Practicing patience

This painful second quarter of the allegedly part-time Master's program I'm in takes up every minute of my time. I have scarcely seen the garden since Bloom Day, and I only saw it then because it was Bloom Day. What's more depressing is that next year will be like this too, because it's a 2-year program. I hope when it's all done I'll find a career for myself that will help pay for years and years of future gardening.

Here are some Hipstamatic shots whose moody aesthetics aptly reflect the dream-like state of memory in which the garden exists for me now.

This is on the deck outside our bedroom window, which is the one place I'm guaranteed to have some interaction with my otherwise avidly pursued avocation. The Anemone coronaria are like $.20 each, and they grow very reliably. I would get some if I were you.



The other deck has the Hardenbergia violacea on it, and it's also a nice, cheering site. If there are any bees around, I'm sure they're visiting it.



If I go down into the garden, it actually hasn't changed much in the last few months. There is no cover of snow of course, so the plants are there as they always are. There just isn't much happening. Nothing leafing out. Nothing about to flower for a few months. Nothing dieing back. While I do have a lot of garden elements that don't change much throughout the year--the fuchsias and abutilons bloom constantly--there is always something coming or going. Not so much right now. What's come is still here and what's gone is gone. It like that for a few months every year before the changes start to happen.

Bloom Day

Usually for January Bloom Day I just put up a few pictures of Hardenbergia violacea and call it a day. Unfortunately, I had to prune that vine a few months ago. That seems to have set its bloom back a few weeks. (Although I haven't noticed them blooming around town yet either. Hmm.)

Anyway, it looks like this currently:



There are a few flowering panicles.





I haven't spent more than one afternoon in the garden since October. I'm averaging about an hour or two a week. That's a significant deviation from the mean for me; I've practically lived back there since I started to garden 5 years ago. We're planning to move when I finish school in another year, hopefully to a bigger garden (otherwise, why move). Am I detaching from this one? No, I'm just very busy with school. It's probably a good thing. Let the garden grow without my constant meddling.

I will say I wonder if I will miss this garden when it's gone. I'll replace it with a new one but I'll always have the blog to remember it with.

Now then, Bloom Day. We have a few things, but not much.

















I know I should tell you their names, but I'm kind of tired of saying their names. Does that ever happen to you? Here is a plant with a name I never get tired of saying, The Marble Gardens Mystery Rose. So how do I visit Marble Gardens, and what else is growing there?



I'll come back tonight and add the Bloom Day link May Dreams, but you can go there now and read about Ida Bennett, (part 1, part 2)

ADDED: For more Bloom Day action, go visit May Dreams Gardens.

ADDED: I got an answer to my question about Marble Gardens! @AnniesAnnuals says, "b/c annij calls her garden "marble gardens" from all of the marbles she's found in it & the rose is a mystery http://ow.ly/3E9vw." Check out Anni J's garden at that link!

Monday Botanical Garden

I've been cooped up indoors doing homework for days. Today I escaped to the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It was quite cold and I had the place to myself.



Me and the flowers.







I've taken this picture a hundred times, haven't I:



This bromeliads-on-horizontal-branches-with-moss-and-chicken-wire thing is an old standard here. I'm surprised more people don't do it at home. If I ever have a big enough tree with horizontal branches I will definitely give it a try.



It doesn't look cold, does it? A lot of the plants you might think of as likely to suffer in cold weather seemed to look their best today. Alas, by cold, I don't mean freezing. It was in the high 40s.



I put that little retaining wall in in 2006. Still operational!



Seed heads of Montanoa grandiflora. The seed heads last longer in the vase than the flowers and look groovy.











I've argued dead aloe leaves should be removed. I don't feel that way anymore.







My next garden will have this Aloe and Lecuodendron vignette for sure.



The yellow Leucodendron is my favorite. Makes me think of bananas.





Luma apiculata trees from Chile are among my favorite exotic trees. It's the cinnamon-colored bark, partly.











This is about where I decided I was freezing and wanted to go home. Keep warm!

Minnesota Garden

News of our next garden came by way of my Twitter stream from Sam Francisco. If the garden rounded by the Pennsylvania Street freeway exit is the Pennsylvania Garden, then this would be the Minnesota Garden, sited here on Minnesota between 24th and 25th Street.




We are not that far from Heron's Head Park, but unlike that area, this area has seen a lot more condominium development, starting in the late 1990s. According to Zillow, you could get a unit in that building on the left right now for around $500k.



And across the street you would have this garden to visit.



I don't know who does the gardening here, but it's obvious from the plant choices and construction work they know what they're doing. You can see the willow and liquidambar trees. The large shrubs look like rhamnus and viburnum. Also, phlomis, lantana, rosemary, ceanothus, euphorbia, artemisia and lots of different aloes and agaves.





Some of the plants are planted a little close together, but who am I to complain about that.







The Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) has freely self-sown. Isn't it time to develop a sterile form?









This looks like a Cuphea.



Geranium maderense. I am not seeing this around as much as I used to.



But the Calandrinia spectabilis has really taken off. It is everywhere.



Lots of new plants going in. Always love to see that.





It looks like he/she's also using trimmings for little fences. I always like that. I'm not really sure what the fencing is for. Maybe to keep dogs out?



Pergolas anchor both ends of the garden.







Well, that's about all. Not bad for January, eh?