This is the plan….

 English gardens, farm fresh food and quirky authentic culture…

Evolution of Bernal Heights Cottage Garden

I am starting my twenty-first year tending to this cottage garden on Bernal Heights near Holly Park.  Last year, the previous owner told me she was selling and moving into an assisted care apartment in Healdsburg.  I thought that was the end of this job.  But the new owner turned out to be the next door neighbor and wanted me to continue to work this garden and also take on theirs.   They built a new fence between the two spaces with two openings that will eventually connect the two gardens.  Lots of opportunities here and I look forward blending these areas together. 

Bay Street Perennial Beds

 Three beds of perennials: Forest Edge, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Meadow bed.   Here is the third in a series highlighting the gardens I am hired to take care of.   This post shows you all eight years, in reverse order, since I designed and grew this garden.  

After viewing this video clip again, I realized I should have cut that digitalis out of that bed.  That purple ruined the entire sweep.   I knew it when I took the video, but I have difficulty cutting back prime self sowers.

Book Review - The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book

By Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence

Since returning from England in 2023, I decided to stop reading the news every morning with my coffee and started reading my gardening books as my morning ritual.  I have not read most of my gardening books from cover to cover.  But since I changed my habit, I have finished over a dozen or more.   So I am starting a new series about my book collection.

First up a book I have had since my City College Horticultural days.  It is a simple premise that doesn't require a full book to understand although there are good ideas throughout, mostly for vegetable gardening.   Mulch your soil with hay and over a course of three years, you will see a dramatic improvement in your soil.  I am one that believes that I am really tending to the soil and the plants are on a separate level.