Medusa
Senior Member
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
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
I've just started looking at the pictures of your garden, @MarkD. It is magical; reminds me of the beauty in the world.
I am designing a fairy garden on Animal Crossing (don't ask) and am getting some ideas from your landscaping.
Honestly, you could do a youtube on your garden.
Thank you. I like to think mine is a garden where it looks as if nature might yet be winning. The beauty in the natural world is what inspires my lay out until some freakishly amazing plant strikes my eye and I want to show that off.
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I think so. I have some out front which get harvested though not by me. I'm glad they get used after they've flowered. They're flowering out there now and I couldn't spot any pictures on my Flickr account so I just took a couple of pictures just now. Some opuntia cactus have very round pads and others like these here are oblong and variable. I have another next to it with larger, thicker blue leaves but it may be getting over covered by this one which gets taller. For scale the trellis over the top is up at ten feet. The front border is pretty wild.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Of course right after lamenting that I had no photos of the big round blue leaved Opuntia or its flower, Facebook reminded of me from 2021.
Just on the left you can just see this one at the bottom. It was already getting crowded out then.
Just on the left you can just see this one at the bottom. It was already getting crowded out then.
I’m not sure what this is called , but I know it’s got a milky sap and it will grown in protected area in South Aust , however I’ve never seen one of theses over 18 inches tall….look at this and it was only a small cutting taken off a mature plant a year ago…( This is totally understandable being in tropical Queensland )
@MarkD
@MarkD
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I love it. We had friends with something similar I believe they called Dumb Cane. If that’s right I think that makes it Dieffenbachia. Definitely a houseplant near me.
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Today I'm going to visit the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden with the adult son of our 90 year old friend. He came to our tea for Lia's women artist friends last month and we made plans to see some gardens. I also suggested he might enjoy seeing a private garden which is always open to the public on his way over it's in Pt Richmond and is called the Wave Garden.
On this webpage the guy who poured all the artistic concrete walls, paths and other structures talks about how the garden began and who was involved. I know an artist working in blacksmithing made the rails. The story I heard elsewhere is that the family made their money in meat packing and wanted to develop their oversized lot with the neighborhood in mind. But their sone was badly injured in bicycling accident and ended up in a wheelchair permanently. So one design consideration was paths the son could use too. A friend of mine who is the director of the Regional Parks Botanical garden in Tilden Park bought a house just two doors down. Score!
Here are some more pictures I took there in 2016 when I first began visiting this garden: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBjn7y
On this webpage the guy who poured all the artistic concrete walls, paths and other structures talks about how the garden began and who was involved. I know an artist working in blacksmithing made the rails. The story I heard elsewhere is that the family made their money in meat packing and wanted to develop their oversized lot with the neighborhood in mind. But their sone was badly injured in bicycling accident and ended up in a wheelchair permanently. So one design consideration was paths the son could use too. A friend of mine who is the director of the Regional Parks Botanical garden in Tilden Park bought a house just two doors down. Score!
Here are some more pictures I took there in 2016 when I first began visiting this garden: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBjn7y
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Well on Saturday I attended garden party of a friend with a large beautiful garden he and his wife have been working on for several years now. The first time I visited it looked like a very formally laid out French garden with very nice but conventional plants. Not anymore although they do have a large formal rose garden that smells heavenly up near the house as you come into the garden through the side gate. The fellow is very active in horticultural clubs now. but used to own the photography shop Lia used for her artwork before and his wife is a retired doctor.
Last May I visited and posted pictures here. Gardening for nature, walks with my dogs and the books I’m reading. in post #281 of this thread. There I took more photos of the garden's layout. This time I just took pictures of the plants that especially drew my eye. But honestly I didn't take very many because there were so many wonderful friends I haven't been seeing much of and some pretty yummy food.
This year my favorite plant was a young exotic fig whose name I didn't record.
Other wonders:
I usually take many more but as I say there were just so many of friends to catch up with. I'll post more here if Lia has any for me.
Last May I visited and posted pictures here. Gardening for nature, walks with my dogs and the books I’m reading. in post #281 of this thread. There I took more photos of the garden's layout. This time I just took pictures of the plants that especially drew my eye. But honestly I didn't take very many because there were so many wonderful friends I haven't been seeing much of and some pretty yummy food.
This year my favorite plant was a young exotic fig whose name I didn't record.
Other wonders:
I usually take many more but as I say there were just so many of friends to catch up with. I'll post more here if Lia has any for me.
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MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
One of the people I got to see at the party was, like me, a former middle school teacher who has made a garden much as I did, slowly and intuitively. Her garden is much smaller and more special than mine. But its a nice locally done article that came out in May 2024.
Enjoy, the garden of Ann Nichols. Sometimes something you create with a beginner's mind can surpass what expertise can.
In Bloom: A Tour Through Ann Nichols’ Garden Paradise - Splashpad News
Enjoy, the garden of Ann Nichols. Sometimes something you create with a beginner's mind can surpass what expertise can.
In Bloom: A Tour Through Ann Nichols’ Garden Paradise - Splashpad News
MarkD
Keeper of the Hounds & Garden
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Okay Lia did have some photos for me. This first one shows you one corner of the house as well as the main path leading to the part of the garden below which I love the most. In the middle of the path, new this year, was a raised bed for succulents not yet filled in. The lawn beyond was covered in white tables, chairs and umbrellas and at the end was where food was served.
At the left end of that bed, the man in the Hawaiian shirt was one of our hosts that day. Looking past the two people in the foreground the most flamboyantly dressed woman is well known ceramist and garden artist, Marcia Donahue. She lives in the same city I do and this article on her garden and art appeared in our local newspaper ten years ago. I don't know her well but always talk to her when I visit her garden on a Sunday. Honestly it has been a while and I don't know if she still opens it every Sunday or not. But if she does she'll also let you inside which, like the garden is part of her personal art gallery.
This is a picture I took of her on the left and of Cevan Forristt on the right, back when the Richmond Art Center had a retrospective show of Lia's work. They surprised me by coming and the way their clothing matched this piece was the most flamboyant example of synchronicity I've ever experienced. I spent time talking to them both at the party, told them about this photo and finally sent then each a copy.
On the side we were sitting is where most of the tables were located. Lia took this picture of me from our table. (Got to find the scales! I look fat.)
More pictures she took:
I liked this picture she took of my favorite plant this time better than any I got.
At the left end of that bed, the man in the Hawaiian shirt was one of our hosts that day. Looking past the two people in the foreground the most flamboyantly dressed woman is well known ceramist and garden artist, Marcia Donahue. She lives in the same city I do and this article on her garden and art appeared in our local newspaper ten years ago. I don't know her well but always talk to her when I visit her garden on a Sunday. Honestly it has been a while and I don't know if she still opens it every Sunday or not. But if she does she'll also let you inside which, like the garden is part of her personal art gallery.
This is a picture I took of her on the left and of Cevan Forristt on the right, back when the Richmond Art Center had a retrospective show of Lia's work. They surprised me by coming and the way their clothing matched this piece was the most flamboyant example of synchronicity I've ever experienced. I spent time talking to them both at the party, told them about this photo and finally sent then each a copy.
On the side we were sitting is where most of the tables were located. Lia took this picture of me from our table. (Got to find the scales! I look fat.)
More pictures she took:
I liked this picture she took of my favorite plant this time better than any I got.
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