MUG Trial Garden and Nursery

An idea that came to me over the past couple years is to focus on sharing a few of my garden spaces that I have been cultivating for over 15 years.  This is an attempt to show my clients, friends and colleagues the places I have created in these private spaces.  

I have been tending to residential garden in San Francisco since 2003.  So many of my ideas come from visiting other gardens and I want to share these creations and ideas with you.  To start this new series of blog posts is the space in the back of my apartment building.   It is a narrow U shaped space that has both northern and southern sun exposure.  At first, I planted mostly greenery.  That evolved into a test plot for flowering plants.   

When I moved into this Mission Delores apartment there was not much here.   A few grassy weeds and calla lillies.  I first installed the patio pavers and then started what is now my trial garden and nusery.

Over the last decade, I have been growing more of the plants I use in my gardens.   Many I grow from seeds I collect along with other cultivated bulbs, vines and shrubs.   I tend to look for plants that bloom frequently and repeatedly in our mild Mediterranean climate.  And they must be friendly to pollinators.  

Below is the beginning of a new bed featuring select groups of bulbs, self-sowing annuals and perennials that tend to bloom twice a year.  It is about having a constant selection of nectar and pollen for our pollinator allies.  

Here's a pink chrysanthemum I wanted to test.  The color is lovely silvery pink.  This one may show up in your garden soon.  Let me know if you like it.

Other plants I'm testing are asters, irises, ixia, freesias, ....

The remainder of the photo show last years succession of my flowering selections.   This is an introduction to my space and next post will show what is in bloom now.  Each month will feature only those plants that show interest in the past 4 weeks.  Let me know what you think.