Dearborn Garden's Rose Border

On Friday mornings, there is no parking along this section of Bird Street.    This is effectively the Rose border for Dearborn Community Garden.  Well maintained by a dedicated member of the garden.  

Spring and Summer Border - My Home Garden

 Last week, I spontaneously sent out invites for an open garden.   The key was to offer Pimp's Cups and a prize.   It was wonderful to share with my twenty or so friends who stopped by.  It was looking good; Photos just don't capture the colors, wind, smells and mood.  Each year it gets fuller and more mature.   Here's some from the most recent party and then few from last year.

July 27th - My home garden.

MUG’s Personal Garden with Nursery

 This is my small urban garden located in the Mission Delores neighborhood of San Francisco.   I have gardened this small strip since 2003.   Lots has happened here over this period and its current theme in the long border is spring pinks, blues and whites moving into summer reds, yellows and blues.  

Some still photos of the long Spring/Summer border.

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.  

Dearborn Bouquet and Bounty

We are currently reaping the wonderful bounty from our community garden plot.   This bouquet includes the unusual April Dahlia, Ranunuculus asiaticus 'White', white velarian and parsley.

I like to pack it in.  I don't want to see the soil.   I've combined the French intensive technique with my passive aggressive algorithm of editing annual seeds and perennial plants.   It's a tournament of the flowers;  May the best plant win.  But of course I stick my nose into the process, limiting those that are too vigorous and making sure there's an even succession of flowers.  It's all about the process.  I'm in control for a couple hours every Sunday.   Then Nature has her way for a week.

Dearborn Community Garden Spring Meeting and Fashion Show.

Our community garden's Spring meeting and my plot is looking fantastic.  We rebuilt our bed in November adding six inches of soil and completely redecorated the bed.

Today we see the end of the spring showing of the white dahlias.  Dinner Plate?  I'm not sure, they're big and lovely in a freaky February showing.   The purple poppies are starting to bloom and the foxglove is producing well.  Everything is staked well and should be well supported.

Dearborn After Atmosphere River Delivered Over 2 Inches of Rain

Most notable new entry blossum is the Ranunuculus asiaticus 'White'.   I started from bulbs from Flowercraft, a local retail nursery.  One of the four I planted turned out to be pink. 

March in Dearborn Community Garden

Spring is at least 2-4 weeks early this year.   Warm and dry December followed by regular intervals of rain and sunshine has been sublime.

Citrus blossom first week of March

Citrus is loving this extra warmth we had this winter. With the recent rains, it's all about to pop! This is the back patio garden at Dynamo Donuts on 24th Street in the Mission. The first two photos is an orange, the last is a Kaffir Lime, one of the ingredients in their donuts.

Citrus have been grown in containers for Centuries. The Romans took this fruit tree with them into north parts of Europe. But Citrus can not take the cold winters and thus needed to be brought into 

heated shelter.

February Dahlias in My Dearborn Plot

Big news is Dahlias blooms in February as San Francisco sees exceptionally pleasant winter sunshine and showers.

October Seed Heads

Fading year with Aster seed heads.

Late Summer in Full Glory

This is my plot at Dearborn Community Garden in San Francisco.   I use this bed to test out new plants and color combinations and just see what happens.  It's always beautiful.  But today is the pinnacle of this seasons planting scheme.  Lots of late season dahlias and asters.

Bees on a Poppy

Lots of activities in the garden today.  Busy bees, mostly honey bees here.

Olio Lens on Dearborn Dahlias

I got a new four lens optical gadget for my iPhone. It lets me take 10x, 15x, wide angle and fish-eye photos. Here are some close ups of what's blooming here in June (Dahlias).

Dearborn Community Garden

Frank has put together another tour of San Francisco gardens. This one is exclusive to professional gardeners, horticulturists, arborists and the likes.

Dearborn Community Garden. Showcase the 45 gardeners micro allotments and Lotta's Rose border along Bird Street.

Sloppy Arborist Garden

Frank has put together another tour of San Francisco gardens. This one is exclusive to professional gardeners, horticulturists, arborists and the likes.

Next up, Christopher's sloppy arborist garden. His words, not mine.

Drought in California and the State of my nursery.

January 2014 was spectacularly warm and sunny. But it's an official Drought and that has taken some of the pleasure of working in perfect 70 degree weather. The soil is not heavy or mucky from winter rain. I just read that parts of England had record high rainfall for January. Whereas we had a record low rainfall. January normally our wettest month was bone dry. I think England got all our water. I hear these tweets from England suggesting lots of mud and water. We're at the complete opposite end of dread here. Some rural communities in California have less than 100 days supply of water.



Sedum 'Angelina', Euphorbia characias wulfenii, Centaurea gymnocarpa 'Velvet Centaurea'

Dearborn Community Garden - An Urban Vegetable Plot

I have shared this 12' x 8' plot with my friend and colleague for a couple of seasons now. We sowed a few interesting new plants from our trip to England. We mostly grow edibles but have a few purely ornamental plants we are testing for our other gardens.

Dearborn Community Garden Plot #45

Plot #45 under the plum tree: Collards, Peas, Arugula & Mustard Greens.