Agave 'Blue Glow' neighborhood walk

I’ve been meaning to write about the Agave ‘Blue Glow’s that are going apeshit in the Kaiser planting strips near my house.

A while back Kaier installed new hellstrip plantings and border plantings around their giant empty lot, which btw, would be a lot cooler if they made it a native meadow until such time they decide to build another massive honking hospital right there.

Anyway, they put in very mature Agaves and it did look very nice! They also put in some nice native plants - Rhamnnus, Artemisia, Achilleas. They did NOT maintain these plants in a nice way. Instead I would walk by and burn with horrified rage as I watched the staff turn the Rhamnnus and Arctostayphylos into little perfectly shaped buns. :O I have snapped many outraged pictures of this over the last few years.

Anyway, the Agaves were put in pretty mature. I would guess at like 10 -15 years old. So now they are blooming! It is very interesting to watch the various stages.

I think this is the agave getting ready to bloom.

What exactly is going on with the two above examples? One has the huge bloom stalk and one has a smaller stalk with flowers. The plant with the flower stalk has a bunch of pups in the middle and the huge stalk one does not. Is this just two stages of blooming? Blue Glow is a hybrid of Agave attenuata x  Agave ocahuiIs. Is this just weirdness from the being a hybrid? I know nothing.

Agave 'Blue Glow' with many pups int eh center of the rosette.

this one has a bunch of pups in the center but no bloom stalk. also, it looks like someone threw some trash in the center of it…

Check out this close up of the flower. Neat!

Then there is the first one pasted below. What is all the weird white stuff in teh center. It looked… slimy. My camera did not focus correctly so it is out of focus but then there was another one nearby that had this fiberous white stuff so maybe it’s the same thing? IDK. But, like I said up top, these plants are all going apeshit in different ways and it is fascinating. I bet the SF Succulent Society would know. I am a member even though I never make it to the meetings in SF. I will find someone to ask!

Oh, wait! I just noticed that the second pic has a bunch of spent flowers and now possibly the big stalk is going to happen. I’ll go back in a few days and see what these bad boys are doing.

This post on the blog Piece of Eden has some more informed information about Blue Glows.

Here’s a post by Debra Baldwin (a succulent goddess if ever there was one) about blooming agaves of various kinds: https://debraleebaldwin.com/succulent-how-to/your-agaves-blooming-now-what/

Tunnel Tops Field Trip

There are so many things I would like to be doing but I swear I am just absolutely bone tired. SO TIRED. All the time. Like, really, really, really tired. I suspect perimenopause and I do not like it.

Anyway, my tiny baby is going off to college and before that he is heading off to Iceland with his Dad. I am not joining them because it is a biking trip and like I said, I am too freaking tired to do that shit. I can however muster the energy for a local field trip to Tunnel Tops park.

We started with lunch at the cute little cafe and then lounged around in the windy sun. There are lots of good seating areas to choose from and we tried them all. I do love the wooden benches that echo the distant landscape of Marin.

I may have talked a bit too much about plants. but look how gorgeous these colors and shapes are. I just want to paint them.

We visited the very cool natural playscape. I stacked some wood with some little girls and had fun with them. I absolutely love a playscape with natural loose parts. They had an area with smaller loose parts and this area with much larger sticks to build with. So cool! I took a picture of Jack jumping on some tree stumps and I MUST find the pic of him doing the same thing at the playscape I designed at his elementary school. It looks like they might be expanding the garden in some way too. there is a new undeveloped area fenced off.

Our ultimate goal was to make it all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. Walking along the beach and lagoon areas was also very beautiful!

Gorgeous color and texture along the SF bay coast

As we approach the bridge I am getting a bit tired and it is so cold and windy!!!

It has been like 30 years since I have been around this particular area. I swear there were not so many gift shops back then.

We got like 5 steps onto the bridge and turned around. :D

There was no way I was making it back so we rented Lime scooters and zoomed back really satisfyingly. This was definitely a very good and satisfying field trip.

Bay Area Trees for Fall Color

I grew up mostly in the south in place without a lot of fall color. It got cold but the trees were mostly tall pine trees. They always seemed kind of depressing and dour. but I did like braiding the needles when I was little.

The Bay Area is not exactly know for fall color either. But there are several trees that can really bring it! Every fall I think, oh yeah I should document what trees are doing what right now and that time has finally come! This thought often occurs to me as I am driving through a particularly colorful street. And, yes, I did stop in the middle of the street to get this shot.

Street lined with colorful orange, red, and yellow Pistacia chinensis trees in the fall.

Pistacia chinensis - Chinese Pistache is a great tree for a streetscape or a residential setting. It doesn’t get too big, grows at a decent rate, provides a nice dappled shade and this amazing fall color. Here you can see an example of a 24” Box Keith Davey specimen at the nursery.

Lagerstroemia indica x fauriei 'Muskogee' is a nice crape myrtle that does well in this area and has gorgeous fall color.

Also consider this non native Buckeye - the Aesculus Early Glow. See some better pics here.

Next we have the Liriodendron tulipifera. This tree is in the magnolia family and has a really cool flower! I feel like I don’t actually see this tree very often. It does get HUGE soft may be that it is just too big even for the larger suburban neighborhoods in the East Bay. It is really pretty though!

Nyssa silvatica - Black Gum tree. This is another great tree for fall color. I’ve never spec’ed this tree but every time I see it I wonder why. Here is one in the background of this lovely patio at one of our projects.

In the nursery you can see this one has some set fruits. I don’t think it is a super messy tree though.

There are a million different Prunus varieties. When I first moved here the Prunus leaves fallen in the streets all yellow and red and spotty madame take up watercolors and sketchbooking. I don’t have the patience to figure out which ones these two are but I love how the leaves look intermingled on the ground!

Okay, one more. This Cercis is just looking very lovely with it's yellow leaves spread out under it!

All the Acers and Cornus trees have great fall color too.

The Madonna Inn Secret Garden

This was my first time staying at the Madonna Inn. I’m a fan, for sure now. So pink! So over-the-top opulent! We stayed in The HideAway Room which was a tad dank, if I’m honest. But who cares?! I got to shower in a pretend grotto!

The pool was great.

We only stayed at the hotel for like under 16 hours. We had to check out and rush off in the morning to go tour CalPoly. But I did jump out and take a few pictures of the Secret Garden.

I dig this entirely secret garden that literally no one knows about!

I’m always paying attention to color combinations in plantings. Peachy pink with purple, pink with dark maroon, dark red and yellow. All super pretty for a lovely cutting garden.

Mission San Juan Bautista and Mission San Miguel

My son and I headed down to Southern California lat week to visit colleges.

We took the 101 down and went to a couple of CA Missions. The first one was the San Juan Batista Mission. There was a lot going on! Live music and Mass outside, I think. Someone there is having a blast making succulent containers.

Visiting California's missions is always pretty interesting. I didn’t grow up here so I never had the elementary school missions curriculum that so many here tend to have. Instead, I had mad amounts of Texas history shoved down my throat. I really like visiting old historic sites in general. The missions do make me feel pretty sad though. I can't help but feel unsettled by how the missions' darker history is often glossed over. While they do often have exhibits about the pre-mission cultures the devastating impact these institutions had on indigenous peoples and their cultures should be more prominent.

This visit was a tad different from my previous visits as it was Sunday. It was CROWDED! And, I have to say, the activity and joyfulness of whatever was happening was really nice to see. Like, the past was some pretty horrific treatment of the indigenous population but now, at least, they seem to be vibrant centers for local community celebrations.

The other mission we visited was the Mission San Miguel. This mission has a larger museum and it was also very busy! There was live music, immense amount of tacos being made, and a quinceañera or two happening as well.

Baskets! I love basket weaving. They had a really nice exhibit of the different plants that were used and a display case filled with examples of baskets from a variety of indigenous cultures.

Some architecture and church pics. I only took one picture in the church because a girl was having her quinceañera photoshoot. I wanted to take a picture of her and her amazing fluffy purple dress but I did not! Every picture I took I was secretly seething because they just put signs everywhere and on every wall and door. So ugly! I tried hard to get the least amount of ugly signs in my photos.

My Animal Crossing New Horizons Island

I got a Switch Lite in 2020 during the pandemic and it was a huge source of comfort. I had played one of the other Animal Crossings, one that was on my phone and I eventually deleted it because it was taking too much of my time. At some point in 2020 I had to back up my island and move it to another switch and I thought I lost the save data and I cried. In front of my kid. Since then I have started a bunch of new islands. This newest one is called Eschscholz and my character is Poppy, obviously.

I am at the point in my island where I have most of my villagers and am already crapping up my layout.I need to get this thing under control so I have made a bubble diagram.

Key Elements/Areas

  • Shopping/Commercial District by the airport

  • Housing areas - mainly the suburbs, a beach community, and my personal estate.

  • Secondary housing areas - Hermit in a woodland swamp that leads to my cheesy Florida Beach Motel.

  • National Forest and camping area with a large lake. I might add an island in the middle that you can access using the Mario pipes.

  • The River Anduin that leads through river valley to The Argonath and Mount Doom where I will attempt to create a rock circle.

Why, you may ask yourself, is an adult obsessed with this kinda silly-seeming decorating game? Because it's awesome, that's why. It's a cozy, low-stakes game where all my cute little animals are happy to see me. I can decorate their houses and yards to match their personalities, and I can terraform and breed flowers to my heart's content.

Moving people through space and 'decorating' that space is what landscape design is all about, after all. We're constantly thinking about circulation patterns, sightlines, and spatial hierarchy. Where should paths lead? How do you create inviting gathering spaces? What views do you want to frame or conceal?

While the flower colors and textures are limited, breeding them is fun, and so is experimenting with color combinations and accessories for the gardens.

Personally, I think this is a perfect video game for landscape designers.

I should do a post about flower combos at some point!

Atlanta - Day Four

Day four was the day of the wedding but we had some time beforehand to take a walk to the Jimmy carter Presidential Library. I gotta say, I was underwhelmed. The map and descriptions made it sound better than it was. And it was hella hot out. Here I am looking sweaty yet pretty obviously Presidential. Hahahaha.

There were some nice, serene moments in the garden.

We walked to and from the library on the Freedom Park trail. There were many squirrels. I was unsure what this tree with the bean pod looking things was.

Then off to the wedding where we looked very cute.

The wedding venue was really pretty. The bride had, hands down, the best wedding dress ever. Some silliness with old friends. The flowers were all hand picked by the bridal party and arranged for the tables. So pretty!

I’m sorry to say that it all went downhill (in a good way) after the bride and groom left in their Georgia Tech themed car. :P

Exploring Atlanta - Day Three

Day Three!

We decided to walk to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

The greenway walk on the way there was pretty nice with lots of people out and about. Also, seen... a dog restaurant with a hilarious promotional photo I did not photograph. There was a huge open air market getting set up and what looked like an epic bouncy house festival with a million huge bouncy houses.

The Botanical gardens were setting up their Alice in Wonderland exhibits. Some are there all the time and some are new for this event.

It is always inspiring to see gardens in places you are not familiar with. I loved all the sculptures. the first one was this pair of wire birds sitting in really pretty swathes of green grasses. I just love how the color blocking draws the eye to the birds and the water feature.

I don’t think we managed to see all the Alice in Wonderland themed sculptures. This Earth Goddess woman is part of their permanent exhibits.

Some of the more specific Alice ones were the Cheshire Cat, Alice falling down the well, the queen playing crochet, and the shaggy dog (also in the permanent collection) made out of Carex testacea.

Oh man, there’s just a lot! There was a little conifer collection. I love confers ever since touring the conifer garden of the President of the American Conifer Society in maybe 2016-ish(?). A few pictured here in hypertufa pots making me want to try making hypertufa pots again…

We headed in to the Conservatory next.

They had a really great cloud garden. I’m embarrassed to tell you how many times I have attempted to insert one of these into a clients garden. LOL. At this point I should just try putting one in my own tiny backyard landscape.one can buy round pruned plants from many nurseries. Cloud pruning - or Niwake style pruning - is just pruning hedges into cloud-like shapes. I feel like I want to make joke about all the CA native plants I see horribly box pruned around here. A video about cloud pruning in case you are wondering how this is different from box pruning.

Anyway, check out these balls.

More plant pics incoming. I almost didn’t go into the orchid garden for some reason. I am glad we did.

There were many nicely designed containers all over the gardens. I love this cobalt blue and peach color combo! I really want to spend more time designing containers. I have a couple in my yard that are in sore need of replanting.

We were so hot and exhausted at this point. We ate at the fancy restaurant there and then on the way home we rented those Lime scooter thingies. My first time doing such a thing and I was terrified. But it ended up pretty easy to pick up how to do it and we made it home. I will say those, money-wise, it was way more expensive than just getting an uber or a ride share.

Then, we were off to the beer garden party for our friends’ wedding. I kinda wish I had a pic of my dress because it is my new favorite. I wore it with sneakers because my feet were tired from walking all over the garden!

Exploring a bit of Atlanta - Day 1

We made it to Atlanta!

Is it just that I am old now that a flight across the US utterly knocks me out? It ends up being an entire day of travel, and then I am left feeling grubby and dehydrated.

Before traveling, I tend to do a lot of googling of the location, and I made a saved places list in Google Maps. After I figure out the hotel, I google to see if there are any gardens close by or any gardens/landscapes in the city that are noteworthy that I think I might want to see. In this case, I settled on the Hotel Clermont - a refurbished motel and apparently a local iconic establishment. There is a local neighborhood shared garden just around the block! Perfect! What else looks good? The Atlanta Botanical Gardens and some place called Fernbank. That is really all we'll have time to squeeze into this visit.

Anyhow, we made it here, and I LOVE our hotel. It is so freaking cute. Great details, lobby is super nice, a bar and a restaurant, and a rooftop bar as well. Did I steal a Clermont Hotel pen? Yes, yes I did.

two happy looking people relaxing in a hotel lobby holding plastic cups of champagne.

We arrived, checked in, dropped our stuff off, and headed to the bar where we had some delicious cocktails. Then we walked down to the Atlanta Goddess Garden - https://www.goddessgardenatlanta.com/about. The weather here is... sultry. It all feels sort of primally familiar even though I am no longer acclimated to this kind of humid heat. It's nice to have a warm evening walk though.

This garden has a wild and overgrown feeling. Walking along the paths, there are many small shrines, seating areas, and spaces for growing edibles. There are also a lot of rats scurrying in the undergrowth, so I'm unsure how they can sustain any veggies or herbs!

Here is the description from their website:

"Created by Shasta Zaring in 1990, the Goddess Garden Atlanta is an urban wilderness habitat and healing sanctuary nestled in the heart of the City of Atlanta. It is a sacred space dedicated to the Divine Feminine in all religions, paths and cultures. Altars to Goddesses from various world cultures adorn the paths and are tended by the Garden's keepers.

This one-acre private preserve, open to the public during daylight hours, is cultivated without the use of pesticides and herbicides and is a certified Audubon Society Wilderness Habitat. Located just off the Atlanta Beltline, the Garden is in walking distance to many city attractions, such as Ponce City Market, Historic 4th Ward Park, Carter Center and Little Five Points."

So it is privately owned but publicly available space. I wonder if they have to worry about insurance. Apparently, they have classes there, an attached AirB&B, and does seem like a nice place to go and chill in some lush green space! i can see that it is def. a labor of love for people in the neighborhood!

After our stroll we headed back to the hotel, drinks on the rooftop bar, and some dinner.

The NY High Line and Little Island

We jaunted over to the Easy Coast this summer. T** and I went to NY. I had a whole different thing planned with J*** but then he ended up not able to go. I am versatile! I can adapt! T** and I did have a good time.

We visited the High Line again. They had a cool native plant area and some pretty cool art. I think this was a part I had never been to.

More beautiful plants and interesting spaces. Adding to the native plant exhibit they had a new prairie grasslands area all planted up. The contrast of the wild and messy plants with the industrial leftovers of the railroad and the NY skyline makes me feel a bit weepy? I am not sure why! It is just so pretty but then also makes me think about the apocalypse and rewilding of urban landscapes contaminated by humans.

We stopped and cooled our feet at this fountain again. I love this fountain! We stopped to have a frose again as well before heading down to the food market right below here.

For a bit of a new adventure we walked to Little Island. I had not been here before (it is pretty new) I think it was maybe under contraction the last time we were here? Either way I had not even heard about it until I was looking around for more gardens to visit for this trip. Like, wtf?! This is so super cool!! This is a park built on an artificial island on piers out on the water!

Oaky, wow. I am having trouble with all my photos from Little Island! I do not know what is up but I will have to come back to this post when I figure it out. :(

In the meantime you can checkout the wikipedia page for Little Island.

Field Trip to Stanford

We jaunted down to Palo Alto to visit some gardens at Stanford University. It was somehow a perfect day. The weather was not too warm, sky slightly overcast, and there were almost no other people around. We also got to hang out with a friend, and you know how delightful and rare that particular activity still is! While Covid is still lingering in the area a gentle stroll through the garden while catching up and talking about plants was just lovely.

CA Live Oak

Sitting under a canopy sometimes feels so magical. Calming, peaceful, serene. There was a study about how increasing tree canopy by some percentage increases people’s mental health.

Buffalo Bayou Cistern in Houston, TX

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston. Houston is VERY BIG. Wikipedia puts the Greater Houston area at about 10,062 square miles, slightly smaller than the state of Massachusetts. The suburbs were pretty boring, and as soon as we were teens able to drive, we left our immediate area to explore. We mostly went downtown, as that seemed to be where all the excitement was. We visited all the museums and parks, and of course, the music venues like Emo's, the Axiom, the Vatican, Fitzgerald's... I'm forgetting the others. Someplace called the Unicorn, maybe? Numbers... hahahah. We were underage, so I'm sure there were many clubs that were off my radar, plus my memories of high school are a bit hazy at this point.

I go back to visit my parents, and the area and city always feel very familiar but weird because I no longer really know my way around, and so many things have changed.

My interests have changed with age, as you might expect. Not that I don't still like to go to a punk club now and then! But I do love to explore parks with an eye for design, plantings, and history.

On my most recent visit, I decided to check out Buffalo Bayou Park, and more specifically, the Cistern. I don't remember this area being a park when I lived in Houston. It might have been, but it seems like they have put a lot of effort into it more recently, with tons of trails, landscaping, art, and gathering spaces.

You can see how big the whole park is! There is much to explore!

But it's hecka hot in Houston in July. I'm just not acclimated anymore, and I don't like being so hot and humid. It's not really conducive to exploring the outdoors. I did convince the family to head downtown to check out the Cistern on this trip though! I think I had seen that they were putting on concerts and art exhibits, but for our visit, they just had the regular history tour as an option. I love a history tour, so that was fine by me!

The Cistern is, obviously, pretty big! It held up to 15 million gallons of water. It is not in use anymore due to an irreparable leak. I just love that someone decided to turn it into a place to visit and tour. I'm imagining a meeting where some people are like, "Why the heck would people want to visit a musty old broken cistern?!" And other people are like, "Well, we can tell you are not huge nerds, so we're not even sure we can explain it to you!"

The ramped entrance is very dramatic!

I didn't manage to get many good photos. It looks as you might imagine... just like Khazad-dûm in the Lord of the Rings movies.

The water in this picture is only about 2 inches deep but the reflection makes it look like the water is deep and clear. I recommend this tour and exploring Buffalo Bayou Park. I’ll be back to check some of the other interesting-looking areas. The Lost Lake, the Arboretum, and there is a bat colony to visit(!), and a Children’s Nature Play Area.

A trip to Lake Merritt Garden

A little stir crazy during this dumb pandemic? Thankfully, we have so many lovely places to visit and the weather that makes it even nicer.

This is a fun new area with pots and succulents.

I spy a new play area over there.

This looks like another new area. some awesome boulders and a twig teepee structure. I def want to play here.

I’m currently obsessed with Daniel Smith Pyroll Orange. It is perfect for this cone.

Watercolor sketchbook with some pots and succulents and an orange cone.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

gingerpig.jpg