Monthly Archives: February 2010

Miracle on 28th Street

A minor miracle, just an urban meadow. This is a large medical complex that has been undergoing lots of construction and expansion of new hospital wings. The meadow, although just adjacent to the entrance, is slightly below grade and ringed … Continue reading

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March of the Tulips

They are a bit regimental in appearance, aren’t they? I’m not sure I’d want to accentuate that trait by lining them out with geometric precision in bedding-out schemes. I prefer to see these little soldiers cavorting with fennel and linaria … Continue reading

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Poppies in February

Of the many things I don’t do that cause me a small pang from time to time, like speak a language other than English, keeping a book of poetry on my reading table ranks probably in the mid to low … Continue reading

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Erodium pelargoniflorum

This little self-sowing erodium owns the front gravel garden in spring. Just yesterday I pulled handfuls of it up to give some nerines a bit of breathing room. Weedy, yes, but cheerful and controllable. A quick Internet search tells me … Continue reading

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Tulips’ Progress

Look at that stem length! This is the best length I’ve achieved yet from the regimen of prechilling six weeks in fall, then potting them up the day after Thanksgiving. The fishhook senecio experiment has been dismantled, and the black … Continue reading

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A Grate Idea

Up early, prowling around with the camera, Mr. Agave has an eerie glow in his new, most likely temporary quarters:

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Old Garden Notebooks

Anybody else keep theirs? Found this entry from April 1985, when all things horticultural were then confined to a small plot in a community garden a couple miles from our apartment: “Gophers running amok, seemingly in my garden alone. Can … Continue reading

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Brachysema praemorsum ‘Bronze Butterfly’

All I could remember about this beauty was the name ‘Bronze Butterfly’ and that he was a California native, but I was only half right. Brachysema praemorsum ‘Bronze Butterfly’ is from Australia. Takes the harsh conditions of the front gravel … Continue reading

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February Bloom Day/Foliage Day

This will be a hybrid post, a muddle of the two categories, by no means an exhaustive inventory of what’s in bloom and leaf here, early spring in zone 10. There’s salvias, annual poppies, succulents throwing out the odd flower, … Continue reading

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Hardenbergia violacea

I seem to be on a roll with the trailing and tendrily crowd lately, and this little evergreen Australian vine is in bloom around the neighborhood so he definitely rates inclusion. There’s two blurs of purple as I drive out … Continue reading

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