GardenBook

 It has rained like mad this winter/spring, it seemed like there was hardly a dry day in February without much of a respite in March. April has opened up with a couple modest storms and splendid sunny days in between. The cool temps have extended the tulip display far beyond my expectations.  This Passiflora 'Blue Horizon' did not die back in winter-much to my surprise-and kept up the blooming as well. Hopefully this will not turn out to be one of those vine mistakes. Lasy year I finally acquired a Plume Poppy (Maclaya) but I avoided planting it in the ground (I had been warned) so it was safely contained a half-wine barrel that I had placed in a spot where nothing would grow  due to root competition from my now deceased Liquidambar. Having that damn tree cut down was one of my greatest acheivements of 2018. The Plume Poppy didn't bloom for me last year but I am growing it primarily because I love the foliage.   So here is the plume poppy coming back u...

  My first visit to this garden was on the occasion of Garden Bloggers Fling, San Francisco in 2013. This was the year my camera went belly-up on the evening of day one and thus I had few photos of any of the gardens we visited . Thankfully our friend Alison over at Bonney Lassie had cleverly brought along her point and shoot and kindly let me borrow it , though the unseasonable heat wave and horrible photo conditions were not in my favor . At that point I also had an early generation iphone that took such abysmal photos  I didn't even bother to use it. The Nichols garden in Piedmont (the high rent adjunct to Oakland) was a favorite among my fellow Flingers and I have been regretful that I was not able to document it to my satisfaction. This year I was thrilled to see that this garden was included on the Garden Conservancy Open Day on April 22nd . I took many many photos , and I am only sharing a portion of them here; Gerhard from Succulents and More joined me there and I ex...

  Though not the only blooms here I managed to patch together a post for Bloomday after toiling at the office -so intent was I on getting rid of the remaining weeds (after spending most of a 4 day weekend on the effort) I pulled for nearly and hour on the hellstrip before I even realized it was Bloomday. Looming rain events next week have created a sense of urgency to at least get the worst of the weed invaders dispatched before the soil is yet again too waterlogged for efficient removal. Have I already complained that this is the worst spring weed episode I have experienced since moving to Norcal in 1986 ?  The bright spot has been the Tulips, which have thrived this year and given me enjoyment for several weeks. I think I finally nailed a succession that extends the season beyond a two week period. I'm already making plans for next year. Tulips are quite borderline here and you just don't know what you are going to get or for how long.  The first to bloom this year ...

 It has been an unacceptably long time since I had the opportunity to see what is going on in my own garden. It either has been raining (and raining and raining) or other commitments pulled me away. My garden viewing has been pretty much limited to the short distance from the mailbox to the front door. Those brief trips were enough to tell me I have a serious weed problem. In fact  I can't ever recall an early spring this bad. I believe the seeds of these damnable things must have been laying around waiting for the torrential rains we've experienced in the last couple months after years of drought.The ground is so saturated that pulling them is still impossible ; they either bring up a tennis ball sized blob of mud with them that won't shake off, or they break off at the soil level. I need two weeks of dry weather and 3 yards of mulch. This weekend has been splendid, warm temps, no rain and I spent most of it trying to get  a handle on the rose pruning and fall/spring cle...