Batsford Arbortum - Cotswolds

 July 23rd

Crossrail Place @ Canary Wharf - London

 July 21

Reflection Garden - London Saint Paul's Churchyard

July 19th

English Garden and Nursery Tour

 It’s finally here.   Headed to SFO in a couple of hours for our flight to London.   Frank and I have been planning this trip since February and we both excited the time is here.   Below is a rough outline of our path staring in London, then to Oxford to pick up a car, couple days scouting food in the Cotswolds, then a loop East to Suffolk and Norfolk.   Then up to Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and back to Oxford where we change car for van and pick up our guests in Bicester.  Our formal five day tour of the Cotswolds gardens starts.   Based out of Deddington, we will be visiting Broughton Grange, Hidcote, Kiftsgate, Rodmarton Manor and Rousham.  After the tour, we head back for a couple days in London and return home in San Francisco. 

Introducing My Newest Cottage Garden

 I have been working this tiny front plot for about five years now.   I have slowing been planting new layers of flowering plants in the Potrero Hill garden.  New addition this spring is the ruby red Ixias in the last couple of photos.

Eastern California and Owens Valley

My friend and fellow gardener Jeannine decided to take a quick 4 day road trip to Benton Hot Springs in the far eastern part of California.  Our trip started from San Francisco and since the snow pack from our stormy winter is still present all the passages through the Sierras were closed.  We had to go up highway 50 to South Lake Tahoe to catch US 395 in Nevada.   

US highway 395 follows the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada range.   From this prospective you see the sharp peaks of this mountain range. 

Upon leaving the hot springs we decided to take the southern route home via 178 along the Kern River through Bakersfield, west along 46 to Paso Robles and finally up US 101 to San Francisco, a eleven hour drive.   The wildflowers photos are at the end of this post.

Dearborn Community Garden

 

This is my plot in the nearby community garden. It is a raised bed 11 feet by 8 feet or so. This year I am testing some new plants. A layer of bulbs including: Allium schubertii 'Arctic Snow', A. Schubertii, A. aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’, NoID Hyacinthoides (Spanish Bluebells), Freesia, Sparaxis, Narcissus ‘tête-à-tête’. A second layer of self-sowing annuals Papaver dubium subsp. Lecoqii ‘Albiflorum’, Lobularia maritima, Nigella damascena, NoID bread seed poppy and Atriplex hortensis var rubra (Purple Orach).

Spring Bulbs in San Francisco

 

Narcissus 'Minnow' in Eureka Valley

Fundraiser for Sunburnt Gardeners

 

Tour of English Gardens - The Cotwolds

 

Spring bulbs

 Orange (really coral) Hycinths

Repotting Bay Topiary with Root Pruning

 The multi-tiered topiary in the middle of this photo is a Bay Leaf tree that I've been training for maybe 10 years now.  It is currently potted in a large Airpot which makes pruning its roots easy.  

Caselli Ave - Eureka Valley, San Francisco

  Bulbs and flowering shrubs for February. 

American Southwest

Flying to Texas, a trip I know well.  The landscape is not always visible but both legs of this trip showed the colors of this part of our country.   There's a light layer of snow or frost that turns some of the rock silver or white and along with reds and blues, this contrast makes the geography more pronounced. 

Hardenbergia violacea 'White Out'

This Australian vine-like shrub loves our climate and regularly produces a huge abundance of flowers every January.   That's if you don't prune it too hard.   Only lightly shear to maintain shape.   This is my first time with this white cultivar and it will eventually, next two years or so, climb this arbor leading to the upper terrace of this garden.