MUG | Mike's Urban Garden | MUG: November 2024

November 30, 2024

Streets of San Francisco

November 15, 2024

Book Review - A Field Guide to California Lichens

By Stephen Sharnoff

I found this book at the Huntington Gardens gift shop. I wanted to learn more about Lichen and which ones I see in my gardens and environs.

This made me start to take photos up close of those in my gardens. This first I need to ID is on an old rose cane in Eureka Valley.

November 05, 2024

The Huntington - Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens

The Huntington, near Pasadena in Southern California, San Marino to be exact, is a library, art museum and botanical gardens. The Botanical Gardens is 130 areas with 16 themed gardens.

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.