Annie's Annuals Fall Sale

My buddy, Dino is being attacked by the giant green man at Annie's Fall Sale Party. I've been making this 45 minute trip from San Francisco for 10 years now. It is by far the most interesting nursery in the Bay Area. If you've never been, well, you should go! Here is some of the interesting things I saw:

At first I thought this was a verbena but it turns out to be Lavandula canariensis. Wonderful bright green leaves with a panicle of flowers that appears to bloom for months.

Bay Street Entry Garden

My latest installation in the front entry stairwell for a building in the Marina neighborhood. This low light interior space is open only to the sidewalk. It's a southern exposure with bright indirect light reflecting off the sidewalk.

Retarding a Vigorous Street Tree

Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) grows to 10–18 m tall and 15–20 m wide in ideal conditions. It's tough being a street tree but U. parvifolia is vigorous and resilient in San Francisco. This one in Noe Valley must have a low water table. It is never irrigated but is lush. I prune this tree ever 6-9 months. Essentially this is a extremely large bonsia. The soil in the tree basins act more like large containers then expanses of live soil.

Ready for a trim. After 5 hours of pruning and two dump runs:

Victorian Garden

I came across this posters of 819 Eddy Street in San Francisco, CA.   That's a rough part of town.  I'm intrigued by the plants.   So many of these Victorian architecture in San Francisco but none of the original gardens remain.  

Here’s what it looks like on December 16, 2024 

Noe Valley Garden

Last week I was invite over to my friend Nader's house for dinner and drinks. I arrived late due to confusion on my part but it was perfect lighting to view the garden. Nader's garden is always impeccable and constantly evolving. It's been well over a year since I been here and the first thing I noticed was the red. Nader doesn't do red so I was shocked. Is he ok?

Border with Bold Colors

Bold, Hot or exotic. Not sure which is correct when describing the facelift we gave to this large space around the barn's decks.

Planting a White Garden on the Pacific Coast

The garden tour is this Saturday.  The Garden Conservancy is hosting it's annual garden tours.  We spruced up this garden for the tour.

Frank and I are leaving early Wednesday and will be adding these plants. I'm so thrilled that I was able to find these gorgeous silver plants from Flora Grubb Gardens:

Stachys 'Bello Grigio'

Piccolo Fiume

Little River, California, a tiny enclave on the Mendocino coast includes this garden, Piccolo Fiume. I, along with Frank Eddy, have been designing and supervising a major make over for the Garden Conservatory Tour June 2015. Along with sprucing up an already "landscape-architected" garden we have added a white garden and bold colored perennial bed. First built in 2000, this garden has evolved but needed some simple editing.



These three photos was from our 3rd weekend work fest March 29th. The Tour is June 13th and I will be there. It will be great to see you there.

Tour information: The Garden Conservancy.

Bees on a Poppy

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

North Oakland Cottage Garden

This garden caught my eye from a far. It was one of few interesting gardens in this north Oakland neighborhood. The quivering coins of birch leaves along with white bubbles of Erigeron and yellow dots of Thunbergia alata created an effervesce aura.

February in Northern California

Shrub Roses with Euphorbia and Libertia.

Arts & Crafts Front Entry Garden - One Year Maintenance Visit

One year after planting, today I detailed this garden: staking, weeding, shearing and deadheading. This is my first garden design to incorporate those plants and ideas from my trip to England in 2012. This small front bed was a blank slate. The building's Arts & Crafts style is the theme for this planting.

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.