8/30/08

Hakone Garden

We visited the Hakone Japanese garden in Saratoga today, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco.

But first, I took a picture of the most massive Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea) I've ever seen across from the street from the Starbuck's there.

Pinus pinea

Hakone Garden dates back to 1918 when a pair of wealthy San Franciscans bought 18 acres of mixed oak-redwood forest on a logged out hillside. They hired Japanese architects and designers to build the garden; construction was completed by 1929. Ownership passed through different hands until 1966 when the city of Saratoga bought the property for $145,000. In 2000, the gardens were turned over to the private Hakone Foundation set up with seed money from the Packards. Admission is $5.

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Lots of turtles and fish in the pond.

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With all that algae, the water was probably getting slightly anaerobic. There was a lot of action by the waterfall.

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Some of the Japanese maples have massive trunks.

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And this wisteria allee was quite something.

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Lots of interesting conifer dwarfing going on.

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Can you see the bamboo and twine trusses used to shape the plant?

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I should like to try that myself one day.

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Behind the garden, the landscape reverts back to California.

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8/28/08

Thursday morning garden

It feels like Friday, doesn't it?

We're having a little heatwave. It was 85 deg F at 8:30 a.m. this morning. I got hot and sweaty just walking around taking pictures.

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It was warm all night too. Hopefully that means some tomato flowers got pollinated, although I don't think we have very many flowers. (For tomato flowers to pollinate successfully, it needs to stay above 60 deg F all night.)

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The cuke crop was much larger last summer when it was warmer. These plants appear stunted. (Potatoes coming up on the left.)

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A cucumber to pick.

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Not overwhelmed by the beans this year either, but the handfull I just picked & ate were sweet and crunchy.

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When it became clear we were having a cold summer, I yanked the tomatoes I had in this half-barrel and sowed some super-short season squash seed instead. The tomatoes wouldn't have ripened before November cold, but maybe some squash will.

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No grapes yet. Maybe next year? I hope so. The leaves are turning.

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I really like the raspberry foliage too.

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Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba' makes plump and tasty fruit, but I usually eat them before they reach maximum ripeness.

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Nothing else in edible garden news worth discussing right now, and I only have a few new flowery things.

This arctotis is new. I don't remember the cultivar name.

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The weedy Amaryllis belladonna is in full bloom, heralding the fall.

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Likewise, this crazy zinnia.

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And the Epilobium canum my friend Emma gave me.

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Behind the scarlet and white fuchsia, this Ceanothus is finishing a summer bloom. For a little while there I had a red, white, and blue thing going on.

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Annual tarweed, Madia elegans, is gorgeous in the sun and the fragrance of the foliage is amazing.

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Even more amazingly fragrant is the Salvia clevelandii foliage. You should come over and smell it some time.

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Yellow things:

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Up on the deck, this Senecio Calandrinia is blooming.

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I'm going to put it in the garden next year.

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