by Wendell Berry
Manzanita Gall
I was walking down the street and saw this plant and was sort of baffled by it. Have I seen this before? Maybe? Anyway, I took some pictures and googled around.
So, these are caused by aphids. They are eating the leaves and cause the leaves to create this redish gall around the aphids. I’m still sort of having trouble picturing exactly what is happening here but the link above has a pic of a manzanita gall cut open and filled with aphids. I never took the Pests class at Merritt and clearly I should have!
Then and Now
I stumbled across this picture of our side yard the other day. Wow! It is highly cringeworthy. But such is the price and reality of construction.
Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…
About a year and a half later!!!
Just came across these two photos of the space in 2014 just after the basement was done. You can see we still had the metal awning, no stairs, no porch, etc.
Chicken Math
Our second to last chicken died in February of this year and, with just one chicken left, I decided that we would get a new batch of chickens. My timeline was dependent on Concord Feed and their schedule of chickens. I was hoping to get some specific breeds. I ended up just getting the ones they had available and I am very glad I did because the week after I picked ours up there was a global pandemic declared and people went nuts buying up all the chickens. It was all about sourdough starter and buying ‘pandemic chickens’ in those first few weeks. I mean, also it was about people being scared, dying, losing their jobs and a host of other horrible things.
We ended up getting six chickens, 2 cream legbars, and four cochins (black, blue, buff, speckled). Our older hen is an Easter Egger and she mostly hates us.
Even now I feel the inexplicable pull of chicken math. I really want to add some chocolate eggers or a Lavender Orpington… there are so many adorable chickens out there.
Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.
Baby chickens are just the cutest things! Check out these nerds as babies:
So the week after got these the SIP order was put in place. My sister and I organized a pet fashion show for the kids in our lives. It was a great success. I submitted several chicks wearing muffin papers.
Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”
Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.
Pink Tamales and an Outing to Pt. Richmond
The goals for this outing were for me to check out the landscape in front of the Natatorium, go to Keller Beach, and to try out a restaurant in Pt. Richmond.
What the heck is a Natatorium?! A natatorium is just an indoor pool. This one is called the Richmond Plunge and it is a public warm saltwater pool. It is fairly newly restored, in 2010 I think the building was retrofitted, solar panels installed (these panels help heat the water) and a new, native plant landscape was installed as well.
Wandering through the landscape in the front of the building I noticed that along the side by the train tracks the landscape continues. There is a regulation sized Bocce Court, a farther back behind the building there are tennis courts, picnic areas with tables and grills, a Little Free Library, and more native plants.
View of a teenager reading a plaque in front of a brick building with a large sign that says, “Municipal Natatorium”.
We ended up going to Masa to get tamales to bring with us to Keller Beach. I had been the Keller Beach before but a long time ago and I couldn’t remember what access was like. My prediction last month that my achilles tendons were giving out was, unfortunately, correct and so I am wearing a boot to try to give the left one a rest. We ended up not going all the way down to the beach but we sat on a bench looking out over the swimmers and ate our tasty tamales. We split a strawberry dessert tamale, the first dessert tamale I have ever had. It was good!
Just sitting by the water listening to kids playing in the water and the sound of wind and waves feels so restorative. I was amazed at how far out the swimmers went! I forget that people swim here. I have only been in the water here (in Northern CA) a handful of times.
View of a small beach surrounded by greenery covered cliffs, a few people are in the water and you can see the Richmond Bridge in the background.
There is so much more to explore around here I am sure we will be back. Here is a link to a PDF of the East Bay Regional Park tri-fold about this areas trails.
Plaque displaying the Ferry Point Loop and Shipyard Trail.
We also made two side trips. First, to Serrano’s Bakery in Richmond and then to TAP Plastics to get some silicon mold making supplies.
Oakland's Downtown Equinox Observatory
Did you know that Oakland has it’s very own equinox observatory? This article in the Oakland wiki suggests it was planned by several prominent citizens in the early 1900’s.
The Oakland Local Wiki is actually a very interesting site to hunt around in. Check out the 101 Things to love about Oakland article. The cool thing about Wiki’s is that anyone can contribute.
Plant Combo
Sphaeralcea ambigua, Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls', and Carex testacea.
I got this Sphaeralcea from Mountain States Nursery a few years ago, I can’t remember what variety this nice peach color is. The yard was still being trampled by construction so this spot was where I put all my randomly acquired plants. So far I have NOT cut this plant back in the Fall so it tends to get leggy and awkward looking. It really should be cut back to about 6 in when it is done flowering.
Art in the garden
Came across this nice metal garden art a few weeks ago. Desert Steel.
Sometimes you really need a focal point and plants are great for this, so are water features. But art can be a great focal point as well. These all have a really nice level of detail and look amazing nestled among plants.
I really want to use one of these in a project!!
Ruth Bancroft Outing
There are no camps I’m willing to send my kid to this year. So I have reduced my work schedule to have one more week day to hangout with him. While it’s okay to visit public spaces I’ll be whisking him away to visit various sites around town. I feel my privilege in being able to do A. work from home most of the time and B. have the ability to adjust my schedule. I’m feeling this privilege even more as I think about the coming school year. Are we really willing to risk the health of our teachers and students just to get childcare?
So anyway, UPS in Oakland is having a covid-19 and crappy equipment related melt down and thusly the shoes I ordered kiddo are not arriving any time soon. He is wearing shoes 2 sizes too small so I MUST get him something. We head to Walnut Creek to get shoes and have our side trip to the Ruth Bancroft Garden. I haven’t been here in several years, in fact, since they have upgrade to have an event space and a nursery.
It looks amazing. The parking lot is even nice and have beautiful Palo Verde trees planted between spaces. At this time, there are strict guidelines in place to stop the spread of Covid-19. Kiddo and I wore masks and kept our hand sanitizer at the ready.
The garden was full of employees/volunteers working, there was a photoshoot/video interview happening, and there were a several other visitors. I was thrilled to find a plant in the nursery that I had been looking for since the beginning of the year, a Eucalyptus cinerea ‘Silver Dollar’. This plant was in a recent landscape design but I ended up having to find a sub and think I ended up using a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Mop'. This Eucalyptus is great for a cutting garden. You can keep the plants small and shrub formed if you prune it down in it’s second year encouraging multi-branching. Then prune at will to add to flower arrangements.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden has several pamphlets you can pick up at the kiosk. The especially useful ones are the Self Guided Tour and the What’s in Bloom. Oh! Looking at their website just now I see that they have a YouTube channel that gives you a tour of their blooming plants! no need to leave your living room and brave the sweltering heat anymore!
Albany Bulb Outing
Kiddo and I headed out to Albany Bulb this week to do some exploring. Immediately upon exiting the car I realized I have forgotten my binoculars. Huge mistake! The wetlands were LOUSY with Avocets and other Brown Birds of Medium Size (BBoMS). I’m shocked newly everyday how much my eyesight has deteriorated in the last 5 years and resolve to put my car binocs back in the car where they belong.
Multi-branched tree with a painted trunk and SF and the bay in the background.
I have deep suspicion at this point that my Achilles tendons are royally unhappy but I soldier on and we head out to see what we can see. About halfway in to the Bulb we realize that we need to order Picante for pick up STAT. Thank god we can stop for a sec so I can rest my legs and place our order. In true teenage fashion Kiddo is also more excited about getting a burrito than exploring. :)
Chunk of old concrete nestled in dried grass covered in graffiti. Graffiti says ‘Anxiety’ and also has a picture of a CA poppy with text next to it that says California Poppy.
Why yes this concrete is expressing just how I feel: anxious and excited to look at plants.
At this point I am trying to convince Kiddo that an acceptable summer project would be to think of an art project to do at the Albany Bulb. He is not convinced and continues to be wholesome AF.
Have you been to Albany Bulb? You can read up on it here. The thing I like about the Bulb is all the twisted metal embedded in chunks of concrete. IDK, I just like that kind of thing. Well, I like it up until I start to think on the human race and how it creates massive amounts of construction debris and is ruining the planet.
Now I am trying to convince Kiddo that all this land is manmade and so is Emeryville. I don’t have enough facts at my disposal to be convincing enough, alas. I wander off into a fantasy in which Kiddo writes a high school report on the created and stolen lands of the Bay Area.
On our way back to the car we see some lovely BLM and All Brown Live Matter graffiti. It certainly bears repeating until everyone believes it for real.
Close-up of weathered wood with BLM spray painted in red.
My Backyard in June 2020
June is a lovely time to get out in to the garden. The freezing summer weather is just around the corner though.
CA native plant seeds
The S & S Seeds site has a bunch of cool seed mixes AND the extra cool thing is you can request a custom mix based on your particular criteria.
Their database for searching plants is also very granular and so useful.
Picture of bright orange California Poppies,Eschscholzia californica, in full flower and the interesting seeds heads that are exposed when the petals fall off. In the background and out of focus is a Convolvulus cneorum, a low ground cover with silver-grey foliage and white flowers.
Atanasio Echeverria y Godoy
It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole while designing.
Which echevaria do I want to use with this project? Is there an appreciable difference between Echeveria imbricate and Echeveria elegans?
There are a couple of plant sites I tend to click on first from a Google search. Monrovia has a nice site, searchable, nice pictures, good info about plants, often more in-depth articles can be found on the site but the plants are not specifically geared towards our climate. San Marcos Growers also tends to have useful and interesting info, a larger variety of cultivars and extra articles about some species.
For instance, while looking up info on echeverias on San Marcos Growers I fell down a rabbit hole about Atanasio Echeverria y Godoy, a Mexican botanical artist in the early 1800’s, who the genus Echeveria was named after. I just love when I stumble on some serious plant geeks. I’m not really one myself as I just don’t retain enough info in my own brain. But I am geeky enough to want to read about and/or listen to the hardcore geeks.
So anyway, Atanasio Echeverria y Godoy. He was a Mexican botanical artist and naturalist in the 18th century. He joined an Spanish scientific expedition looking at new flora and fauna in the Spanish territories. A bunch of these illustrations were thought lost but then were found in a private collection in like the 1980's.
I just read way too much about Mexican and Spanish dudes gallivanting about California and Cuba etc. All that lead me to an article on Smithsonian.org: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/botanical-wonderland-resides-world-rare-and-unusual-books-180969096/
Which led me to google the name Jane Webb Loundon. OH MY! Gardener, Garden book author, science fiction author and illustrator?! My new historic crush! She wrote a science fiction novel when 17 in 1827 after her father died called The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (<---purchasable on Amazon! i just bought the kindle edition and I can not wait to read this) in which ladies wore trousers and hair ornaments of controlled flame. John Loudon, the editor of a gardening magazine read her book and wrote a good review in his magazine. When he sought out the author found out it was a female and they got married a year later?! So that's where my google search for Echeverias led me...
http://www.huntbotanical.org - pretty cool! tons of gorgeous and historic botanical illustrations!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Botanical_Expedition_to_New_Spain
https://library.si.edu/libraries/botany
Read more about Jane Loudon here: http://www.artinsociety.com/forgotten-women-artists-2-jane-loudon.html
More about Jane's garden books: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/mrs-loudon-victorian-garden/
Biogenic emissions
I went to a popup at Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery the other day that was Stew Winchester talking about trees for our various climate conditions. Great info, good handouts, quality plant geeking.
I had Stew for some classes at Merritt and highly appreciate his geekery. You can go on what look like effing insane horticultural back packing trips with him. If you are interested you can find him here.
On his handout, Considerations for Positive Tree Performance, #3 is Biogenic Emissions. Which, I confess, I have never before considered. He mentioned that the Smokey Mountains are so named because of the hazy/smokiness you often see and that that hazy/smokiness is caused by trees. So, yeah, you bet your ass I googled that as soon as I got back to the office. Maybe it's a bit of common knowledge but I had no idea.
That's pretty cool. Biogenic emissions are emissions from natural sources, such as plants and trees. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimates emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) from vegetation for natural areas, crops, and urban vegetation. Usually I think about plant emssions as good. I have a book called How to Grow Fresh Air that goes in to detail about which plants to use indoors. I never put in to practice anything in this book because my cats eat all plants and knock things over so this house will forever be plantless.
Iresine herbstii 'Aueoreticulata'
Iresine herbstii 'Aueoreticulata'
This is also called Beefsteak Plant. This particular plant is hanging out outside my hair stylist building. Normally this isn’t a plant that we see planted outside in our Mediterranean climate. But it’s doing quite well in this protected area with reflected heat in a container.
I love how vibrant the variegated leaf and bright pink stems are.