palides2021
Well-known Member
- Location
- MidAtlantic, USA
What a paradise! Beautiful photos and so tranquil. Loved it!Another walk in the garden this morning after rain last night. Starting in the back garden.
Then in the side garden.
Gardening for nature, walks with my dogs and the books I’m reading.
- Thread starter MarkD
- Start date
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Strange weather here too. Starts to warm up and go dry one day and the next we have an arctic cold front coming our way with cold rain. I don't know which may succumb but I won't feel too singled out if I lose a thing or two.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
You have the most beautiful home garden I’ve ever seen. Your hard work has definitely paid off
Thanks PPatty. It is a lot of work now as I get older but it used to just feel like a pleasant itch to scratch to do another project in the garden.
Being in perpetual lockdown it is nice to be able to share it with you all.
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PeppermintPatty
🐢. 🐳. 🐢
- Location
- Canada
Are you still in perpetual lockdown or were you talking about before now? Maybe your garden is what keeps you healthy and striving in life. You should be proud.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
We are because Lia’s fragile health. She has Pure Autonomic Failure which suppresses her immune response and very low kidney function which limits what drugs she could take if she caught Covid. The infectious disease doctor has told her she simply mustn’t get it and as her most likely vector, i mustn’t either. So we always have masks and put them on anytime we shop or go to an appointment. Outside we put them on if there are a lot people near around us. Sucks.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I often overshare photos of the garden in April. Sorry if it gets to be too much. I went around the garden in some nice light taking these this morning while Lia finished getting ready for our walk. Me and my giant fennel friend which Lia shot just before we left.
The Clematis which did so well for me last year looks good again this year but mostly out of sight because I pruned too much of it in front.
Ember earned her kibble as a garden ornament this morning.
The Clematis which did so well for me last year looks good again this year but mostly out of sight because I pruned too much of it in front.
Ember earned her kibble as a garden ornament this morning.
Paco Dennis
SF VIP
- Location
- Mid-Missouri
I feel like I am right there with you. Hey, pooch! 
I love your place. It really looks good this spring!!
I love your place. It really looks good this spring!!
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I feel like I am right there with you. Hey, pooch!
Spring is definitely when it is at its best. In a draught prone region such as this, after the rains things really take off.
PeppermintPatty
🐢. 🐳. 🐢
- Location
- Canada
Your spring clematis looks gorgeous Mark.
I miss all the clematis I had at our old house. Actually I miss our entire property. It had 24 years of gardening efforts. What are the yellows flowers next to your dog? Are those lilies. There’s some bluish green foliage but I think that’ another type of plant. Your garden looks magical at any season.
I miss all the clematis I had at our old house. Actually I miss our entire property. It had 24 years of gardening efforts. What are the yellows flowers next to your dog? Are those lilies. There’s some bluish green foliage but I think that’ another type of plant. Your garden looks magical at any season.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
T
This is the description from the nursery where I got them: Freesia alba - Buy Online at Annie's Annuals
Those yellow flowers are Freesias and very fragrant though I also grow a smaller white version with yellow streaks that have the most amazing scent. They’re not as showy and grow so low that when you walk by you naturally look around for something more notoriously great smelling.
This is the description from the nursery where I got them: Freesia alba - Buy Online at Annie's Annuals
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I get the feeling that you have been heavily into gardens at one time. Were you a designer, propagator or manager of some kind?
PeppermintPatty
🐢. 🐳. 🐢
- Location
- Canada
Freesia is nice. I think it comes in pinks and purples too. It’s nice having scented flowers in the garden so every time you walk by you get a whiff. I’m on my phone so my view isn’t as big as my iPhone.
At our last house, we bought a forest acre with 100 acres of preserved land behind us.
For 24 years I gardened and had flowers everywhere. We had a deck front and back plus 400 feet of 6 foot fences which I took advantage of. At one point in time I had about 35 different varieties of clematis and ivy grow where we had brick walls. I enjoyed many climbing vines. The ground here is far too rocky and so I have a lot of potted plants. Most perennials don’t last through the winter.
I wasn’t any type of manager but WAS heavily into gardening. I took care of all the landscaping at our last house and enjoyed it immensely. I miss our last house a lot.
I was a professional cannabis grower for a number of years. I had a license to grow for others and I liked it but it also caused others to break into our house and steal from us.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I liked the light this morning and took photos before we left for our walk. The first two are in the side garden where roses will be popping soon.
Then just inside the back garden looking past the fountain followed by Lobelia aguana against our back wall. .
Then the pond where I'm trying out a portable bench in a possible location followed by the Mauve colored Geranium maderense.
Coming around the back side of the pond looking at the birches in the corner and then Dombeya burgessiae.
Then just inside the back garden looking past the fountain followed by Lobelia aguana against our back wall. .
Then the pond where I'm trying out a portable bench in a possible location followed by the Mauve colored Geranium maderense.
Coming around the back side of the pond looking at the birches in the corner and then Dombeya burgessiae.
PeppermintPatty
🐢. 🐳. 🐢
- Location
- Canada
Your garden is truly magical. I love the dew on the orange flowers. Is the a water fountain in the 3rd picture? Do you use your phone camera?
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Yes I don't have any other camera now except my phone. It does okay I think.
The water fountain is made up of a large navy blue ceramic urn (with a hole in the bottom for a pipe) which sits on a ceramic base with a hole coming out its side for a flexible tubing from the pump. I worked fine for a long time having been fashioned by a Japanese crew at a pottery place. But when it failed I wasn't about to try and do what they had done which required real skill. Instead I plumbed all the pipe and hose fittings together, permanently joining the vase to the base, which means if it ever needs redoing again someone stronger than I will have to lift out of there. I had help from a friend who lifts weights when I set it in there.
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Lots of rain early this morning. Different light.
The next two are details taken in that large circular raised bed in the last photo where a lot of cool little things live.
Around the pond:
The next two are details taken in that large circular raised bed in the last photo where a lot of cool little things live.
Around the pond:
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Tomorrow morning we'll have 15 of us seniors here for tea in the garden. The clean up in the garden and set up for tables is about finished. Now I just need to pick up ice and a cake and then drop off Ember at the doggy hotel for daycare tomorrow before coming home to put together a dish for the gathering: Kinpiri Gobo and sushi rice rolled up like little sushi/burritos. Here is a short video I just took in the garden yesterday:
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Well I got through the tea for Lia's Jabberwalkies (women artists who walk and chat together) and then the San Francisco based California Horticultural Society and the San Jose based Western Hort in April. Last weekend we visited gardens in the South Bay, three belonging to old friends and one to a new friend.
One friend from the South Bay has given me so many plants. This time he gave me this Monkey Tail cactus, my first.
The second photo below is of one of my Rat Tail cactus which hang in a tree not far from the pond. There are three that are fuchsia colored and three that are orange flowered. I'll have to share some photos eventually from that trip but here are some from this morning in my garden:
One friend from the South Bay has given me so many plants. This time he gave me this Monkey Tail cactus, my first.
The second photo below is of one of my Rat Tail cactus which hang in a tree not far from the pond. There are three that are fuchsia colored and three that are orange flowered. I'll have to share some photos eventually from that trip but here are some from this morning in my garden:
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
None of those from my last post is fragrant but many of the roses are and my one clematis along with the Freesias. Then there is the flower of Dracunculus vulgaris which is plenty fragrant but not in a good way (think dead rat). Some fragrant foliage too on many of the pelargoniums and Melianthus (which smells like peanut butter).
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Got back up to Redwood Eastbay Regional park for a walk with Ember yesterday on a beautiful day in the high 60’s.
We entered the park off of Redwood Road and drove in to the last parking lot. From there we walked north along the mostly paved and level Stream Trail to an area known as Trail’s End where we turned left and West up the big switchbacks of Chown Trail. Toward the top it heads South eventually joining with our favorite, French trail. At the end of French we head east down the steeper Orchard trail to Bridle trail which eventually rejoins Stream trail at Fern Dell.
Along Stream the trail is mostly level with many redwood trees with oxalis, ferns and huckleberry beneath. Cool and shady like here.
Chown Trail is steep and dominated by redwoods as shown here. Surely a logging road at one time. No tree here is older than 150 years and many are younger but at one time some of the largest redwoods ever seen by a European were found here.
Toward the Southern end of French the canopy shrinks as the redwoods are replaced with laurel, coast live oak and madrone.
Ember walks behind me naturally, not as a command. She may have picked that up from my last dog Smokey, a heeler/Aussie cross.
But Smokey kept a tighter formation and was content with the view around me.
We entered the park off of Redwood Road and drove in to the last parking lot. From there we walked north along the mostly paved and level Stream Trail to an area known as Trail’s End where we turned left and West up the big switchbacks of Chown Trail. Toward the top it heads South eventually joining with our favorite, French trail. At the end of French we head east down the steeper Orchard trail to Bridle trail which eventually rejoins Stream trail at Fern Dell.
Along Stream the trail is mostly level with many redwood trees with oxalis, ferns and huckleberry beneath. Cool and shady like here.
Chown Trail is steep and dominated by redwoods as shown here. Surely a logging road at one time. No tree here is older than 150 years and many are younger but at one time some of the largest redwoods ever seen by a European were found here.
Toward the Southern end of French the canopy shrinks as the redwoods are replaced with laurel, coast live oak and madrone.
Ember walks behind me naturally, not as a command. She may have picked that up from my last dog Smokey, a heeler/Aussie cross.
But Smokey kept a tighter formation and was content with the view around me.
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I kind of doubt that I am really up to maintaining any kind of diary, not even in these forums. But my iPhone put together a slideshow of images taken this year with soundtrack of my dog Ember. May as well park it here.
Later today I’ll be walking Ember with my dog sitting friend and her dog Wolfie up in Redwood park. This picture shows her and Wolfie on the left with Ember on the right on a walk Sherry took her on while while keeping her over night.
We just got her back from a week long stay with Sherry while we were in DC on Sunday. When I take her to her house Ember pulls me up the stairs eager to see her buddies but apparently when I leave her there she becomes sullen like a prisoner of war.
There was a frightfully exciting incidence while we were away. Sherry, though discouraged at Ember’s unwillingness to be affectionate with her had gained confidence in her because she walks so nicely on leash. So when friend came to visit she let Ember sit with Wolfie while she got the door. But no sooner was it opened than Ember shot out and disappeared.
knew because we have a camper living in van out front and she phoned to tell me my dog was trying to get in the yard. Ember wouldn’t let her get close enough to put her in the van and soon raced off again around the block. My camper/neighbor told me later that she trailed behind her and observed her trying to find a way through our back fence from the city park. On the way she circled every group of people studying each one before moving on very fast to make several such loops.
After the call from my camper neighbor I called Sherry to tell her what I knew. She drove the five blocks to my house and parked over the sidewalk in my driveway, open all four doors. Perhaps because it was the car that had been taking for walks all week she jumped in. My camper/neighbor said there was no way anyone could catch her given speed, agility and focus. Together they saved my pupper.
Later today I’ll be walking Ember with my dog sitting friend and her dog Wolfie up in Redwood park. This picture shows her and Wolfie on the left with Ember on the right on a walk Sherry took her on while while keeping her over night.
We just got her back from a week long stay with Sherry while we were in DC on Sunday. When I take her to her house Ember pulls me up the stairs eager to see her buddies but apparently when I leave her there she becomes sullen like a prisoner of war.
There was a frightfully exciting incidence while we were away. Sherry, though discouraged at Ember’s unwillingness to be affectionate with her had gained confidence in her because she walks so nicely on leash. So when friend came to visit she let Ember sit with Wolfie while she got the door. But no sooner was it opened than Ember shot out and disappeared.
knew because we have a camper living in van out front and she phoned to tell me my dog was trying to get in the yard. Ember wouldn’t let her get close enough to put her in the van and soon raced off again around the block. My camper/neighbor told me later that she trailed behind her and observed her trying to find a way through our back fence from the city park. On the way she circled every group of people studying each one before moving on very fast to make several such loops.
After the call from my camper neighbor I called Sherry to tell her what I knew. She drove the five blocks to my house and parked over the sidewalk in my driveway, open all four doors. Perhaps because it was the car that had been taking for walks all week she jumped in. My camper/neighbor said there was no way anyone could catch her given speed, agility and focus. Together they saved my pupper.
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
It is now bloom time for the orange flowered Rat Tail Cacti hanging in my garden.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
This is the garden's worst season as it is warmer and I don't water much but there are a couple of things happening I like. In the back the second tallest tree in the back garden is the red leaved Australian Tea tree. But in June and July it gets frosted by white flowers. Nowadays it is so tall the flowers don't quite grab my eye like they used to though.
Just two of the Pineapple Lilies are blooming this year but they've had a hard couple years recovering from gophers. Now with the big circular raised bed hopefully protected from gopher hijinks most are tucked back in there but only one is blooming so far. I had one with different colored foliage and flower which I've put in larger pot by itself for now. Starting with the leaves of the ones in the raised bed back in May.
iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud
Oops, time for our walk. More later.
Just two of the Pineapple Lilies are blooming this year but they've had a hard couple years recovering from gophers. Now with the big circular raised bed hopefully protected from gopher hijinks most are tucked back in there but only one is blooming so far. I had one with different colored foliage and flower which I've put in larger pot by itself for now. Starting with the leaves of the ones in the raised bed back in May.
iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud
Oops, time for our walk. More later.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Got to post one more plant, the Monkey Tail cactus my friend Daxin gave me in May on our Southbay visit. His garden wasn't on the tour but since we were down there and had a generous amount of time scheduled for the two gardens featured we also stopped at our friend Judy's garden for the first time before the first featured garden and Daxin's which we've visited more often between the two featured ones. Here is Daxin showing us a different plant in his garden on May 5 and then the cactus he gave us in its place of glory at my garden the next day.
By July 2 it had developed a couple of flower buds.
Then this morning I took a quick look through my garden before coming upstairs and discovered these had bloomed.
I love my Rat Tail cacti too but I have to admit the flowers on these are so much more spectacular.
There are many more on the way and I look forward to seeing it covered in flowers.
By July 2 it had developed a couple of flower buds.
Then this morning I took a quick look through my garden before coming upstairs and discovered these had bloomed.
I love my Rat Tail cacti too but I have to admit the flowers on these are so much more spectacular.
There are many more on the way and I look forward to seeing it covered in flowers.