Rooted in California

Volunteer sunflower in January

2012-01-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

So in case you haven't stuck your head outside, or don't live in the western region of North America, the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry. So warm and dry in fact that my neighbors yard has a volunteer sunflower! Not the mightiest of sunflowers, only about 2 1/2 feet tall, and already looking worse than in this photo from a couple days ago, but still, very strange. The weather is finally supposed to start to cool, and rain is forecast for the middle of next week, so I'm off to the local pool to enjoy it while I can.

Happy Solstice, Christmas, Holidays and New Year

2011-12-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

I went to a solstice celebration in Muir Woods 2 days ago. They opened most of the main grove for free from 3-8pm. Music, carolers, children running around with flashlights. It was good fun. And they lined the path with luminaria, something I know more from my time in Arizona. A great way to guide people through the trees without the need of flashlight. But as you can see, it's really dark under redwoods at night.

I've had a very busy 2011 and have not been blogging, but will be back in 2012. A very merry season to you all. And from here on out the days just get longer.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2011

2011-04-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

The tax day addition. Fortunately for my procrastinating self, taxes aren't due till Monday, and my first appt was a no-show, so I have time to blog a bit.

On my little patio/potted garden I have a couple things blooming, the first four Ca natives. The biggest surprise were my western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa). They die back completely in the dry season, and I mean completely. I was a little afraid they wouldn't come back, but a couple of weeks ago they started leafing out and today, blooming beautifully.

My redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has been green continuously, but just started flowering for the first time in almost a year. I like the second pic. I looks like the one flower is incredibly shy.

The columbine (Aquilegia formosa) has also just started to flower. It's also covered in these monstrous giant bugs. Well they look that way with my macro lens. Way to go macro lens. Boo to the bugs. They were actually pretty small, and have now met their doom.

The last of the Ribes sanguineum glutinosum. It was actual beautiful last bloom day, but I wasn't around to blog about it.

And this volunteer oxalis in one of my pots.

Happy bloom day, and thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting bloom day.

Hiking in Redwood Regional Park - 1 New, 1 Old

2011-04-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

So my blog is now 2 years old, as of a couple days ago. I'm mildly proud of that, even though I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to. Completely unrelated, this year I've been trying to see parts of the Bay Area that I haven't seen before. This can be exploring a new park, new hot springs, a new restaurant, or something as simple as hiking unfamiliar trails in a familiar park. This post is a conglomeration of photos from hikes I did about in Redwood Park about 3 weeks ago. The first, hiking out of the serpentine prairie (new) and the second leaving from Skyline Gate(old).

For the first hike I went up to the Serpentine Prairie (see my previous post about this area here) and then went out the Dunn trail and back on the Golden Spike trail for a short loop.

The first blue dicks were out, as were some tiny insects. Are they flies, tiny bees?

A field of common star lilies (Zigadenus fremontii).

And does anyone know what this is? It looks like red asparagus. It was growing in some shade under oaks I believe.

Find the other hike after the jump.

The second hike started out at the Skyline Gate. We hiked out along the West Ridge trail and then down Chown trail to French trail, following that at least most of the way back. This made for about 6-7 mi loop. If you've never hiked the Chown, French and other trails between West ridge and Stream trails, I highly recommend it. They are not used very much so you won't see too many people even on weekends, and you get to hike under a canopy of redwoods and bay laurel, with occasional bursts of madrones. They are some of my favorite trails here in the East Bay.

On this day we were lucky to see several western leatherwoods (Dirca occidentalis) all in flower and all in a big clump. I say lucky because these plants are endemic to the Bay Area, and, I think, really beautiful when flowering.

We also got to see hundreds and hundreds of Trillium ovatum. (For more about these plants checkout Curbstone Valley's post) And I'm not kidding about the hundreds. We passed at least a dozen patches. My friend and I stopped to count one average patch and counted at least 40. It was very cool hiking in the cool, dark of the redwoods and seeing small fields of these guys popping out of the duff.

Many of the madrones were blooming as well. I might have mentioned this in another post, but the blooms are edible. I don't recommend making a meal of them, though they do make a nice little trail taste. The flowers are kind of papery and they have a very sweet taste, perhaps from the nectar inside. Some are sweeter than others, so if you don't like your first ones try a different tree.

Alien life forms at Huckleberry Regional Preserve

2011-03-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

I went to Huckleberry a couple of weeks in search of Ribes sanguineum blossoms. I found that and quite a bit more. One of the storms seemed to have knocked a tree over at the beginning of the trail. But I saw some people coming up that part of the trail so I went on down. Shhh, don't tell. I think it was only for liability reasons anyway.

The ferns were emerging from their dry season slumber.

These weird shapes were on the madrone trunks.

More after the jump...

The hazelnuts putting out their catkins.

A couple of bright mushrooms under the duff.

A very angry bumblebee visiting manzanita blooms.

And of course the Ribes I was looking for.

Catch up - Photos of Mt. Diablo with Snow and Roasting the Bay Nuts

2011-03-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

A few days after my aborted attempt to see snow on Mt. Diablo, I went out to Walnut Creek to do some work. Luckily my friend was driving. He was even nice enough to pull over, but strangely the best pics were just taken through the windshield while moving.

And I realized I did in fact take some pics while roasting the bay nuts. The shells are very easy to remove, leaving two halves of a creamy colored nut. The 2nd and 3rd pic are the roasted nuts. The 2nd picture is without flash and the 3rd with. The actual color of the roasted nuts is somwhere in between, think a ruddy chocolate brown.

No snow and California bay nuts

2011-02-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

So the forecast for this last weekend was for snow in the SF Bay Area. They were even forecasting snow down to sea level. I was pretty excited. But there was no snow. I should have known better than to trust a weather forecast.

In other news, I finally roasted some California bay (laurel) nuts. As you might have read in another post, I collected some back in November. And I finally got around to roasting them recently. Flavors of Home suggested roasting them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. It seems a little less might be better.

The first time I roasted them for a little longer and they tasted like burnt popcorn. I tried it again and took out the nuts at different times (between 25-35 min of roasting). Too little and they taste a little raw/bitter. Too long and they taste too burnt, but even when cooked right they still have the taste of burnt popcorn to me. When I told this to a friend, he immediately asked, "Burnt popcorn in a good or bad way?" Sometimes burnt popcorn is not so bad. So I would say burnt popcorn in a good way. I can really see eating a lot of them, but they definitely weren't bad. I have a few more nuts, so I'm gonna try one more round and experiment a little more.

For another blog post and video on roasting them check out FeralKevin. (Thanks for the link Katie)

Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area

2011-02-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

So the plan today was to get up to Mt. Diablo to see the snow. But just near the entrance on Northgate we saw a long line of cars, and a long line of cars turning around to come back the way we had come. The thumbs down from one of the returning drivers sealed it, so we also turned around and headed to Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area (try and say that ten times fast) instead. I had never heard of this park, but it was actually a really nice find just on the edge of Walnut Creek.

We followed the course of a creek, having to cross it several times. That made for some interesting dances across the rocks. Above us there were tons of beautiful rock formations.

And there were also caves big and small scattered about.

The buckeyes were just leafing out, filling the woods with bright green light.

Lots of baby buckeyes too and the first blue dicks were popping out.

We also saw buttercups and lots of miners' lettuce, some red-tailed hawks and a woodpecker.

And in the end we did end up seeing some snow, though from far away. Here are some of the foothills covered with a nice dusting. The peak itself was covered in a much thicker coat.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - February 2011

2011-02-15T00:02:00.000-08:00

Spring has arrived here in the Bay Area thanks to several weeks in the upper 60s and there is stuff blooming all over town. I managed to snap these pics right before the rains started up again today, though.
My own gardening is limited at the moment, but I was very excited to see some blooms on my patio. And not just any blooms, but Ribes sanguineum, aka flowering currant, one of my favorite flowers. It's just started to open, so soon the flowers will be dripping in longer pendants.

Also flowering is one of my 3 blueberries. The other two are a different variety.

In the house, I just bought two orchids.

And I have some cut birds of paradise in the house that were brought over for my birthday party. This shot just reminds me of many a rainy day in the Bay.

Thanks as always to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Old Growth Redwoods and Hot Springs

2011-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

Last fall, my partner and I were looking for a day escape from the Bay Area. Fortunately, we found a great one. We decided to head north to check out Orr Hot Springs near Ukiah. I insisted on also stopping at Montgomery State Reserve which protects five groves of old-growth redwoods for a short hike beforehand.

We found this to be a really easy (though fairly long) day trip from the Bay. Orr Hot Springs is just some 14 miles outside of Ukiah, so it's actually a nice straight shot up the 101. Those last 14 miles are anything but straight, however. And Montgomery State Reserve is just another 3 miles past the springs.

The hike in Montgomery starts up a decent hill, but once you flatten out you are rewarded with an incredibly beautiful stroll through several redwood groves. Water branches out in several directions and the forest is carpeted with ferns and sorrel. And the trees are, as expected, immensely tall.

If you've never visited an old-growth redwood forest, you're missing out. There is something magical about the experience. Since it's a little off the beaten track Montgomery doesn't seem to have that many visitors making it a really pleasant experience. Here is the rootball of one of the giants.

Here are signs of a fire, started by lightning, that burned in the forest in 2008. Otherwise the undergrowth seems to have recovered.

After the redwoods we headed to Orr Hot Springs. The pools are for the most part small, but they were clean, and this was one of our favorite hot springs to date. Sorry no pictures of the springs. But check out this site for one person's perspective.

Garden Update

2011-01-24T19:13:00.000-08:00

As anyone who has read my blog for a while knows, I moved into an apartment with no real garden in the spring of 2010. And I just wanted to post a quick update about my gardening endeavors and my old garden.

This post was inspired by my working near my old place today. I decided to go to the bakery nearby and check out the garden to see how things looked, at least in the front yard. And I was very pleasantly suprised. (Sorry no pics, since i thought it would be weird to post pics if I don't live there anymore. For previous posts on my old front yard check here.) The person who moved in has been keeping the front yard up and almost everything has survived and even flourished. The Ribes malvaceum is in full bloom right now, as is the Arctostaphylos pajaroensis 'Paradise'. Beautiful pinks. The other manzanitas are just starting. 3 of the 5 columbine survived, look great and are blooming right now. At least 2 of the 3 iris survived, as have all of the salvias. That last one is a surprise. The blue-eyed grass have spread, and the new inhabitant has kept the licorice plant and California fuchsia in check. The only things that seemed to have disappeared are the paprika yarrow (I'm guessing they got pulled for looking weedy), 2 of the columbine and one of the iris. Not bad at all. The hellstrip is looking raggedy, but that's how they generally look.

As for my own gardening, a friend of mine moved into a place about 5 blocks from where I now live. Back in the late fall she called to see if I would help her start and share a veggie garden and so I did. We currently have kale, lettuce, chard and arugula that we've been harvesting. Just starting to produce are some snap peas and some broccoli (Decicco, an Italian heirloom variety brought by immigrants to SF a long time ago, and one of my favorites.) And on their way are a bed of fava beans.

Here at my apartment there is a trumpet vine choking the life out of several trees. I've neglected the small shared yard here, but today a neighbor and I started freeing a couple of the trees from the smothering biomass that is this vine. It will be a multi-day job, but already there is some more light pouring into the yard.

Crystal Cove - Orange County

2010-12-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

This year my family decided to do Thanksgiving the weekend after the fact, and we met in Orange County to celebrate. My parents were staying in a very nice place near Corona del Mar (view from balcony pictured above) and very close to Crystal Cove State Park. Walking distance as a matter of fact. Though I love the Bay Area, every time I go down south, I marvel at how much more comfortable the climate is and how nice (and easy to get to) the beaches are. So here are pics from two hikes on a beautiful winter day in So Cal.

First I was amazed at how many native plants I saw along the bluffs over the ocean. This area has seen heavy development so it was good to see some familiar plants. Like artemisia and toyon (lots of toyon), as well as sages and coyote brush. My dad and I tried a few of the toyon berries, which are supposedly somewhat edible. Usually they are described as astringent. I think that is an excellent word. Many are mealy as well. I did find one bush right along Highway 1, however, that had sweeter berries. It tasted citrusy, but can't imagine eating a whole lot.

Not all the familiar plants were a good thing, like this oxalis. But it was nice to see they are trying to restore the area.

Some of the plants I wasn't familiar with.

And then in historic Crystal Cove, a small beach village, they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Nothing like a walk on the beach in December with a Christmas tree to usher in the holidays. A happy solstice, merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

Bay Area Foraging Successes?

2010-11-24T20:41:00.000-08:00

So I've tried a couple of things I foraged or wrote about a while ago. I left you all hanging with my last post, but I still haven't tried the laurel nuts. I'm thinking I'll try and roast them this weekend. I did however try the fruit. Hmmm? How to describe it? As you can see in this pic, it looks like a tiny round avocado.

Pretty cool looking really. The flesh was much firmer, so I'm not sure it was ripe. I read you're supposed to wait till the fruit turns purple before eating. Most of the fruit was purple, but maybe it wasn't long enough. I think I've lost the opportunity to try again this year, but it was hard to motivate after tasting it. What did it taste like? I only tried tiny nibbles. One was hard and didn't taste like much. The other was like chewing on a fleshy bay leaf. A really strong bay leaf. Blech. It took me a while to get the taste out of my mouth. Here's hoping the nuts are tastier.

I have had some better success with some infusions, or teas. I tried both a fresh and a dried rose hip tea, made from hips of Rosa californica. There didn't seem to be much difference between fresh and dried. It tastes like vitamin C, if that makes sense. Not bad, a little sweet. I also tried adding a couple of hips to other teas. The taste definitely powers through, but fortunately I like the taste.

I also tried an infusion of madrone (Arbutus menziesii) bark. I really like this stuff. I've had it a couple times now. In Flavors of Home, Margit Roos-Collins describes the flavor as "a little like Chinese green tea mixed with the fragrance of bark or wood. It's flavor is homey and a little musty, like the smell of a room full of books that has been closed up for a season by the ocean." I don't know about that last part, but I do know I had forgotten how she described the flavor and after my first couple of sips, I thought to myself that it tasted like green tea. But an earthy green tea. It's very pleasant. I've mixed it with rose hips and white sage. So far I think I like it on its own.

And last, but not least, I tried madrone berries. I don't know if I've never paid attention before, but I have seen tons of madrone berries this year, both in the East Bay and on a trip up north to Mendocino. The hills along one section of 101 south of Ukiah was blazing red with all the berries. I finally spotted a tree with low-hanging branches on the side of a small road, and picked some. I don't think they were ripe. They were kind of hard and astringent. Ms. Roos-Collins did say in her book, that fruits vary in taste from tree to tree. I'm supposed to hike on Thanksgiving, so I'll look for some more.

East Bay Fall, Redwood Park

2010-11-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

So reminded by Christine's post over at Idora Design, I decided to go for a hike yesterday to look for California bay, or laurel, fruits. I had read about eating them in Flavors of Home and was quite curious. I know there are a lot of laurel trees on the laurel trail in Berkeley's Tilden Park, a really beautiful section in fact, but I got a late start and it's not very convenient for me to get to from Oakland. That and traffic on the 24 made me take a last minute turn towards Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland hills. And I'm really glad I did.

I parked at the Skyline Gate Staging Area and then preceded to go left on the West Ridge trail. The area near the gate has been worked on quite assiduously by habitat restoration volunteers and the efforts really show. There were tons of different natives peaking up all along that first part of the trail, and several cages around some planted natives as well. This is a different area of the park than where I volunteered.

Here there were a lot of honeysuckle and some snowberries.

There were California fuchsia doing their thing, and hazelnuts getting ready to do theirs.

And this has already done its thing. Anybody know what this is?

The most impressive were the madrones. All the tallest trees were fruiting. I'd never seen, or at least never noticed, this before. Really beautiful.

I turned left off again and took the Tres Sendas trail to the French which looped me back to the West Ridge trail. Not very far at all, a little more than 2 miles, but I think I took 2 hours to do it because I kept stopping. There was even our Bay Area Fall colors on display. Like this poison oak.

Or perhaps more impressive, this big leaf maple.

So what about the laurel, or bay, fruits? Well I did in fact find some, but for that you'll have to wait till my next post.

Acorn Gelato

2010-11-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

So when I started this blog, I had thoughts of blogging about food fairly often. Those posts have been few and far between, but here's one I had to blog about. I went to my favorite local gelateria, Gelateria Naia, last night. I usually get something with chocolate and so was trying to branch out. Their flavors were very different than the last few times I've been there. Since they use a lot of local ingredients I guess it makes sense that they would have to be in season as well. I sampled the prickly pear sorbetto, which was good, but a little sweet for my taste. And then I saw the acorn gelato. What could be better for a California fall? The sample was good, very light, and I decided would pair well with chocolate. Ah well, I did at least try to branch out. So I ordered the acorn with dark chocolate a perfect combination.

I went to Italy this summer and have been a little disappointed with the different gelato places I've tried. In Italy, the gelato was very light. Here most gelato is much heavier. It seems more like regular ice cream, but with more unique flavors. The gelato at Naia is much lighter, but still incredibly flavorful. Some of the flavors are a single-malt whiskey and an earl gray, along with other more basic flavors like stracciatella. There are now several stores and places you can buy their gelato here in the Bay Area. They'll also ship to several western states, though you kinda have to be there to receive it.

For another blog entry about Gelateria Naia from KQED, click here.

Riparian Restoration Redwood Regional Park in Oakland aka Pulling French Broom

2010-10-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

So I'm back. Two weddings in the last month. But weekend before last I spent my Sunday morning up at the Redwood Regional Park here in Oakland volunteering. The East Bay Regional Parks have ongoing volunteer projects for habitat restoration. I was interested in doing something in the parks where I frequently hike here in the Oakland Hills. I missed the one in the Huckleberry Botanic preserve, the second Saturday of every month, but had time for the riparian restoration project in Redwood Park the second Sunday of every month.

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but a week or two before I volunteered, I was hiking in the park and saw lots of colored flags marking native plants that had been planted along the stream that runs through the park. I thought what better way to spend a Sunday morning than planting natives along a a beautiful creek.

Well I didn't quite get to do that. Instead I and several other volunteers were up on a sunny slope cutting down French broom and then pulling the stumps out by the roots. French broom is incredibly invasive here in the East Bay hills and crowds out or shades out natives. I had no idea it got as tall as it does. I was cutting down broom 10 feet tall. I always assumed they were small shrubs, but they in fact get to the size of small trees.

Though not quite what I expected I had a good and rewarding time. All of the volunteers were friendly and Pamela, who works for the park district and organizes this volunteer group, could not have been more helpful. They showed me areas they had already cleared and all of the natives that were discovered hiding under there, or other areas they replanted with natives. I myself uncovered/rescued 3 live oaks. One might have been able to compete with the French broom at 12 feet high, the other two could not at chest high and 10 inches high. I also found a tiny bay, 2 ribes and a sword fern. Very cool. I'm sure the seedbank of broom is quite high, but I'm sure there are also some other native seeds in their two that might now have a chance.

I didn't take any pictures, but here's a youtube video posted by a volunteer named John, who I was working beside for most of the morning. In it you see the ingenious weed pullers that easily yank the broom out, rootball and all.

Wild Berries in the Sierra Nevada

2010-09-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

So two weekends ago I went to Yosemite and the Sierras. This was my first trip to Yosemite where I completely avoided the valley floor. It was wonderful. It's such a beautiful park no matter where you go.

It's late summer coming onto fall and so there were quite a few berries scattered about on different bushes. Some edible, some not, some undetermined.

The first berries we found were along a creek on some species of Ribes. They had thorns on the stems so they would fall under the common name gooseberry I think. Not sure which one specifically since our book just said there were various species of Ribes scattered throughout the Sierras. It had small red berries. Near the creek, they were a little mealy and not so sweet, but higher up they had a pleasant tartness balanced with a little sweetness.

In the same area we found twinberries. Beautiful, plump glossy berries looking like conjoined twins. My recent favorite book Flavors of Home describes them as officially edible, but not good to eat, at least here in California. Further north in Oregon, they are supposedly prized and considered tasty, here in California no mention is made. I now understand why. I tried one, just to see, even after my friend said they weren't worth it. It had a pretty foul taste. So foul we had to go back and eat some more Ribes berries to get the taste out of our mouth. Ah well.

On the last day, on our way home, we stopped for another short hike. We walked through the woods, it was quite beautiful, but then we found some thimbleberries. I had heard they were really good, but had never found them ripe. They are really good. They are kind of like a small fragile raspberry in the shape of a thimble (hence their name). They have a very nice, but complex flavor. Very good.

Then further up we saw more gooseberries. These had full on spikes to protect the berries themselves. I kept thinking to myself that this plant, unlike most berry producers, did not want mammals (or at least me) disbursing its seeds. I seemed to get impaled more than my friends, but it was worth it. They were sweet and very juicy. I thought to myself at the time that they would make a nice sorbet. Evidently someone agreed.

I pulled a bunch off with some twigs I used as impromptu chopsticks and brought them home in a bag. At home with a fork and a sharp knife they were much easier to open, and a small spoon easily scooped out the flesh. Next time I'll just remember to bring gloves.

There were also quite a few hazelnut shrubs on that hike, but no hazelnuts were ready.

Birds in Tilden

2010-09-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

So on a hike about 2 weeks ago with some friends, I saw two birds in an unexpected place. I see these birds all the time, but I don't usually expect to see them in the trees.

The first was what we believe was a juvenile red-tailed hawk. Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) are very common not just here in California, but throughout North America, and their range extends to islands in the Caribbean and down through Central America. They are quite variable in coloring and here in the West they have three forms, light, dark and intermediate. The dark are completely dark brown, so it looks like that's what we've got below. For more pics and more info, check out this post on 10000 Birds.

The second bird was a turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), just sitting in a tree a mere 20 feet from the trail. It wasn't a tree on the edge of a clearing, we were in the woods. We thought maybe it was hiding from something, but really we had no idea. This bird too is a juvenile. It's head is grey instead of the characteristic red of the adults. Turkey vultures are the most widespread of the New World vultures from Southern Canada to the end of South America.

These are two birds I think of when I think of open space here in California. I often see them on hikes or long car rides in less populated areas. But it looks like people all over North America probably think the same.

And as an added bonus, here's a pic of a heron (I believe it's a great blue heron) that I saw while paddling down the Russian River in a canoe over Labor Day weekend.

Wild Late Summer Harvest

2010-09-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the book The Flavors of Home, which I wrote about in a previous post, I decided to try and find a few of the things that are available in August or September.

First I decided to look for some California hazelnuts which are ripe in July and August. While hiking in Huckleberry a few weeks ago I was unsuccessful. But this last week in Marin I was, though not very. Although there were many hazelnut bushes along the trail, I found only two, count them, two California hazelnuts. I ate one on the trail and saved the other to take some pictures.

The book warns that they are a favorite of squirrels and so hard to find. It tasted kind of like a walnut to me. I don't think I've ever had hazelnuts outside of chocolate though, so I'm no expert. The green sheath below surrounds the nut when it's not yet ripe. And then dries to brown as the nut ripens. Be careful though. There are a lot of tiny hairs on it that will stick in your fingers and hands. Felt kind of like nettle. Peeling the first one, I only got a couple, the second a handful of stinging hairs. The first seemed drier. I wonder if that made the difference. Then you've got to crack the nut to get to the meat.

Next up was madrone bark. This is the time of year when sheets of the bark starts to dry and curl on the tree and is easily removed. It's used to make an infusion (i.e. tea). I haven't tried it yet, but will definitely blog about it when I do.

And last up were rose hips of one of our native wild roses. Much like the hazelnuts, I've seen lots of wild roses lately, but almost no hips. That is until I stumbled upon a small group of bushes covered with hips. They are very tiny in comparison to the domesticated varieties. I'm not sure I took enough for more than a cup of tea, but when I have it I'll blog about that as well.

I was trying to dry them whole, but then decided to cut them in half and dry them in a low oven for about 30 min as per the book's suggestion. Rose hips are high in vitamin C. And rose hip oil is commonly used in parts of Latin America to minimize scarring and as an anti-aging cream. I tried one on the trail. It was pretty mealy. Not so great. The book does say that some bushes have better tasting hips than others and if you find mealy ones, to move on. But those were the only hips I've seen in weeks.

Swanton Berry Farm and the joys of Highway 1

2010-08-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

I might come back with another post or two about my trip to Europe, but for now I'll talk about my trip down the coast towards Santa Cruz this past weekend. I have done this trip many times. My best friend studied at UC Santa Cruz and I visited her there often at the time. And once she moved up to the Bay Area proper we often made trips down the coast to Santa Cruz to visit.

Our regular route is across the 92 to Half Moon Bay and then south. There is a lot to do on this little stretch of coast, and lots of cool beaches right on the side of the highway to stop and hang out at. But what prompted this trip was my desire to go pick berries at Swanton Berry Farm.

This is an organic farm that uses unionized labor. How much better could you feel about where your food comes from? Well even better if you pick the food yourself. They have a U-pick service for some of their crops depending on the season. Right now they have strawberries and blackberries. I think they are known locally for the olallieberries, but I missed the season. Next time. Later in the year they also have kiwis to pick. Yum. My best friend couldn't come, but it was easy finding volunteers.

I have to say the strawberries were some of the best I've ever had. The blackberries were good, but not supersweet. I think they need a little more time to ripen. They were great with a little vanilla yogurt though. The strawberries I didn't want to dilute at all, so they all got eaten fresh.

If you do decide to cruise down this stretch of Highway 1, I suggest you also stop in Pescadero at the Arcangeli Grocery Co. to try the artichoke garlic herb bread. This stuff is amazing. I always get one loaf to eat on the drive and at least one to take home. There's also the Bonny Doon vineyard for some winetasting and the giant haybale maze at Arata Pumpkin Farm. And of course don't forget to stop at one of the many beaches to eat your bread, berries, and drink your wine.

Alpine wildflowers part 2

2010-08-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

So we saw way too many wildflowers on our hike in the Bernese Oberland to put them all in one post. So here are a few more. I thought this one might be some sort of rhododendron and it was. Rhododendron hirsutum.

This little ball of yellow is called Anke bauli in the local Swiss German dialect, which literally translates as little butterball. Its Latin name is Trollius europaeus.

This one had a very unique flower and according to the flora at the hut was Silene vulgaris. According to wikipedia parts of the plant are edible, but I'm not sure I'd rely on wikipedia to know what's edible and what's not.

And everyone needs a sneed. This weird Dr. Seuss looking thing is an Anemone alpina after it was done flowering.

The first of the photos below is, I believe, Phyteuma orbiculare. And the second is Rhinanthus minor. Both very unusual flowers. The phyteuma's common name in English is Rampion but in Italian is Raponzolo and may be where Rapunzel got her name in the story. While Rhinanthus minor is hemi-parasitic (i.e. getting some of its nutrients from neighboring plants) like our Indian paintbrush.

The last three flowers I tracked down with the help of this website about Alpenblume, or Alpine flowers. It's searchable by color, month and size of blooms.

Wildflowers and hiking in the Swiss Alps

2010-08-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

So one of the reasons I haven't been blogging lately is that I was in Europe for 2 1/2 weeks. I went for a friend's wedding and to visit several other friends, so I had a wonderfully busy time. One of the many highlights was a 2 day hike in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. We parked in Lauterbrunnen and then took a gondol up part of the mountain and then were on our way.

While keeping one eye on the incredibly beautiful views of mountains, valleys and glaciers, I also kept one eye down on the ground to look at all the wildflowers. And there were a lot. A beautiful variety of flowers, some familiar, but mostly new to me.

One of the familiar flowers was yarrow. Quite a bit of it along the trail. And this one reminded me of elegant clarkia at first, until I realized it was fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium).

I saw what I was sure was delicate rose foliage and a rosehip a little ways off the trail. I asked my friend's uncle, our unofficial guide, who hikes often in the Bernese Oberland and grew up nearby if it could be a wild rose. He said, no we were too high up for wild roses. But then a little further up the trail we saw this. I had in fact seen a wild rose.

Another pleasant surprise was this lily. According to a book I found out at the hut we stayed at that night it was Lilium martagon, or Turk's cap lily. Really beautiful and unexpected.

Here's some type of ranunculus. My best guess is Ranunculus thora, but I'm not sure.

And a truly wonderful suprise was this little orchid. It's definitely in the genus Dactylorhiza, but I'm not sure of the species. It might be traunsteineri, but just as possible are incarnata, maculata, or fuchsii. I'll try and do a little more digging.

More to come.

Bay Area Edible Plants - The Flavors of Home Book Review

2010-07-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

So my trip to Huckleberry Preserve looking for ripe berries was in part inspired by a book I bought a few months ago. The Flavors of Home - A Guide to Wild Edible Plants of the San Francisco Bay Area by Margit Roos-Collins, published by Heyday Books of Berkeley. This is a great book that talks about many edible species of plants, both native and introduced, that are commonly found here in the Bay Area. It details where to find them and when and gives some information on identifying the plants.

Some of the descriptions and illustrations leave something to be desired, so you'll want to find another book or person who knows to help you ID plants before chomping your way through the woods. But once you are absolutely sure you can ID the plant and know which parts are edible it makes a nice addition to your hike. I sometimes eat things on hikes or gather them to bring them home, and people I know often ask me if I'm sure it's edible, or how I know I can eat that, distrusting the food that grows all around us. There are poisonous plants that grow here, but Roos-Collins addresses this in one of my favorite lines of the book found in the introduction: "Just remember that we are programmed through millions of years of evolution, to be naturally good at foraging. Anyone who can tell a cabbage from a head of iceberg lettuce can learn to select edible wild plants with confidence."

Some of the plants she mentions I've already eaten, like miners' lettuce and nasturtium. One of the more interesting chapters was on edible seaweeds. I haven't tried any of those yet, and have been fairly cautious but I have tried some things already that I read about in the book. I ate some chickweed, a leafy green weed that grows in all sorts of places, including people's gardens. And I ate some madrone blossoms. They were very interesting. The blossoms had a papery texture, but then a very pleasant sweet aftertaste. Hopefully soon I'll be able to add to the list.

Huckleberry Preserve - Failed berry foraging walk

2010-07-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

So even though I didn't find any berries on my walk, as explained on my last post, there was plenty to keep my interest. There was hairy vine honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula var vacillans) in bloom and some huckleberries just starting to form. They are a reliable harvest, but much later in the year.

There was a very interesting grass's seedhead. Probably not native, but beautiful all the same.

There was some ocean spray aka cream bush (Holodiscus discolor), whose buds supposedly taste like thyme, but most were a little too dry for my taste. Others would have worked, but I didn't try any.

The flowers on these miner's lettuce were the most beautiful shade of purple. I'm used to seeing white blooms. Is this a variety, or do the blooms change color with age?

And nearby was a carpet of yerba buena (Satureja douglasii). I love the aroma of its leaves. I don't remember seeing this growing wild here before. It seems very happy.

I think these might be silktassle berries. And then this little, yellow, mystery flower/weed. Anyone know for sure what either is?

Huckleberry Preserve - Attempted berry foraging edition

2010-06-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

So I went up to Huckleberry preserve in hopes of finding thimbleberries, a native, and supposedly delicious berry I have yet to taste. Well the first plants I found were only in flower. And while there were some berries after all further down the trail, none of them were ripe yet. It will have to wait till later.

This park always amazes me with it's variety of native plants and a wonderful, quiet beauty. Here is filtered sunlight on California grape.

I also saw a bee at work on these blackberry blossoms and another one that seems to have passed out drunk from the monkeyflower nectar. He didn't move for a good minute or more. Better for my camera.

I don't know if I'm more aware, but I swear that some plants are more common now than just a few years ago. California rose for example is scattered along the trail in quite a few spots now. Here's a rosehip just starting to form. And although most of the rose blooms were done for the year, a few more were getting ready to open.

Another reason I came to the preserve was to look for California hazelnuts (Corylus cornuta var californica). Also edible, but not quite ripe. A very strange, but beautiful housing for the future nuts. And the buds just awakening.

And I wanted to see if there were any ribes berries to sample. The ribes species that grow in the park I don't think are very tasty, but I'm still curious to try some. They weren't ripe either.

It seems like our wet and late winter pushed some things back from their usual cycle. Luckily I didn't mind just having a pleasant walk through the woods.

World Cup Grass

2010-06-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

So in honor of the US qualifying this morning for the second round of the World Cup (my current obsession which is keeping me from blogging), here's a quick post on the controversy of the grass used for this year's World Cup in South Africa. (Though probably not as controversial as one of the referee's calls.) Evidently the original plan was to use kikuyu grass, which is native to Africa, overseeded with rye grass. Kikuyu is the norm on fields, or pitches, as some of our English-speaking cousins call them, in South Africa. Rye grass the norm in Europe. Evidently the kikuyu is tough and has a bit of bounce to it. But FIFA, the world-governing organization for soccer decided it wasn't green enough for television.

My favorite line: ''The ryegrass requires more water, fertiliser and maintenance than kikuyu." But as we all know people must have their visually perfect lawn. The rye grass fields won't last past the winter and will be replaced with kikuyu after the show.

San Pablo Reservoir

2010-06-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

So about a week ago, I went on a short hike with a friend of mine near San Pablo Reservoir in the hills between Orinda and El Sobrante (East of Berkeley). It was a nice sunny day and I was surprised by some of the plants I found, since I assumed it would be overrun by exotics.

Indian paintbrush. Always one of my favorites.

Lots and lots of monkeyflower. Such a beautiful flower, too bad it's not always a garden-worthy plant.

I think this is pearlyeverlasting, something I've never seen, but when I saw it I figured this must be it. A very descriptive common name. [edit: Thanks to Katie at Nature ID, it looks like this is probably California cudweed - pseudognaphalium californicum.]

And I think at least some of this is purple needlegrass.

And anyone know what this beautiful little flower is? [edit: A second thanks to Katie at Nature ID for this one, Platystemon californicum, or California cream cup. A lovely little flower.]

More about bees

2010-06-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little behind in posting. What can I say, it's summer. But here is a really interesting, and short, article my cousin (the bee expert) shared. It's about a bee species found in Turkey and Iran at least. Enjoy.

Stop - Don't do this! Invasives

2010-05-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to help a friend work on/design her front yard. I can be a bit controlling, so I'm letting go and said my only rule is not planting any invasives. We all make mistakes and I've made a few, but we should really just obliterate some plants from our landscapes.

Here is a stretch of dirt along a wall outside the MacArthur Bart Station in North Oakland. It contains 4 of our most invasive species all rolled into one tangled mass.

Who will win? My bets are on the ivy.

In the closeup you can see cotoneaster, vinca (periwinkle), and ivy. Not pictured is Himalayan blackberry.

Why are these so terrible? Well cotoneaster makes big, thorny thickets and just seems to reseed all over the place thanks to the birds. Vinca will form a huge mat, keeping any other low-growing thing or seedling from growing. And ivy here in the East Bay tends to just blanket hillsides and swallow up shrubs and even trees. Not only do these guys spread, but they limit the diversity of plants in that area.

Instead of cotoneaster, plant toyon, a native plant that has similar foliage color and similar berries in the late fall/winter. Though I think the toyon berries are nicer because they are a truer red, whereas cotoneaster berries have an orangeish tint. So toyon branches can make a nice Christmas decoration.

We actually have a native blackberry (Rubus ursinus). Why not plant that one? Or maybe ollalaberries, not native, but not invasive as far as I know. As for ivy and vinca, there are tons of groundcovers to choose from that will do the same job, but not get out of control.

I'm by no means a native purist, but I think we should all agree to at least not plant things invasive in our areas.

Modern corporate garden in Emeryville

2010-05-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

So I've been wanting to do a post about this for a while. This is a small garden/park attached to the Novartis building in Emeryville on Hollis Street. It's pretty simple and maybe not my exact style, but it is definitely interesting. I drove by this place pretty regularly for over 2 years. Most of the year it's not too exciting. But in the spring, the aloes all bloom at the same time in one massive show of color.

It's very eyecatching and it's a good use of a small space. The Aloes are right on the sidewalk next to road and so draw your eye in to the mini park in an area that's otherwise, semi-industrial/corporate. And the trees blossom at about the same time, so there is more interest beyond.

And also these other flowering succulents grab your attention further back. These add some contrast all year, but for most of the year it's not as magnetic. I do always think of this spring show when I drive by, regardless of the season. The redwoods along the outer edges are planted a little close and I think might cause problems in the future, but all in all a good use of some corporate cash.

May Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Moving on edition

2010-05-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I couldn't resist. About 2 weeks ago, I went over to my last garden to see if the iris (Pacific Coast Hybrid I believe) had bloomed. And they had!

I had been waiting for them to bloom all spring and they hadn't before I moved. I was so excited to see them in flower, even though I don't live there to enjoy them. The next pic is a little hard to see, but the purple of the iris looks great with the white of the snow-in-summer.

And just 2 days ago I went to see if the native honeysuckle had bloomed. I feel like an addict, I just can't get enough. It was the last plant in the front yard that hadn't bloomed. Well that and the Rocky Mountain penstemon, but I've give up on those. Well the honeysuckle has finally bloomed as well.

There were other surprises as well, like this yellow lupine with Salvia chamaedryoides in the back.

Or this guy. I'm not sure what it is. Might be a weed or a wildflower. But it looked nice in the afternoon sunlight.

And in the backyard, there were tons of poppies and phacelia.

A new renter has been found and she's very excited about the garden. Seems it was one of the main reasons she wanted to live there. So that makes me happy. And Happy bloom day to you all. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting this great excuse to get out and take pics of our gardens.

Skyline Serpentine prairie

2010-05-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

So what did California look like before massive development and the upheaval of introduced species of flora? Is there anyway to get a glimpse into the past? Well it so happens that areas with serpentine soil often still contain many native plants and haven't been crowded out by invasives. Many of our plants evolved to grow in serpentine soils and so, for once, have an advantage over exotic species.

Between gardens during the natives tour, I drove along Skyline Blvd in the Oakland hills. I saw a stretch of grasses and wildflowers between the north and south lanes that caught my attention. My partner's father the day before had mentioned going to the serpentine prairie with the dog and I wondered if this was it.

Interesting, but it seemed awfully small. I was still impressed with the native grasses, flowers (lupine, poppies, owl's clover), etc. growing in a median strip. But I went on my way and then saw what he was talking about.

The Skyline Serpentine Prairie up in the Oakland hills is home to many native plants. Aside from things like yarrow and blue-eyed grass, which I often see elsewhere, it is also home to 16 species and two natural hybrids of native grasses, and the endangered Presidio Clarkia and rare Tiburon buckwheat. It was evidently twice as big as it is now (half lost to housing in the 1960s). But they have begun restoring a 6-acre area by removing trees (Monterey pines) and fencing off part of the area to avoid overuse. (In the last pic you can see some exposed rock.)

The restoration will continue over the next couple of years and the idea is that hopefully they can restore it to its former glory. Here's hoping they are successful.

UC Berkeley California Native Bee Garden

2010-05-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

So I also went to the CA native Bee Garden at UC Berkeley as part of the Bringing Back the Natives Tour (see my previous post). I had been two years ago, and probably wouldn't have gone again if my cousin, Marissa, wasn't working there. I ran into Marissa on the tour there 2 years ago, not knowing she was helping her professor do native bee research. And now that she's graduated she has a job doing research.

Not sure which species this is. They were sleeping on a cosmos bloom last year. It might be Melissodes robustior (males).

I'm glad I did go this year. The garden is looking much nicer and Marissa gave me a little private tour of the garden, interrupted frequently by other people who were curious to know about the bees or the plants. So here are some of the more interesting things I learned while there. (And for more info visit the garden's website.)

None of our native bees live in hives. The bees you see this year actually emerge from nests that were laid last year by solitary females. The male bees tend to hatch a few days earlier than the females and then stake out some flowers and patrol them, either to protect a nectar/pollen source for females of their own species, or more importantly to mate with a female who will (hopefully) visit those flowers looking for pollen or nectar. If you see a bee zooming around and around a particular patch of flowers, you're looking at a male. Females will come to gather pollen and go back to their nest. The guys want to cruise and the ladies are all business. And only the females can sting. Stingers are modified ovipositors, which males don't have.

Most native bees dig holes into the ground to make their nests, so don't mulch your whole yard. Leave some areas unmulched to provide nesting habitats for the bees. Some will dig a vertical shaft down and then dig out horizontally in a spoke-like pattern to create individual cells for each egg. Each cell is lined with a waterproof coating and each egg is laid with with a bit of bee bread, a mix of pollen, nectar and bee saliva. They then hatch, eat, grow, and then go dormant to stay underground until the following year.

Many of our species of native bees only come out into the open for a few weeks. They mate, the females build their nests and then die. Their emergence from underground is often timed to match the blooms of favorite species.

There are approximately 1600 species of bees (mostly native) in California. This is an amazing number considering the US has about 4000 species total and there are an estimated 25,000 in the world. And our adult bees vary in color and in size from the size of a grain of rice to big furry ones the size of bumblebees (very different) or bigger. We have leafcutter bees (Megachilidae family, which I've seen in my own garden), headbonker bees (Anthidium sp.), carpenter bees and green sweat bees. The leafcutters cut pieces off of leaves to help build their nests. Headbonkers are called that because the males pick a plant and guard it. They will actually bonk bees off the flowers to protect the nectar and pollen for themselves or their females.

The blue orchard bee (Osmia sp.) and some other species live in tunnels found in old wood (preferably oaks). So at the garden the researchers drill holes into blocks of wood of varying widths to attract bees to nest in them. Since the young bees stay in the nest until the following year, the blocks can be transported to a new area. Because of this and of CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) affecting honeybees, these bees are being used more frequently for agriculture.

And most importantly native CA bees prefer native CA plants. They will also gather pollen and nectar from some non-natives, and the bee garden is doing research to see what plants are useful resources for bees, but in general they prefer the plants they have co-evolved with. Go figure.

For more info and pics on individual species at the garden check out this article at baynature.org. And also here is the list of plants from the garden with details about which bees they attract and some planting advice.

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour 2010

2010-05-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

So today was the "Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour" here in the East Bay. I debated about whether to go or not. I've been the last 3 years and have seen quite the mixed bag of gardens. But I drove out to Castro Valley to pick up a new kitchen table this morning and, on my way home, was going to pass two gardens in the Oakland hills I was interested in seeing, so I decided to stop by.

And I'm really glad I did. Both were larger gardens touching some open space and so are not your typical home gardens, but they are perfect places to showcase the beauty of California natives.

The first garden I saw was the Baird/Harper garden, sitting on 5 acres overlooking East Bay regional parks and open space. The views were amazing and property had an amazing variety of California natives, most of them native to the East Bay. The oak/bay woodland above the driveway was full of different natives and was very lush. There was a narrow trail winding through it, so it gave the effect of hiking in an ideal, lush part of the East Bay. (Part of it received some irrigation). There were ferns, iris, wood mint, wood rose, miners' lettuce, yerba buena, lots of scrophularia, and many other plants. This area is nice for someone who enjoys a more wild look.

The area around the pool had a more controlled garden design. It incorporated exotics and some Ca natives, including various Pacific Coast Hybrid irises and a really beautiful ceanothus with dark purple flowers. There was also this heuchera that looks like it's blooming from a Festuca idahoensis.

I also went down to a dry creek bed they are trying to get under control. They pulled out a bunch of weeds and then planted some sword (?) ferns. I then hiked down the hillside to a small creek. This area had only limited, if any, work done on it. There were still a lot of natives to be seen, and of course some weeds, including the hemlock they were battling above.

The second garden I saw was actually two adjacent yards owned by sisters, Sue and Cherie. If the first garden had an lush wild look, these gardens had more of a pleasant, tamed wildness to them. I could easily see sitting just enjoying this yard for a long, long time. These houses are just down the street from where my partner grew up, and I spoke for a while with one of the sisters. She was very friendly and welcoming, and she knew Mike's parents. Here are some pics from her front yard.

The yards are under some incredible oak trees on a slope overlooking Butters Canyon (a tributary of Peralta Creek). The neighborhood has a land trust, the Butters Canyon Conservancy to try and preserve as much of the creek as possible. They have been buying some of the undeveloped lots to keep it as open space. Hopefully I'll have another post soon on their efforts.

There was wild ginger and various other understory plants, but what really impressed me about these yards was the Western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa). I was wowed by a big patch at the front entrance, but then I saw a patch in full sun between to paved walkways. And then I saw the bleeding hearts on the slope under the oaks. It's one of my favorite plants and they were just stunning. It is a truly beautiful garden. (Some bleeding hearts front and then back, yard that is.)

I also went to a third garden, the UC Native Bee Garden where my cousin is helping doing research. I'll post more about that next time.

And be sure to click on the links above for more pics of the gardens.

Wildflowers in Tilden

2010-04-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on my blogging. These photos are from about 3 or 4 weeks ago on a hike up in Tilden Park in Berkeley. It was a beautiful day with lots blooming. Enjoy.\

Sisyrinchium bellum (blue-eyed grass) perfectly scattered about this meadow.

Lupine. A huge slope full of these big purple bushes. Really beautiful.

There was a slope full of Indian paintbrush and checker mallow.

And not a picture of a flower, but this branch popping out of the main stem was pretty cool. Cow parsnip or Heracleum maximum. A not so attractive plant in my opinion, but I like this shot.

Mt. Diablo Wildflowers

2010-04-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Whoever said April showers bring May flowers was obviously not from California. Though we do have rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Our wildflowers are already on full display. I went up to Mt. Diablo in the Mitchell Canyon area to check out the wildflowers on a day off about ten days ago. I was not disappointed. A really beautiful section of the mountain with a huge variety of wildflowers.

One of the first things we saw were Ithuriel's spears. Not my favorite bulb since the flowers remind me of agapanthus, but just opening or scattered about a grassy meadow, I think I could learn to like them.

Some type of allium, either Allium serra or unifolium I think.

Indian warrior and Indian paintbrush. The latter with some unusual host plants, like a salvia.

Larkspur aka delphinium. There was also a red one that I rarely see.

Clematis ligusticifolia, chaparral clematis, was all over a couple of slopes. And some of the trees.

More after the jump.

Some clematis seed fluff.

And not sure what this little guy is. Some type of hound's tongue maybe. [edit: Probably Scutellaria tuberosa, or blue skullcap - see comments for correction]

Also seen, though not photographed were Phacelia distans (white phacelia), poppies, miners' lettuce, blue-eyed grass, buttercups, lupine, 2 or 3 types of ceanothus, lacepods, woodland stars (Lithophragma heterophylla), and the most beautiful scrophularia I've ever seen, which I know is not necessarily saying much, but it was pretty.

For a complete list of the plants of the flowers of Mitchell Canyon look here.

Green

2010-04-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Gardening Gone Wild's theme of their monthly photo contest is "green." Looking through my photos I realized that mostly I focus on big landscape photos, or close ups of blooms. I did find two though that I thought represented green pretty well.

What could be more green than a palo verde, a desert tree that has a green trunk, green branches, green stems and leaves.

Well I thought the sun shining through the leaves of this padron pepper and onto the green pepper itself did a better job. Especially since these peppers stay green when ripe.

Check out more entries at the Picture This Contest for April. And for the music that inspired my photo sifting give a listen to Joni Mitchell's Little Green while you look through the green inspired photos and blog posts.

April Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Tax edition

2010-04-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

So I've moved, my taxes are done, I now have internet at the new place (and faster too!) and can blog once again. So since I don't really have anything to show from my new place (yet) I rode my bike over to my old place to take pictures. It was bittersweet. Lots of stuff is blooming, much of it new in just the last two weeks, so the yards look beautiful. But sadly, I don't live there anymore. So here is perhaps the final bloom day from the Essex gardens. Enjoy.

The snow-in-summer has exploded and looks really nice with the blue-eyed grass.

Some salvias in bloom. And the sacred flower of the inca.

Columbine in front.

I'm not sure if you can see them all, but there are foxgloves, nasturtiums, columbine, blue-eyed grass, poppies and some flowering ground cover all in full bloom under this lemon tree.

This foxglove is, surprisingly, almost as tall as I am.

And this one (sorry about overexposure) is actually taller than I am.

And a honeybee visiting the brussel sprouts.

Several of the phacelia had just one of their buds per group open.

And this hardenbergia is still going strong.

Thank you for bearing with me through all these photos. It's a bit of a farewell to the garden. And thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

SF Flower and Garden Show - 2010

2010-04-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

So I've been a little slow on the posting, but in my defense I still don't have an internet connection at my new place. So I'm also a little late with my SF Flower and Garden Show post, but I went, I saw and I photo'd so I might as well share it here. Also almost one year ago (this Friday April 9th to be exact) was my very first blog post also about the show. So here's to my blog's one year anniversary.

At the show the lighting is terrible and it's hard to take photos. I did get a few though that I think are OK.

My favorite garden was the Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard designed by Dawn Engel. It was a pleasant little courtyard, one I could actually see having on my own property, and they spent a lot of time on detail.

Like this wrought iron fence in the shape of musical notes and staffs.

Or this hellebore hybrid named "Mardi Gras black" in a drum. There was also an aeonium "voodoo".

I also liked this Tuscan inspired garden.

And this treehouse like retreat.

More after the jump.

And these succulents hanging in these pots.

Now I know that this is a design show and some things are more for the sake of art or design, but it's obvious a lot of the designers are not gardeners. Some of the designs would promptly kill or cause suffering to plants. For example this wall.

The succulents in the wall would often be in the shade of the wall itself not the best idea for sun-loving plants.

Also we have this fescue lawn. Alright so far, but the cement halfpipe in the background had more fescue inside. Again, probably too much shade for the poor grass.

And grass on top, no room for roots, so it would need a lot of water to survive. And I'm all for reinventing the lawn, but this too would just suck up a ton of water to even barely survive.

I preferred this Sisyrinchium bellum (Blue-eyed grass) "lawn".

Trillium ovatum - Western Wake Robin

2010-03-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

So I've seen trillium (trillii?) twice this spring. Once on Mt. Tam and once in Tilden Park. They really are quite stunning. There is something about hiking along and suddenly coming across a few of them. First up one of the many I saw on Mt. Tam.

Some from Tilden. First a purple.

Then one of each.

And last a trio of trillium.

So they always sell a few of these at the annual Tilden plant sale, but evidently they are sold within the first moments of opening. So if you want some and want to shell out some cash (they aren't cheap) get there early.

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

2010-03-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

So I saw this little guy in Huckleberry Botanic Preserve about a month ago. I've been slow on the postings. I was up in the manzanita barren when I heard the telltale chirp of the humming bird. I looked up and saw it fly straight up and then dive down to a manzanita a ways off.

It kept going back and forth between a couple plants (a chinquapin and manzanita) and basically looked to be putting on a show, whether for me or something else, I'm not sure. Here he is silhouetted against the sky.

Here you'll find a little description and a recording of their call. Be sure to click on the life history tab. Apparently Anna's hummingbird used to only breed in Northern Baja and Southern California, but with all of us happy gardeners doing our work, they have greatly expanded their breeding range.

Mainly I identified it because I know this hummingbird has a bright iridescent red or pink throat and is common here in the Bay Area. And evidently it's the only one that overwinters here regularly. We have a resident one here at the house that often chirps from high above or lands on our neighbor's plum tree. I've seen him drinking nectar from arugula, columbine, fuchsia, California fuchsia, various salvia, citrus blossoms and I think the passionflower.

Calypso bulbosa - Fairy Slipper, a CA native orchid

2010-03-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

I went hiking on Mt. Tam a couple of weeks ago because the weather was beautiful and I wanted out of the East Bay. Mt. Tam has some beautiful wildflower displays in the spring, but I knew it was a little early for that. Fortunately, there were some that had already popped up including this rare beauty - Calypso bulbosa aka Fairy Slipper. One of 31 orchids native to California. Who knew?

Here are two orchids just popping out of the ground.

Here one is just getting ready to open. In the bottom of the photo you can see its one big, dark green leaf. It appears to be all they have.

And the fairy slipper in all its beauty.

I saw these the first time 2 years ago and was pleasantly surprised to learn we had orchids here in the Bay Area that weren't indoors and from far away. From my observation they grow in shadier parts of the forest on flat or sloped ground, though they seem to be more common in damper places. Hopefully some are still out there so you can see these for yourselves.

And since nothing seems to say spring like a native forest orchid lit up by tree filtered light, I'm entering the second photo in Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This contest for this month. The theme is Awakening to show the beginning of spring.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March

2010-03-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

So this will probably be my last bloom day from here in the Essex house. Though I'm thinking I'll have to come by to take some pics in mid-April just to see if anything is blooming. I'm moving on to different if not greener pastures (see my previous blog post for details on that.)

So though I'm sad about leaving this wonderful garden many plants have decided to say goodbye in a showy fashion. The most exciting of which is this, my sacred flower of the incas plant (Cantua buxifolia). It's been in the ground for a year and a half and just started blooming a few days ago. Only one fully opened flower so far, but I'm so excited. I didn't think I'd get to see it. Strange how the aggressive, phallic buds, turn into a swirling, elegant, skirt-like flower.

Sisyrinchium bellum, or blue-eyed grass, one of my favorite CA wildflowers. They've been blooming since January, but I haven't gotten any good pictures until now. And they have just exploded.

As have the hardenbergia and ceanothus.

The Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) in front are now competing with those in back.

Here's my Salvia bees' bliss. This triangle of dirt is usually overflowing with wildflowers this time of year, but my housemates planted some veggies here last summer and they didn't come back. The salvia is really happy though and will take over most of the area. I couldn't get a good pic of it, but I did have fun watching this ladybug zoom around.

Quite a few white flowers. The redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has some beautiful white flowers shyly poking out just in time for St. Patty's day.

And the snow-in-summer has sent up a few flowers, as it has been doing since January. It keeps hoping for summer.

And this wild onion, has truly beautiful flowers (here contrasted against a fuchsia. But they are horribly invasive, and since I won't be here to keep them under control, I pulled this one out right after the photo.

A happy bloom day to you all. Hopefully spring is at least on its way for those of you in colder climes. And thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this show.

Our gardens after we're gone - my front yard

2010-03-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

So James at Lost in the Landscape followed by Town Mouse, and perhaps more I'm not aware of, posted about what their gardens would like after they were gone. And I've been waiting to post my own because I will be moving at the end of the month. I guess I'll see what happens at least to the front since I'm not moving that far away. But I wanted to let my landlord know and find a place before this post. And I did. My own apartment with a big ledge for some potted plants and a communal gardening space in back. So my garden will continue just in an altered form.

As for my garden without me...

In front, the lawn has shown no sign of returning after a few blades of grass easily pulled out right after we got rid of it. And with all our rains, very few weeds and no grass. So anything like that that comes up will be seeded from the neighbors'.

The manzanita are all doing fine and will be fine I think with no water this summer. As will the ceanothus, yarrow, white sage, salvia buchanii, and California fuchsia. (Manzanita and ceanothus in back of first pic, white sage in second.)

The fuchsia might become a little aggressive though.

Some plants may go dormant or deciduous with no supplemental water, like the ribes malvaceum, western redbud, blue-eyed grass and the columbine under the camelia, which are blooming and established. But all should be fine. That's just what California natives are supposed to do. (Very happy blue-eyed grass)

I'm afraid this path will look a little sad and dry with no summer water, but the iris and snow-in-summer will perk up with the rains.

I'm more worried about 2 other sages, one of which is already not looking so hot.

I'm also worried about this licorice plant (right). It's invasive, which I didn't know when we planted it. I kinda want to pull it, but it would leave a big empty scar. Maybe not so great for my landlord trying to re-rent the place, or for encouraging people to let their renters experiment with the yard. It will stay and spread. Luckily this Galvezia speciosa (left) is ok with growing over, through and around it.

The hell strip, once a massive lump of weeds, still has some weeds popping through from time to time, but mostly has CA fuchsia, yarrow, native strawberry and festuca californica established.

And the craziest native honeysuckle I've ever seen. I've trained it up our street sweeping sign post.

We knew this day would come sooner or later, so we chose low-maintenance, drought-tolerant species for the most part.

All in all I'm really going to miss the front garden. But it was a great learning experience and as long as nobody takes loppers and hedgers to it, I think it will become even more beautiful with time.

Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve

2010-02-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

I try to come up to this park several times a year in different seasons. It is a truly magical place. It's not very large, but it has an astounding diversity of plants. Many of the natives are found throughout the East Bay hills, but here you literally bump into them again and again.

Here are the first blooms of the eponymous huckleberry. The buds are from lower down the canyon and the open blooms from up on the manzanita barren (drier and sunnier).

Fiddleheads, aka opening ferns.

Some rare and not so rare plants after the jump.

Manzanitas in full bloom. The park has two main species, Brittleleaf (Arctostaphylos crustacea) and Pallid (A. pallida). The latter being very rare, mostly found here in the park and in one spot near El Sobrante.

Another rare plant, Western Leatherwood (Dirca Occidentalis). From the description of the self-guided nature trail: "Flowers December to March. Deciduous. Just before leatherwood breaks dormancy, the intricate naked branchlets produce lemon-yellow blooms at tips - striking! Due to a peculiar S-shaped arrangement of its wood fibers, leatherwood has very flexible pliable branches, hence its common name. Extremely rare." Rare indeed. It is endemic to the Bay Area.

And last but not least, some immature miners' lettuce.

Ribes sanguineum

2010-02-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

I had a late cancellation for work today, so I decided to go up to the hills with my camera and take some pictures. It was a beautiful day after some rain this morning.

I decided on Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve because I wanted to see some Ribes sanguineum in bloom and I was not disappointed. This one was right at the parking lot/entrance.

There were several in flower throughout the preserve. And also several budding out. Some of the new leaves apparently come out of this flower like growth at the end of branches.

I was reminded why this is one of my favorite plants. It was impossible to capture with my camera, but they have the most beautiful architecture. They have a elegant and delicate structure. If you look at the lighter colored leaves in the pics below, you can see one of the Ribes spreading out in its fashion.

Winter Harvest - Ceanothus blooms

2010-02-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

My ceanothus just bloomed for the first time. In honor of that a ceanothus post. Ceanothus blooms are rich in saponins, which produce lather when rubbed with some water. So basically ceanothus blooms make soap.

I learned this the first time while doing the self-guided nature trail at Huckleberry preserve. I tried just a few flowers and produced a tiny bit of lather. Then I tried it for real on my Native Californians' use of plants walk at the UC Davis arboretum. The women leading the walk gave us each a scoop of dried ceanothus flowers and some water to wash our hands. It was a bit gritty, but left my hands feeling smooth and clean. So this winter I've decided to collect and dry some flowers for use while camping or backpacking. They also said the seeds made an even better soap.

These blooms were gathered from a landscaped city park where they were protruding out towards the sidewalk. Since the plant is hedged I figured they weren't long for this world anyway.

February Bloom Day

2010-02-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

First off, I'm very happy to announce the first of the Western Columbine in the front yard (Aquilegia formosa) is blooming. It has two fully opened flowers and a bud about to open. This is one of my favorite flowers.

Also both of the manzanitas are now blooming. I believe this one is Arctostaphylos bakeri `Louis Edmunds'. 2 of the 3 are in full bloom. Not too full since they were only planted a little over a year ago.

And also the Ribes malvaceum is in full show. I'm very impressed with this little guy.

The hardenbergia is finally busting out.

Thanks as always to Carol over at May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Spring Awakening

2010-02-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here's two lupines. First is a miniature lupine (I think, though it might be a phlox) pushing it's seed pod off. The second is from a larger lupine that has blue and yellow flowers. Not sure about the name.

Berries to be. Strawberries and Manzanita blooms about to open. I think I'm gonna try manzanita berry cider this year.

A columbine seedling and several other things ready to grow.

Blooming manzanitas in Tilden Botanic Garden

2010-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

So this last Monday I went up to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden to have a picnic lunch with a friend. The garden is 10 acres of California native plants and is really beautiful. It's stunning in the spring when most of the blooms are on display. But this time of year the stars are the manzanitas.

More after the jump
Parry Manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita) from Eldorado County.

Vine Hill Manzanita (Arctostaphylos densiflora) from Sonoma County. There were two of these and they were literally buzzing with bees. All sorts of different species of bees.

And a silktassel thrown in for goog measure. It's bloom was pretty much done, but the catkins still look cool hanging from the tree.

Another Fall Harvest - Salvia apiana aka White sage

2010-02-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Drying white sage (Salvia apiana) from our front yard. We use it as incense and now in teas (infusions for the sticklers) as well.

A beautiful, sunny day

2010-01-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

Today was sunnier and warmer than it's been in a while. Here are shots of my ribes, columbine front and back enjoying the sun.

CA natives enjoying the rain

2010-01-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

So I feel like my blog has been a little light on the California and CA native focus lately. And since we've had a ton of rain, hiking seems unlikely at the moment, so that leaves my garden.

Here are more pics of the Ribes malvaceum pictured in my last bloom day post. It has indeed started putting on its show. I think in another week or two it will be even nicer.

I planted 5 western columbine (Aquilegia formosa) under the camelia in the front yard. I had a bunch of seedlings from the two in back and thought they could compete with the roots and survive the dry shade. I lost one of the 5 and thought I would lose many more to cats using them as litter boxes and a helpful neighbor giving us free mulch on top of them, but now with the rains they are full and happy and this one is getting ready to flower.

The yerba buena (Satureja douglasii) I potted up and moved to the front steps really likes both its new location and all the rains. It has filled out wonderfully and some fresh yerba buena mixed with a dried leaf of white sage (Salvia apiana) is now one of my favorite winter teas (though I guess I should technically call it an infusion). It's very flavorful, so probably not for everybody.

And here was a surprise. My manzanita (Arctostaphylos pajaroensis 'paradise') is blooming. I wasn't expecting this. It's a small manzanita I just planted in May. But today I saw a touch of pink out of the corner of my eye. Aside from the constant rain, I don't think I had noticed them because almost all of the blooms are along the bottom edge, very close to the ground. I'm very happy all the same.

Desert Landscaping - parental tree edition

2010-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

The Texas ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule) is a tree with low water needs. But careful it does have spines. And some cool seed pods.

Here's the Palo Verde in back. Literally green stick in Spanish. In the second pic you can see the green trunk and branches. The third pic I included just because I liked it. It's looking up into the canopy. To me it looked like I was in some palo verde forest or something. Evidently there are two species native to Arizona, the Blue Palo Verde and the Foothill Palo Verde, being blue-green and yellow-green respectively. Anyone want to vote?

Again, what a difference some water makes. The tree-like plant is a Mexican bird of paradise and based on this blog post by Bill at designinginthedesert, I think its Caesalpinia mexicana, but who knows. It originally looked a lot like the sproutling in the second picture when I was about 17 or 18. It was a little volunteer that I used to water when I went out in the backyard and that tree is what resulted. It wasn't on any irrigation, but has obviously tapped into something.

Views of the desert - parental edition

2010-01-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

So before I completely leave Arizona for a while, I wanted to share some pics from my parents' yard in Phoenix. Though there are the obligatory cacti, there are also some really interesting trees (featured in my next post) that might surprise those from wetter climes.

First off, here are some pics of the barrel cactus in the front yard. The first shot is from above, the second is of a dessicated flower? You can also see the nasty spines. This is the cactus you can slice open and drink the pulp in the center if you're dying of thirst. But it's much easier and less harmful to just bring water.

Here's a shot of the ocotillo, bare still from lack of water. When the rains come this guy becomes covered in dark green leaves with bright red flowers on the top of each stalk. I immediately liked this plant when we moved to Arizona. You could see them from the freeway driving in from L.A. and for me epitomizes the desert much like saguaros.

Always plant in odd numbers my friend Anita always tells me. Even numbers are too easily divided in half by the eye. So unless it's a specimen plant, 3 is the minimum number. These cacti are in the neighbor's yard. And, of course, besides cacti, nothing says desert landscaping like rocks and gravel.

January Bloom Day

2010-01-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

So it's that time again. Carol over at May Dreams Garden is hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. At first, I thought my blooms were a little disappointing. I was really hoping my natives, like manzanita and ceanothus, would be blooming and it feels like more was blooming in December than now. But as I took pictures, I realized that some of the other natives picked up the slack and that January is the month of little surprises.

The star of the show is definitely the Ribes malvaceum. I prefer Ribes sanguineum, which has more delicate architecture, larger and softer leaves, and longer bunches of flowers, but I grew this guy from a cutting and he's getting ready to put on a spectacular show in another week I think. It's already looking mighty fine.

The blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) is just putting out its first flowers. I got out there a little late so it was already starting to close for the night. And a transplanted yarrow put out a little stalk of flowers.

As for non-natives, we first have lots of fruit flowering. Lemons. And loquats, not the prettiest flower, but they lead to really delicious fruit. Technically from the neighbor's tree, but this branch is in my yard.

And this Sunshine blueberry, with an ant on the outside...and then on the inside. I didn't even realize it was there, till I checked to see how the photo had turned out.

Another little visitor was this roly poly on the alyssum. They seem to have many names depending where you are from. Their most common name is pillbug. Not sure what the roly poly was doing, but it kept rearing up its head.

Not a fruit, but a flower. Broccoli, of the Decicco variety. Supposedly brought to the San Francisco area by Italian immigrants, it has done exceedingly well in my garden. And its open growth pattern doesn't encourage aphids.

And this salvia that looks like some alien carnivorous plant.

Eastern Fox Squirrel aka bane of my existence or Sciura niger

2010-01-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

So while eating breakfast the other day, I found our resident squirrel scurrying in our backyard. In the fall and early winter he tends to dig up all my potted plants in an effort to hide acorns, or sometimes I think just to annoy me. This year actually it wasn't that bad. It might be because last year I sprinkled copious amounts of chile powder and put little squirrel size stakes (read toothpicks) in the pots that got the most attention. It didn't stop the little guy but it definitely slowed him down.

Pic from here.
Today though it was digging through the mulch in our path. I assumed it was looking for some acorns it had left buried, but then i saw it had something in it's mouth, much bigger than an acorn. My view was obscured by a potted plant at first, but then it looked like an animal of some sort in its mouth. It scampered off onto the lemon tree and over the garage roof and disappeared. I'm still not sure what it was, but I think it was a small lizard, or little vole or something. (Really not sure because I was inside and upstairs.)

But this prompted a search via teh interweb and I found that my resident squirrel is an introduced species from back East, the Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciura niger) and that they on occasion eat insects, birds' eggs, small birds and lizards. I had no idea.

Dale Chihuly sculptures and other illuminations at the Desert Botanical Garden

2010-01-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

At the entrance to the Desert Botanical Garden were three sculptures by Dale Chihuly. He had a big temporary installation of his work in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix from Nov '08 to May '09. (If you follow the link, click on the tiny red triangle at the bottom to see more pics.) My parents went and really enjoyed it.

The following are pics of "Desert Towers - 2008" at the entrance. It's hard to see, but the light is coming from inside the sculptures.

A last pic, of all three, after I learned how to use the tripod.

Not related to the glass sculpture, but also near the entrance were cement benches inlaid with some stones that were lit from underneath/inside, creating a glowing stone bench. I have to say I much prefer this type of night-time illumination in the garden to training a spotlight on certain plants, something I feel ruins the beauty of the desert at night, especially in the moonlight.

But by far, my favorite form of illumination in the garden at night is stars, just stars. Here's a pic of Orion rising over the desert.

Speaking of maples

2010-01-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

So here are my prized Japanese maple seedlings that I dug out of a client's garden. All seedlings from the same gorgeous, tall, old tree. Here they are in their varied, beautiful fall display. (These pics are from about a month ago, though two still have some leaves)

Street Trees and Water - Red Maples in Emeryville

2009-12-31T00:48:00.000-08:00

A happy New Year to all. I'll have another post from Arizona and some from Kauai in the next weeks. But for now something I didn't get a chance to post before.

What a difference water makes. Our wonderful city of Emeryville took out our diseased street trees about a year or so ago and planted new ones. They widened the hell strip so the trees would be healthier and even asked us what kind of tree (off a list of 10 pre-selected varieties) we wanted in front of our house. They also hired an arborist to oversee the whole project. They brought in compost and planted the trees very well right before a series of storms. Great job Emeryville. We and our neighbors both asked for a red maple and the neighbor on the other side got one too. But each tree so far has had a very different experience.

Neighbor to the north: This tree got no supplemental water at the very beginning, but a while later was put on drip irrigation (a double circle of emitter line) when the rest of the hell strip got planted. This was the last maple in the neighborhood to both change colors and lose its leaves.

Our house: I watered the tree by hand with a 5-gallon bucket of fresh tap water from the very beginning. Watering more at the beginning and less as time went on. Later on the tree also received grey water (the water from the rinse cycle of our washer) . But towards the end of summer received almost nothing until fall. The leaves of our tree started to turn brown at the edges until receiving some water in the fall at which point the centers turned a nice shade of red. It was the first of the 3 to start losing leaves, but held onto some longer than the neighbor's to the south.

The neighbor to the south: The hell strip this tree is in was quickly planted with sod and was watered regularly with sprinklers. This tree turned a beautiful red, but was the first to lose all its leaves.

All pictures taken the weekend before Thanksgiving.

As a note of comparison, the other red maples in our neighborhood received supplemental water only once from a city truck in August. Their leaves turned brown, never turning red, and dropped well before ours did.

Desert Botanical Garden - Luminarias

2009-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

So I went to visit my parents in Phoenix for an early Christmas. Anyone who has been to the Southwest around this time is probably familiar with luminarias. Basically, they are candles in paper bags, but they are really beautiful in my humble opinion.

These are all pics from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. It is open nights until December 30th for Las Noches de las Luminarias. There is food, drinks, and live music throughout the gardens. My favorite was jazz singer Chelé, who sang with this hill lit up behind her.

These pics are the result of my first time using a tripod and my first attempt at nighttime photos. Not too bad if I don't say so myself. More pics after the jump.

These cacti are called Cardón (Pachycereus pringlei). Evidently they produce edible fruit as seen on Deborah Small's blog. The following plants were lit up by the lighting in the gardens.

These last two pics were in the Berlin Agave Yucca Forest Exhibit. Incredibly beautiful even with little light.

A merry Christmas to those that celebrate, and a happy solstice to us all, for the shortest days are behind us for another year.

Arctostaphylos pajaroensis 'Paradise' or more simply a colorful manzanita

2009-12-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

I bought this manzanita variety at the annual plant sale at the Botanic Garden in Tilden Park this spring. Ryan over at Dry Stone Garden was volunteering at the sale and is pretty sure this was A. pajaroensis 'Paradise'. I'm not as good at remembering the specific varieties of plants as I should be. If he's right, and who am I to argue, this baby is supposed to get up to 10' wide. Not ideal for it's location, but it's unirrigated, so it should take a while to get there. It seems to be a fast grower though. The first pic was taken when I planted it in front in late April/early May. And the second one yesterday. It's at least doubled in size.

It has a beautiful blueish/greyish-green color on mature leaves, but a bright red on the new growth. Spectacular on more mature specimens. Here are pictures with rain and without.

Two more pics after the jump.

A very striking and unusual manzanita.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - December

2009-12-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

So I don't have much blooming in the garden right now, but there are a few things. Many of which are kind of surprising. These first pics are of Salvia chamaedryoides. It started blooming a second time in late October after a full bloom all summer and is in full bloom right now.

The tibouchina and St. John's wort are blooming as well.

Dwarf lemon blossoms. Not so surprising for this time of year.

This Salvia buchananii (I believe) is also on its second bloom for the year. And this trailing rosemary has been blooming for quite a while.

This is a surprise. The camelia didn't bloom till January the last two years, but our 4 inch rainstorm followed by 60 degree weather convinced it to bloom early. The first round is already done (not so pretty now), though there are some buds ready to pop.

Thanks as always to Carol over at May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Plectranthus Amboinicus aka Ant Killer

2009-12-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

Plectranthus amboinicus is called Cuban oregano or Mexican mint among many other things (see gotham gardens for a post about all the names.) I think the one we have was a gift to my housemate that he planted outside. It died, but luckily a cutting was saved, potted and brought inside.

Its leaves are very soft and fuzzy, it has a delicious aroma, is used in Caribbean cooking, and evidently kills ants, or drives them insane until they starve to death. I'm still not sure which. If you look closely at the above picture you will see little ants on the leaves of the plant. They are all dead, many frozen in strange contorted positions. There are some more close-ups and a description of my "scientific" observation after the jump.

We found some ants starting a nest or something in the pot. A few of the leaves touch the edge of the pot and so as the ants circle around, some go up on to these leaves and try to explore the plant. I actually witnessed 2 do just this. One went up and up into the plant and then tried to turn around, but seemed completely confused. Even though it was sometimes very close to escaping, it seemed to have no idea where it had come from and just went back and forth to the same few leaves. The second ant didn't get far before it seemed disturbed and turned around. It took about 45s to a minute to find its way back off even though it had only touched about 3 leaves. Once it was off the plant and back onto the pot it ran into some ants and then took off away from the ant trail in a totally new direction and zoomed around this way and that with apparently no sense of direction.

So my questions are does anyone have this plant and have they witnessed similar death and destruction, or does anyone know what is going on here? Does the plant have a neurotoxin chemical it secretes? Or does anyone use it for cooking?

The First Frost

2009-12-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Probably not so interesting for those in other colder regions, but we had a good frost last night. There was a layer of frost on everything this morning in the garden. Including our unhappy looking, found somewhere or another, garden bear. He looks how I felt all day. It's been cold. Our high was somewhere in the upper 40s. I never expect the Bay Area to be as sunny and warm as most tourists do, but I feel a little cheated all the same.

Native Californians' use of plants

2009-11-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

My blog has been UC Davis arboretum heavy lately, so I was going to save this post for later, but it seems somewhat appropriate for Thanksgiving. Since most of our traditional foods on Thanksgiving were first eaten by the indigenous peoples of what is now the United States, it might be interesting to think about what the indigenous Californians ate and in some cases still do eat. Disclaimer - there were hundreds of groups/villages/tribes here in California and obviously this information will only apply to some of them. And more important disclaimer, don't eat things you can't identify with certainty as both the plant you are looking for and as something edible.

I went on a guided walk of the arboretum talking about Native California uses of plants. Pretty interesting. And in answer to the question what did they eat, well for many the staple was acorns. I've been curious to try them now for a while, but they seem fairly labor intensive to prepare.

Toyon berries - They're supposedly edible raw, but evidently branches were cut off the plant, the leaves stripped, and the berries roasted over an open fire. One of the guides said it was probably an aquired taste.

Manzanita berries were mashed, then water added to make a refreshing drink. Several on the walk said it was good. And the hips from the native rose were used to make tea. (pic of rosehip, a little dry)

Some of the most interesting uses of plants were not about food, but more on that after the jump.

One was that ceanothus flowers were used as soap. I had tried it once hiking and saw that it worked, but the guides had some dried flowers. They gave each of us a little scoop and some water and it makes a really nice lather that leaves your hands feeling very clean. And they said the berries made even better soap. I can't wait for my ceanothus in the front to bloom this year.

Another interesting thing was that buckeye fruits were slightly mashed and thrown into still spots of rivers. The buckeye has a chemical that interferes with fish breathing. The fish go belly up and you can scoop them off the top with supposedly no ill effects on those eating them.

And a mold on some oak galls was used as medicine. The oak galls are growths of the oaks of woody tissue to protect the tree from wasp eggs laid in their bark. There are 468 types of galls all caused by different wasps. One type I saw on a friends oak were little, red, hershey-kiss looking things on the underside of leaves. I learned that that too is a gall. And the wasps causing the big galls in the photos (called oak apples by the first anglos in CA) are actually very small.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The variety of Oaks - As seen thru their Leaves

2009-11-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

More leaves with species names after the jump.

Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) - CA foothills
Mexican blue oak (Quercus oblongifolia) - Northern. Mexico, AZ and TX.
Sandpaper oak (Quercus pungens) - American Southwest
Chinese red oak (Quercus variabilis) Though all the oaks were very diverse, they shared a certain oakiness. Except for this one. It didn't look like an oak at all. Beautiful all the same.

These pics are also from the UC Davis ar boretum's Shields Oak Grove. I was amazed at the sheer variety of oak trees. (Finger added in one photo of Algerian oak-Quercus canariensis for perspective on size.)

The Architecture of Oaks

2009-11-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

Blue Oak (Quercus Douglasii)

Oaks are some of my favorite trees. They have the most incredible shapes, tall and stately, their gnarled, twisting branches spreading out in all directions to make a nice shaded refuge underneath.

All oaks pictured are in the Shields Oak Grove at the UC Davis Arboretum.

The Sonoma Coast

2009-11-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago, I went camping on the Sonoma Coast, about 15 miles north of Jenner. It's a really beautiful section of Highway 1 and we had a great time.

Some strange wildlife in the camp.

The rainstorm of early October and the warm weather after led to a mini spring. There were mushrooms everywhere. I believe these are shaggy ink wells in two different stages of maturity.

Could these be the world's tiniest mushrooms? Probably not, but definitely the smallest I've ever seen.

A pic of the coast and our hand model, Carlos.

Chinese Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

2009-10-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Chinese Dawn Redwood is one of only 3 types of redwoods in the world. The other two being the Coast Redwood and the Giant Sequoia. I had read about them, but never seen one myself. But they've planted one at the UC Davis Arboretum in their redwood grove. All Coast Redwoods, except for this one Dawn Redwood, as far as I could tell. Unfortunately, no Giant Sequoia.
The foliage is very similar to the Coast Redwood, but more flexible and softer to the touch. It's also deciduous, so they recommend it for gardens in the Central Valley if you want a redwood, but also some light in the winter.
The cones are also very similar to the Coast Redwood.

The UC Davis Arboretum

2009-10-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

The UC Davis Arboretum consists of 100 acres on the old north channel of Putah Creek. Yes, that is in fact the name of the creek. The banks of the creek could use a little restoration work, but the birds don't seem to mind.

UC Davis sits in the California Central Valley, which has a Mediterranean climate, but one where temperatures rise and fall much more so than here on the coast. So part of their mission is to experiment with plants and to teach people what they should grow. They even highlighted 100 plants throughout the trails, which do especially well in the Central Valley. With signs they mentioned their ease of maintenance, drought tolerance, etc.

They also seem intent to teach people how to grow plants and, especially, how to conserve water.

Here's a pic of Evie's silktassle bush (Garrya elliptica 'Evie') from the Native California plant section. And a May night salvia (Salvia x sylvestris 'Mainacht') and a type of scabiosa (?) from the drought tolerant garden.

All pictures courtesy of Mike.

UC Davis Campus plants

2009-10-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I was in Davis with my partner, Mike, who took all the pictures since I forgot my camera at home. UC Davis has a really beautiful campus with some amazing old trees. This one near the old entrance gate to campus especially caught my eye.

This "lawn" near one of the pools, the Schaal Aquatic Center I believe, was on small strip of heavily sloped land. I think it's a type of carex. It had the lush greenness of lawn without all the mowing and watering. It sat across from a wide flat space of traditional lawn. So it looked like an experiment to me.

I saw rainlilies blooming for the first time last Friday while doing maintenance in a garden in Fremont. Because of the huge storm we had last Tuesday the lilies were blooming. Then, at the UC Davis Arboretum on Sunday, I saw some more. Quite a few actually. They are really beautiful, delicate flowers. I believe in both instances they were Zephyranthes candida. As you can see from the picture the flowers were already on their way out.

More on the Arboretum later.

Native Fall Planting

2009-10-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, right before our torrential downpour last week, I decided to move some plants and get some new ones in the ground. All of them weathered the storm well. Almost 4 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Highly unusual for us, especially in October. But everything old and new got a nice thorough soaking.

First off were 5 (3 in pic) native columbine (Aquilegia formosa) grown from seed from the very prolific plants in my backyard. I planted them under a huge camelia by our front door. There are several other volunteer seedlings awaiting a new home.

In that same area, I repotted the yerba buena (Satureja douglasii) I had in the back and moved it to the front steps. It's looking a little bedraggled at the moment, but once it fills out I think it will help to distract people from the hideous brick red and dark grey paint of our house's exterior. The yerba buena roots as it crawls, so there were 3 separate rooted plants in back I cut off this main one. I dug up the smallest to repot in a one-gallon to start the whole process again. Also in this pic you can see one of the columbines in the bottom right.

Along the path from the drive way to the front steps I planted 3 douglas iris I bought at a plant sale at the Watershed Nursery. I can't wait to see them this spring.

And then on to the hellstrip. The mint we threw there to see if anything would survive started to escape from its little concrete strip, so I dug out as much as I could, though I'm sure there will be more to dig out later. Then in went three California fuchsia I saved from a garden I do maintenance on and paprika yarrow divided from the three plants I took out to plant the irises. Unfortunately the reds of the yarrow and CA fuchsia will probably clash, but it's a hellstrip that had nothing but dead weeds a year ago, so I'll take what I can get.

So these pics are not so exciting, it's more the promise of what they'll look like next spring and summer, but here's a pic of the California fuchsia (Epilobium canum) planted in March from the main part of the front yard a few days ago.

Mt. Rainier in the rain, 2008

2009-10-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

The torrential downpour we had today had me thinking of how lucky I was to be inside, warm and dry. And how last year in September I was on Mt. Rainier with some friends backpacking in the rain. And Pam over at Digging has a week-long celebration of our wonderful National Parks so I thought I'd add my own post to the list.

How's that for a backdrop to your hike.
Mt. Rainier in Washington is an awesome mountain and park. We decided to hike part of the Wonderland Trail which encircles the mountain, a journey of many days. A map of the park is found here. We only had 3. So we started at Mowitch Lake in the northwest of the park and hiked down to Ipsut Creek Camp. A steep drop in 5.5 miles. Then the next day back up (a steep up) to Mystic Lake, some 8 miles. Then the third day the whole way back, retracing most of our steps. On the first day we were racing the setting sun and the 2nd and 3rd days we were racing storm clouds. It was a brutal hike, but well worth it.

On the second day, we came into this little vale literally full of wildflowers of all different colors. It was good to see two of my favorites, lupine and Indian paintbrush. This paintbrush was an incredibly vibrant pink unlike the more orangish reds I'm familiar with here in California.

In the sea of wildflowers was this little guy, a marmot, perched on a rock just watching the people walk by on the trail.

In the pic below you can see a little more closely one of the best reasons for this park, glaciers. I was lucky enough to walk on Glacier Grey in Patagonia (a Chilean friend of mine was working there leading tours) and was awed by the experience. I remember all different shades of blues, and the sky reflected on the ice. I have never seen a purer blue than when looking into a well of water on the glacier. It saddens me that they are all shrinking and may not be around much longer.

I'm always amazed at how much water there is and how green everything is in the Pacific Northwest. Here in the SF Bay Area, we're kind of on the tail end of that climate (similar plants, animals, weather patterns), but it really is just different. You won't find this pic anywhere around here in September.

It rained hard the 2nd night and our campsite started to flood. We had to move everything to higher ground and soaked all of our freshly donned dry clothing in the process. Other than that, it was a great trip and we were no worse for wear. Thanks again to Pam and Ken Burns for inspiring her great posts.

Fall is here, hiking before the rains come

2009-10-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

So it's autumn and I guess I have time to blog. At least my thoughts are turned more that way. I went for a hike yesterday in Marin past a couple lakes. Bon tempe, Alpine and from a distance Lagunitas. We were supposed to go past lagunitas as well, but my trail notes were not very clear and we went down the wrong way.

But we saw lots of interesting things including this egret, even saw it catch and swallow a fish. I tried to get a video of that but it all happened too fast.

Some honeysuckle berries (red).

And some madrone berries (orange). Madrones have to be one of my favorite trees. Their beautiful, smooth, cinnamon-colored bark and bright green, shiny foliage make them just pop out of the forest.

As you can see from the water level of the lake in this first pic above and the second pic of our hills covered in brown, dried grass, here in California we are desperate for some rain. We had an OK, but intermittent winter and a hot summer, and so now my garden is crying out for water. I could claim tough love has prevented me from watering my mixed native and drought-tolerant front yard, but it's mostly been due to laziness and the lack of a spigot out there.

Luckily for my plants, and my guilt complex, a serious storm has been forecast for Monday night/Tuesday. So Friday and today were a mad dash to get some winter crops in the back and to move and plant a bunch of things in the front. More on that in my next blog post I think.

Winetasting

2009-10-02T22:29:00.001-07:00

Yet another reason I haven't been blogging, winetasting. I spent last weekend with my partner's family in Napa with a vineyard behind us and some really cool rock formations at the end of the road. I don't usually like winetasting in Napa for a couple of reasons. Most wineries charge a ridiculous amount for tastings and I'm often ignored because I'm young and don't look like I have lots of money to spend on cases of wine, which I don't. I've found Sonoma a much friendlier experience.

But I had a really good time, and tasted some great wines, at the first place we went to - the Robinson Family Vineyards. Located off the Silverado Trail, the vineyard has a nice backdrop of the rocky crags at the edge of the Napa valley. But more importantly it is an actual small, family-run vineyard. The woman who gave us the tour is one of three sisters whose grandparents started the vineyard. The grandparents have passed away, but we saw three generations working their that day. The woman's father, son-in-law to the founders, is the winemaker and was also giving a tour to another group. And then the woman's two young children were in a vat stomping on grapes. Very messy and cute. She assured us that that is not how they generally press the grapes, but I have to say they looked like pros.

All of the wines were good, but my favorite was the 2005 Great Legs Syrah. In fact, it was my favorite for the day of all 3 wineries we visited. The $10 tasting fee was affordable, unlike the $25 at the other two wineries, and included a tour and a lot of family history about the place. I believe you need reservations to taste there, but it was well worth it.

Summer harvest aka no time for blogging

2009-09-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

So blogging has not been on the top of my priority list. Mid-August through September is when the fog belt of the Bay Area gets its real summers. Days occasionally get into the 80s and summer fog is less frequent. I've been going to the beach, harvesting stuff from the garden for myself and friends, and trying to be outside.

Here are some pics of veggies from the garden that I turned into dinner for a few friends Tuesday night. It was the first complex meal I'd cooked for others where all the herbs, veggies, etc. came from the garden.

This rainbow array of tomatoes was turned into caprese salad.

It just needed some garden basil (including some lemon-lime variety), some mozarella, olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper.

As an appetizer I made the padrons mixed with gypsy peppers (a sweet variety) described in a previous post.

For the main dish we grilled up some chicken breasts and I sauteed some rocoto or locoto peppers (minus the seeds) in olive oil and added some merkén (a Chilean mix of spices) to pour over the chicken. Had a very strong kick. Here in this pic are the gypsy (greenish) and rocoto (red) peppers.

I also cooked some of those yellow tomatoes with basil and garlic from June and mixed it with barley to go with the chicken. Barley is great, just cook it like brown rice. The yellow tomatoes are a complete mystery. The plant was mislabeled by the nursery as Black Krim. They're delicious all the same.

Ladybugs- Part deux

2009-08-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

So I received an email back from the Lost Ladybug Project a few weeks ago. (see my original post here) And, unfortunately, they couldn't identify the ladybug with 100% certainty.

"The red ladybug is either a Coccinella californica, or a Coccinella novemnotata! There exist ninespotted ladybugs without spots like these, but they can only be distinguished by the look of the front of the pronotum, right near the head that is tucked under, from C. californica."

But it looks like both are native California ladybugs. So I guess all the native plants have helped attract some native predators.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August

2009-08-15T09:36:00.001-07:00

Thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting GBBD.

I've got a lot blooming in the garden right now. All of these pics are from the newly installed front yard that is very occasionally hand watered, no irrigation. The hope is that next year it will just survive on it's own. Below you can see the California fuschia is in full bloom next to the black and blue sage.

Next up are some pics of a channel island snapdragon (Galvezia speciosa) that was incredibly small and just planted a few months ago. It's doing great. It's filled out and has started blooming and looks like more are on their way. They look like little puckered lips to me and are a very sexy red.

In this one you can see the channel island snapdragon and licorice plant growing into each

other. I like how the flowers poke out of the licorice plant. I can't remember the latin name for the licorice plant, but it is spreading and covering our mound with almost no water. I don't even water it once a month now and it was planted in March.

Here's a tibouchina bloom.

This salvia (can't remember the name) has been blooming since April I think. Love it's fuzzy pinkness.

Caryopteris, not my favorite plant, but it's adding a nice touch of purple to the yard in late summer.

And last but not least, Salvia apiana, or white sage. This bloom is really weird, but the plant is great. The bees supposedly love it, though it just started blooming so I'm not sure. And this is the white sage that Native Americans and now hippy liberals use(d) to burn for smudging. I dried some leaves and burned one yesterday. A very sweet smelling incense. I've also read it can be drunk as tea and used medicinally in many ways. Those experiments will come next.

Don't Do This - Vinca

2009-08-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

So hopefully this will be the first in a series of blog posts entitled "Don't Do This," highlighting garden mistakes I see around town.

For this post, the spotlight is on vinca or periwinkle. It's a nice enough groundcover, with nice glossy foliage and pretty purple flowers. But vinca is incredibly invasive here in the Bay Area, so this is my main reason for it being on the "Don't Do This" list. It spreads and spreads and spreads. Not quite as bad as ivy, but you catch my drift.

These pics are an example of landscaping in front of Summit hospital in Oakland. They landscaped this fairly recently, maybe in the last 2-3 years. Many of the plants are drought tolerant, which is good. But then there is a border of vinca. In the pic above, you can see what they were trying to do with this planting. The vinca is supposed to form a green space between the sidewalk and the rest of the planting, and that little, black, plastic border is supposed to hold back the onslaught that is vinca.

In this next pic, you can see how they are trying to hedge the vinca to keep it behind the black border.

And in this last pic, you can see the overall effect. Not so impressive if you ask me. Now the question is, is this better than lawn?

Chinquapin - Chrysolepsis Chrysophylla

2009-08-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

The native chinquapin (evidently a name used for plants of other genera and species) is doing it's thing in Huckleberry Preserve right now. It's called alternately giant or golden chinquapin and it's latin name is Chrysolepsis chrysophylla. It's found from central California, through Oregon and into Washington. It's generally found in shrub form in the southern part of it's range (SF bay and south) and tree form from the SF bay north. The golden scales on the undersides of leaves is one way to identify this plant.

This has got to be one of the strangest looking plants around here. It's closely related to members of the chestnut family, and in fact reminded me of being in Ticino in southern Switzerland in early fall when the chestnuts were fruiting.

Pimientas de Padrón or Padron Peppers

2009-07-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

These wonderful little green peppers are now planted every year in my garden. I still can't figure out why I only plant 2 plants instead of a whole field of the things. They are not exactly sweet, and they are not spicy (though occasionally you'll get one with more of a bite to it.) but they have the most incredible flavor.

I usually cut off the stem, slice them fairly thin lengthwise and then sauté them in olive oil with a little bit of salt. Sometimes to stretch out the flavor I sauté several with a bell pepper. I then spoon this mixture over slices of fresh bread and add some feta cheese on top. It is incredible.

These peppers originally come from Spain and on my trip to Spain last month I learned that they are specifically from Galicia. And it looks like Galicia has fairly cool summers, so maybe that's why they grow well here. In Spain they serve padron peppers as tapas. They fry them up whole in olive oil and you pop them in your mouth. They also served them much bigger than I had been harvesting. The first year I bought them from the nursery, the tag said harvest at olive size. Though they are ready to eat then, in Spain, they harvest them at a much larger size. Maybe 2 inches long. So this year that's what I'm doing.

German Tourist Club - Mt. Tamalpais

2009-07-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

So Saturday I took some friends visiting from Oregon to the German Tourist Club on Mt. Tam. I had never been, so I was very interested to check it out. I had been past it years before when it was closed, and was very curious. Two separate friends visited it earlier this summer and that sealed it.

The German Tourist Club is the local branch of the Nature Friends, " a non-profit confederation of over 500,000 hikers, climbers, skiers and others who love the outdoors." It is in the middle of the forest on Mt. Tam and is a short hike from the parking area across from Mountain Home Inn or a longer hike from Mill Valley on the Dipsea. It is open most weekends to the public (see website for directions and schedules) when they serve German beer and snacks. A great time was being had by all, with kids running around, people drinking, playing games, and soaking up the sun. I still can't believe I had never been before. I will definitely be going again.

After drinking a little too much beer we decided to continue our hike on the east side of Mt. Tam with some stunning views of the bay. The fog (this being summer) was just starting to pour in through the golden gate and then over the Marin headlands. As the sun got lower in the sky, the light lit up the trees (in the pic are some madrones) and the fog moved in thicker and faster. A very San Francisco kind of summer day.

Ribes malvaceum - from a cutting

2009-07-19T11:51:00.001-07:00

We planted this Ribes malvaceum in our front yard where we had cut down a diseased, misplaced camelia. I wanted a Ribes sanguineum glutinosum, the one native to this area, but this is what I had. And since this is a rental, this is what the front yard got.

Ribes are hardy, fast-growing plants. I grew this ribes from a cutting I took a little over a year ago. I planted it from a one gallon in March at about 10 in tall. And it's now almost up to my chest. These things grow fast. And have beautiful hanging flower sprays in the spring.

Pete from East Bay Wilds has a good pic of the blooms on flickr.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom July

2009-07-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

My columbine were done with their latest bloom (the fourth full bloom in about a year and a half), but then it sent up a small stem with a few flowers a couple of days ago. Luckily for me.

The California fuschia (Zauschneria californica) just started to bloom a few days ago. I think ours is later than normal for local gardens, but we just planted it in March or April and it's not on irrigation.

A close up and then St. John's Wort, a beautiful flower.

Linanthus grandiflora aka mountain phlox. Though california phlox seems a better name since it's not really a mountain flower.

And just above the Linanthus is a cosmos that has been holding sleeping bees regularly. We joked they were on a nectar high and couldn't make it back to the hive. You can also see a tiny worm in the pic.

And thanks again to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day.

The Lost Ladybug Project

2009-07-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Lost Ladybug Project is a website that is trying to collect data on the range of different ladybugs here in North America. The website has a lot of stuff geared to children and is still being built up, but is interesting nonetheless. They ask visitors to collect and photograph ladybugs, giving info on where, when and how they were found. Here is one I found in my garden in about 30 seconds of looking.

They mention on their homepage that exotic species are increasing in North America to the detriment of our native ones. Remember this next time you want to buy and release ladybugs in your garden as pest management. Planting host plants and waiting for them to find your garden seems a better idea.

Yerbabuena - Satureja douglasii

2009-07-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yerbabuena. This amazing little plant is probably one of my favorites. It's native along the coast from British Columbia to Baja California. It looks great in shady areas of the garden and will trail out of pots or over things, rerooting as it goes. It has tiny white flowers and a great scent. Though not a true mint it can be used in much the same way. I make a tea out of it. Supposedly, it can also be used medicinally, good for the stomach like mint. And Bay Natives and Bee Vision Blog have some other uses.

It comes from the Spanish hierba buena, meaning good herb, a general term used throughout the Spanish-speaking world for local mint varieties. It was evidently very common here in the Bay Area as the original name for the town of San Francisco was Yerbabuena. Later the town's name was changed in honor of the mission. Now it's the name of the island that splits the Bay Bridge in two and a center for the arts in San Francisco.

I've known it as Satureja douglasii, but I'm also finding it under Clinopodium douglasii. Anyone know which it is?

California Native Medicinal Plants

2009-07-03T20:41:00.001-07:00

So two weeks ago I took a class on California Native Medicinal plants at Heather Farm in Walnut Creek taught by Tellur Fenner. An interesting class, just some bare bone basics, but we did learn how to use a few things.

One of the most surprising for me was making a cold infusion out of Fremontodendron californicum, also known as flannelbush.
Cold infusions are made by soaking something suspended in cheese cloth or muslin overnight, usually 1oz of an herb in 32oz of water.

Fremontodendron forms a mucous-like substance when soaked in cold water, which is good for coating the throat or esophagus, in other words for sore throats. We used the flowers, leaves and outer bark all dried and crushed or cut very small. You can use all three parts in combination or any of them individually. He said it was used similarly to slippery elm for those in other parts of the country.

I have to say as a gardener I don't really like this plant. Don't get me wrong, the plant is really beautiful, but I'm pretty sensitive to the little hairs on the leaves which make my skin itch and burn. It's very popular here in the Bay Area and people always seem to want me to prune one, or take it out or otherwise put myself in the middle of it. Fair enough, I suppose since they're paying me. And now that I know it can be used practically for sore throats I can appreciate again. If you are sensitive Tellur Fenner recommended straining it well, or I figure I can just use the flowers and bark.

Gaudi and the Nature of Architecture

2009-06-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

So this will be my last blog post about Spain until I can go again. I spent half my vacation in Barcelona and was blown away by Gaudi's work. I was immediately taken by the organic nature of his buildings. They looked alive to me. The more I looked and the more I read, I could see how important nature was and how he incorporated it into his designs.

Here the Casa Batlló seems to have a water theme. The roof looks like fish scales, my partner said the balcony reminded him of a great white shark's smile, and the house is different shades of blue among other things.

The Pedrera was supposedly inspired by a cliffside. He avoided straight lines and right angles basically because they are not found in nature. It's interesting to think of how unnatural our style of building is.

My favorite by far was the Sagrada Familia. This was a truly awe-inspiring building. The pillars running throughout the cathedral look like trees. It made me think of cathedral grove here in Muir Woods.

And there is a mini exhibit in the cathedral detailing the influence of nature on Gaudi's work. This comparison of one of his styles of towers with a lavender bloom was very interesting.

I also thought of how Frank Lloyd Wright tried to design things to fit into the landscape and make as few ripples as possible. Gaudi went a different route. He designed for an urban space, but brought nature back into the city, the building. I think Gaudi got it right.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

2009-06-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was looking at my garden and was disappointed by the number of things blooming compared to a month ago. But as I looked around, I realized there is actually a lot blooming. And the front yard, which we just put in in the last 8 months (see more about that at rented garden) is also full of blooms.
A bread poppy.
These fuschia are blooming like crazy along the side fence.
Here are some clarkia starting to open. They look almost like roses just opening to me.
And here's part of the front yard. This paprika yarrow is an intense red right as it's opening.
This salvia guaranitica 'black and blue' was a mistake. I was trying to buy 3 indigo spires and grabbed one of those and two of the black and blue. A beautiful mistake though. I love it.
Also blooming in the gardens are two other salvias, passionflower, delphinium, foxglove, lots and lots of California poppies, and a few left over tidy tips and bird's eye gilia, as well as some of the veggies.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day where bloggers post what's blooming now in their garden.

Spain - part II

2009-06-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

So as I said in my last post, I was in Spain for my Spanish, but the gardener in me kept his eye peeled for interesting things. One of the more interesting things I saw were fruit trees used in unusual ways (at least compared to here.) Here in California there are all sorts of ornamental plums or pears used as street trees and in gardens, but in Spain there were a lot of fruit trees used in this way. They were actually producing fruit. Oranges were the main ones, but I also saw pomegranates. I can't imagine a city here planting trees that are going to drop softball sized oranges after a while. A friend living in Barcelona told me she hadn't tried them, but was told they were too sour to eat.
This was expecially interesting. These, as far as I could tell, were citrus trees trained up a wall to form a hedge-like facade to the stone wall. Anyone ever see anything like this?

In Andalucia the houses have inner courtyards that are full of green growing things. I found this old take on a green wall kind of interesting.

Some of the public gardens in Andalucia were not so inspiring. Low box hedges and roses. This was the main theme at the Alhambra. Seriously. Here is a pic that is a little more inspiring a giant California coastal redwood towering over hedges and roses near the summer palace in the Alhambra.

California natives in Spain

2009-06-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted for a while because I went to Spain. The main purpose of my trip was to work on my Spanish and see some translations since I'm an interpreter. Interpreter first and gardener second. But while I was there I also had some time to look at some gardens to get some ideas for my second job. I was interested in the gardens there because California has a Mediterranean climate, one of only 5 regions in the world. The others being the Mediterranean basin, and parts of Chile, South Africa and Australia. They comprise only 2% of the world's land areas.

It was interesting to see so many of the same plants that we have here. One thing that especially surprised me was seeing California natives used in gardens there. Here are some pics from the gardens in the Alhambra. I was really shocked to see things like clarkia (1st pic), festuca idahoensis (2nd pic), larkspur (last pic) and more.
And craziest of all coastal redwoods. (see next entry) Who knew?

Is that a red-tailed hawk or bald eagle I hear?

2009-05-11T17:27:00.001-07:00

So this weekend while hiking in Marin I heard a red-tailed hawk screech in flight. I was under the trees so I couldn't see it, but I knew it was a red-tailed hawk because last week I went to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. It's also a wildlife rescue center for native California animals, so they had many animals, mostly raptors, that had been injured at some point. A disturbing number of them had had a wing amputated, but they seemed pretty active all the same.

The coolest animals there were probably the bald eagle and the bobcat. I hadn't ever seen either of them up close, usually off in the distance and not for very long. Both were much bigger than I expected and were incredibly beautiful.

The bald eagle started making some sounds which sounded nothing like what I expected the eagle to make. You can listen to a sample here if you give it a second to load. Much higher pitched than I thought. The docent noticing our surprise said that Hollywood had decided this was not a proper sound for a bald eagle and whenever they wanted to add the sound effect they used the cry of our own red-tailed hawk. You can find a sample here.

One good thing to learn was that there are a few breeding pairs here on the edges of the Bay Area. One pair I remember is in Livermore. And more come for part of the year.

Bringing Back the Native Garden Tour part 2

2009-05-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

So, I only had time to see 3 gardens and drive past one more on the tour. I had the same experience as last year. Some are beautiful gardens using native plants. Others, as my friend put it, seem like a random assortment of native plants. To each their own.

One I really liked was David Loeb's garden in Berkeley, especially the backyard. A creek runs through the back of his property and you could see how all the neighbor's creeksides were masses of ivy and other invasive, noxious plants. This garden actually cleared all that out and had native plants spilling over the banks in the shade of massive oaks. Looks like something I might see hiking.

What I liked about the backyard was it's incredible simplicity and lush greenery. The three main plants (besides the oaks) were a carpet of native strawberries (fregaria vesca), snowberries nd other berries for some height, and, every so often, douglas iris for a different texture and, in this season, beautiful blooms. There were other natives as well to provide diversity, such as ribes sanguineum, sticky monkeyflower, ferns and rushes. A great, beautiful space.

(Pictures unfortunately taken by cell phone)

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

2009-04-26T23:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend, May 2nd and 3rd, is the "Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour" here in the East Bay. I went last year and have to say the gardens are a mixed bag. Some are awe-inspiring, like the Fleming garden that I had the privilege of seeing a week ago. The front area (1st picture) has northern exposure and is shaded by redwoods and other trees. The back (2nd picture) is very sunny.

Others gardens on the tour are not so inspiring. I was disappointed with some of the gardens last year because they looked kind of rangy and unkempt. They don't have to be, and unfortunately those types of gardens are exactly why many people are hesitant to plant natives.

One of my personal favorites last year, aside from the Fleming garden, was the UC Berkeley native bee garden. My cousin was helping with the research and gave me some info on the native bees here in the East Bay. There are some 80+ bee species native to the Bay Area. Who knew? And they of course prefer native plants. Another pic from the Fleming garden, sedum spilling over the rocks.

California Natives

2009-04-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

So recently I've realized that most people I come into contact with are not as excited about California plants as I am. That's fine, but it started me thinking about why I am interested in them, and why other people should at least have a passing interest in them.

There is a non-profit called Terralingua that works to preserve cultural, linguistic and biological diversity. It was founded on the idea that "there is an inextricable link between cultural and biological diversity." Their idea is that indigenous cultures are tied to the places where they have evolved, and therefore have a connection to the flora and fauna of their home and a stake in conserving it. So by preserving indigenous cultures, you help to preserve nature.

I was born and raised here in California, and can remember my dad pointing out plants and animals to me on hikes and camping trips. I feel very connected to this place and it's geography, plants and animals. And many of the plants and animals here are unique to California and the surrounding regions. Most people are often inspired by the redwoods, sequoias or California condor. But there are many other things to appreciate here as well.

And if you aren't moved by a sense of place, California native plants have a practical purpose. If you do have an area to landscape or garden, they need less water, attract more birds and bees, and can be incredibly beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means a purist. Our front yard is about 50% native and some natives I wouldn't recommend because they look like giant weeds -see yampah, the host plant for the anise swallowtail butterfly- or are otherwise not really something you want in your yard. But many like the different types of ceanothus, manzanita and artemisia (sagebrush) are beautiful and require little or no summer water.