Golden Gate Park Panhandle

Finals are almost done which means I have time to blog!

I had to go to the DMV this morning, without an appointment, to get my driver's license extension renewed. I was at least the 30th person in line 15 minutes before they even opened. I got the license renewed in October but the extension they gave me expired a week ago and I still haven't received my new license. They're having some technical difficulties and it currently takes 3-4 months to get your license replaced. Be aware of that if you have something coming up that requires possession of a valid picture ID. Anyway, the San Francisco DMV is right next to the Panhandle which is one of my favorite San Francisco places. I haven't been here in a year or so. It was only 9 am, so I had the park mostly to myself.

California transitioned to winter, our rainy season, a few weeks ago. They predicted a dry winter but we've had a lot of rain. It was nice to get out after being sequestered in my study room for the last several days.







The Panhandle is located near the geographic center of San Francisco on land that was once vast, rolling sand dunes. Park development began in the 1870s, transforming sand dunes into tilthy soil. The Panhandle contains Golden Gate Park's oldest trees.



There are many Australian eucalypts, including Eucalyptus globulus and E. viminalis, as well as Californians like Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata), Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). Also, lots and lots of beeches widespread in the northern hemisphere (Fagus sylvatica), and miscellaneous pittosporums and acacias.







Here's an Auraucaria heterophylla. Maybe it's A. cunninghamii. I feel confused about it all of the sudden. Whichever, the Victorians were immensely fond of this genus.





The Panhandle borders the Haight-Ashbury and Western Addition neighborhoods and serves those communities as a recreational area and open space.







The basketball courts will be used for pick-up games later today, I'm sure.







There's some nice gardening here... by Guillermo.









The Panhandle is eight blocks long and one block wide with busy thoroughfares, Fell Street and Oak Street, running anti-parallel on the northern and southern sides. There are some big, old San Francisco houses and apartment buildings on those streets, from a range of time periods.

















Anyway, I spent the next three hours leisurely walking all the way home. Come back soon and we'll visit the Haight-Ashbury and then I'll show you the coolest artificial Christmas tree you have ever seen.

"The storm door has opened"

Does the TV weatherman use that expression where you live too? It cracks me up. Yes, the storm door is open and the storms have been barging through it all week.

Today we got a tiny bit of blue sky. I used it to frame this picture of Senecio cristobalensis and to show you its emergent flower stems. This is the fastest growing plant in my garden, ever.



Moments after I took this picture, the sky went white again. Because somebody (I won't say who) left the storm door open! At any rate, you can evaluate the evidence for yourself, but I think my picture is conclusive: the sky remains blue on the other side of the clouds.

As the Senecio continues to grow and intermingle with some of ther cloud forest species I have (Tibouchina, Fuchsia), we're starting to get some canopy action going on, which is exciting.



A few of the smaller passionflower species climb up all these plants. They may help to knit together a canopy in a year or two.



Hopefully, the Tibouchina and Fuchsia will provide a solid-enough wood support. I'm not sure about Senecio's long-term prospects. The young shoots are very fleshy, even succulent, but the stalk feels solid. We'll see. At any rate, any canopy will be monitored closely.

I went down to the garden hoping to find some groovy fungi. We had some new mushrooms in '09, and I hope for more in 2010.

It would be great to get one of those mushroom kits all the nurseries are selling, but not for $40. Yikes. Instead, I try to mulch regularly with different kinds of organic material, and I spread compost now and then.

Anyway, I didn't find any mushrooms, but the moss on the birdbath is back. The little clumps get bigger every year. People in the PNW will laugh at me, but I think my 2-inch piece of moss is exciting!



The only actual fungus I found was this orange, crustose material on my oak half-barrels. I'm sure if you can use the word crustose to describe a fungus, but maybe this is a lichen and not a fungus afterall.



Two cherries were new to me last year. They shouldn't flower for months still, but it sure looks like the buds are swelling. And what's the stippling up and down the stems?



You can see the lichen-dusted fence in the background.



The camera doesn't quite get how bright green it really is.



The snowberry (Symphoricarpos sp.) looks much better growing in the shade where it belongs.



It's just a filler, but it's a pretty filler.

Delphinium cardinale is flowering already. Wind blew the stem into the manzanita bush and it can't seem to extricate itself.



A different manzanita has some flowers on it, but I think the wood is more interesting.



The Ceanothus is flowering now too but the rain-drenched flowers can't be very satisfying for the bees. Or maybe the bees don't care. I don't know.



I can't get over how red the Centradenia leaves are.



And I'm happy to say cabbage grows unmolested in my garden and seems to need no attention from me.



This was just an experiment to see if cabbage would grow at all. I might consider it as a winter vegetable crop, but cabbage takes so long to ripen... Too bad kale isn't an option. Bugs eat the heck out of kale.

This is Cretan Rock Lettuce (Petromarula pinnata). You can get it at Annie's Annuals, but I grew mine from seed. Young leaves are edible and salad-worthy and it looks like this when it flowers.



I have a nerine bulb in this pot, but I think I like it more as a pot of tumbled glass.

So much for "no rain in the forecast"

How do they miss half-an-inch?



Now we have nothing but "unsettled" weather in the forecast. I see we had more rainy days after the 22nd last January too.



So winter returns to California.



Here's the thermometer I bought last month to record the min/max temperatures in the last 24 hours. It has two parts, one part goes outdoors, and one part stays indoors. The outdoor part transmits a temperature reading to the indoor part by radio wave every 5 seconds. The top number is the current outdoor temperature, and the bottom number is the temperature in the garage. Currently it's 53 outdoors, and 60 in the garage.



The maximum outdoor temperature in the last 24 hours was about 62.



The minimum outdoor temperature in the last 24 hours was 50.



Brrrr! :P

No dramatic changes in the garden since I last talked to you two days ago.







But the weight of the rain has the bamboo weeping nearly to the ground. I may have to prune it or take out a few stalks.



(Yeah, I have a garbage can in my garden right now. The potato vines were getting really long and I didn't have anything to stack them in. So I cut the bottom out of an old kitchen garbage can and plopped it on top. Then I filled it halfway up with compost. More potatoes? I hope so. Next time I need something better than a garbage can tho'. This is a fabulous Bernal Heights estate garden and I cannot have my potatoes stacked in a garbage can.)

Daffodil flowers, coming soon.



Hopefully lots of them.



And Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman' is right on the cusp.



Do you see the purple pot?



I believe that's an artichoke.



It's what grew from this mystery "bulb" I found in the compost bin a few weeks ago. I discarded an artichoke from the garden two years ago. Has it been sitting in there ever since?



I added gravel to the cobblestone paths recently. New gravel and recent rain always give the place a nice, fresh look. Over here I even banked a bed that was slowly sliding into the path.



Much better.



I turned the Christmas tree into mulch.



A few things wait patiently for warmer days, like larkspur seedlings.



German chamomile (Matricaria recutita).



Cosmos bipinnatus 'Psyche Mix'--the double-flowering form.



And even some nasturtium (Trapaeolum majus) to make the vegetable garden more...folksy, I guess.



Next week I start tomato and squash seeds for a March 15 planting date.