MUG | Mike's Urban Garden

January 03, 2025

Special Plants Nursery & Garden

Continuing to catch up on the gardens and nurseries we visited in June….

June 4, 2024

When we are in the Cotswold, we like to save a Tuesday for a visit to Special Plants Nursery. Weekly on Tuesdays, Derry Watkins throws an open garden around her home. This week’s subject was grand, The Humble Umbel.

Great Highway, San Francisco

I took the N-Judah street car to Ocean Beach and then walked the five miles back home. Here’s some characteristic street scenes.

Neighbors often get inspiration for each other, or think it is horticulturally acceptable.

My path

Garden Fluffer, Personal Gardener, Fine Gardening, Market Gardener these are some of the names I have toyed with as my official title or job description. Most would classify me as a maintenance gardener. But i do things much different than your basic gardening crew. It is all about the process or procedures that I use to make my green spaces.

Simple things, done well. A gardener’s influence on a space is through control. Pruning, thinning, dividing and moving plants around to create an authentic natural look. But this is far from Nature. Step lightly and preen like a large herbivore. Leave all clippings around its source to replenish and shade the soil, creating a good environment for seeds to germinate. Only remove weed seed heads, diseased material and anything sharp like rose thorns, all other green material is made into compost either in a formal pile or as a light mulch. Nothing looks more authentic than a plant mulched with it’s own leaves and twigs. That is my gardening process. Simply well.

This is on top of picking the right plant in the right place. When I am looking to fill a void, no matter if it’s an annual or perennial, tree or shrub, evergreen or deciduous; I start with California and Western US native plants. If nothing fits my requirements (exposure, water, form and floral timing, client preferences) then I look at plants from the other Mediterranean regions of the world.

This blog is my chance to show my work and those things that inspire and influence.

MUG | Mike's Urban Garden | MUG

January 03, 2025

Special Plants Nursery & Garden

January 01, 2025

Great Highway, San Francisco

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