MUG | Mike's Urban Garden | MUG: August 2014

August 19, 2014

Dahlia Show, San Francisco

California's Dahlia Society 2014 Flower Show at the Hall of Flowers in San Francisco. With more than 8 distinct forms and many more in a full spectrum of form only nature could make. Below are those that look outstanding to me.

English Garden Tour with Mike & Frank - 2014

Here's the start of our 2014 tour of English gardens. Click on the garden title to see more photos.

Garden Museum Gardens - London, July 4th

Brighton - England

The last weekend of our trip culminated with Brighton's gay pride celebration. A fun diverse tourist industry catered to vast hordes arriving from London and beyond. Gay pride is the cities largest event bringing more people to the already large groups of English couples, Muslim couples and families, straight, gay, old and new. It's a city that knows how to entertain.

Brighton is historically the tourist get away spot for England. An hour train ride from London means it can entertain large numbers of day tourist. Extra trains back to London left late into the night via their special red queuing scheme. Our train home was a party train.

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.