s spot-on impression of a certain vice presidential candidate did to hurt that campaign. Hey, how about Tina Fey/John Stewart in 2016? (I can’t take credit for this – see ultra-leftie Seattle news rag Eat the State for this and even more irreverent punditry).
The City of Seattle is using some bond initiative money to improve its urban forest – the plan is to plant over 8,000 street trees in the next decade.
One challenge is how to water well while the new trees are being established. In a time of budget crunches, the City just does not have the staff to allow for individual watering of each tree as often as needed to help it thrive.
Starting a year or so ago, I noticed these funny green plasticized cloth bags showing up at the base of each tree newly planted by the City:
Each bag, which according to the City’s site holds 20 gallons, is filled several times per week while the tree is establishing its roots. The water seeps into the soil directly where the tree needs it most, slowly draining out over the course of 6-10 hours.
Here’s what it looks like in relation to the full tree, this one a lovely red-bark Japanese maple with its golden fall plumage on nearly-full display:
Speaking from personal experience, a new tree in the parking strip is easy to forget about. I put in a very small Japanese snowbell that is not doing well, and I’m sure it’s due to lack of water during the dry season. I know these bags are kind of unsightly but maybe they are a good idea for those out-of-the-way plantings in super dry weather. That said, I have seen a row of trees in a parking strip near my house where some trees seem to be thriving and others are near death. All had the green bags on so presumably they were watered equally. What made the difference? No idea.
Has anyone used these successfully in a home garden? I found one online called the Treegator but it’s not cheap, $25 plus shipping for one bag. That’s a lot more than my Japanese snowbell cost!
For more information from the City of Seattle on watering in newly planted trees, click here.
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