Gardening for nature, walks with my dogs and the books I’m reading.

Cora-123 said:
Is it true that cactus fruit is edible?
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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.

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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

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Kadee said:
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

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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.
 
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!

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Here are some more pictures I took there in 2016 when I first began visiting this garden: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBjn7y
 
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.

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Other wonders:

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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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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
 
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.

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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.

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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.)

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More pictures she took:

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I liked this picture she took of my favorite plant this time better than any I got.

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Change is afoot in my old garden. When Lia and I met and I moved in in 1982 that first winter the roof leaked horribly. So I was planning to replace our flat roof with a pitched rood adding an attic space in the process which would keep help with insulation. But I underestimated how easy it would be to get that approved in Berkeley. Nope I would need an architect but I wasn't willing to do that so we got a good roofer to replace our tar and gravel roof with a cap sheet roof and that has lasted us over 40 years now.

But I had a guy lined up to help me build the roof so instead we built a deck in the yard and along with some more important things. But that deck inspired me to build a gazebo on it from one I saw in book and that too has been out there in the elements for over 40 years. But the deck started failing from rot and since we've always wanted an outdoor bathroom we decided to demo the deck. We'll come back with a concrete slab instead of a deck this time but I wanted to salvage the gazebo and place that on the slab.

The crew started demo'ing the deck this last Friday. It looked like this with the rotten old apple tree and half the deck removed:

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Here it was March before all this started

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Then on Friday they finished demo'ing all but the deck under the gazebo but it became clear that was rotten too. So today in order to salvage the gazebo I tore off the old wooden planter that held my favorite rose, Royal Sunset. But here is how that looked in April of 2024:

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I love that rose and hoped it could stay put but it became obvious it had to go in order to try to salvage the gazebo. So today I decided to peel off the old redwood planter it was in an dig it, move it to where it would not be in full sun all day and where I'd remember to keep it well watered. To begin with I pruned it way back:

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Then I dug it up and put it in a big plastic pot. Here is what it looks gone:

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And here (sorry about the harsh light) it is with the other roses I salvaged in the new rose orphanage:

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It was tough for me to do while protecting my back and arthritic hands but I think I may survive.
 
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We ran into Ember's old buddy Ollie while walking on the beach in San Francisco again today. Wish I'd gotten a picture of them running around together again. He is at least twice her size now. We thought he was an Aussie back then. Turns out he also part husky and part Great Pyrenees. Back on September 6, 2021 they were both young pups. Ember wasn't yet 3 months old. They're both 4 years old now.


Apologies if I've over shared this video before. Don't remember. Oh and this morning before we left I checked to see if there were going to be any Brazilian Walking Irises opening tomorrow. Four more are on the way two singles and a double. You can just barely see the second bud here. Edited to say I just posted an open single and this double bloom open on the Flower A Day thread.

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And this was taken late this afternoon when when we returned.

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Kadee said:
We are heading to the snow fields on Sunday to see snow for the first time in my life …guess we will do some walks

Snow is nature …isn’t it :):)

Where we are going Thredbo ….bus trip .. @MarkD

https://www.thredbo.com.au/
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I remember looking forward to seeing snow for the first time when we moved to Maryland between my 7th and 8th grade. Well, we had lived in Maryland before but no impressions were recorded by my own memory. Pretty cool .. actually downright cold, and me with nothing warmer than a windbreaker that first season. Best part for me was just how every brach of a tree looked with a dressing of snow. Also surprising to be able to see through the impenetrable green growth that was there before it snowed.
 
Kadee said:
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

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It's a dieffenbachia! My mother grew one over 6 feet tall in the tall thin window next to her front door. She passed her green thumb onto my brother.
 
Della said:
It's a dieffenbachia! My mother grew one over 6 feet tall in the tall thin window next to her front door. She passed her green thumb onto my brother.
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I thought so and our friends grew it several feet tall in their living room too. They both passed not too long ago in their 90's. Quite a pair he was a mathematics prof at NYU where he taught a long time before retiring and moving to Berkeley. His wife was textile artist like my wife so that is how I knew them. Lia was so disappointed when they moved here because she loved staying with them when she went to NY but they came to all of our get togethers and as we did to theirs.
 
I recently took some photos of my dog Ember playing with a plushy on my bed which I like which I posted elsewhere but will never be able to find again so I'm posting them here too to remember.

In the first she holds it, in the second she is grooming it the way she does herself or my shirt, the third is a little high spirited and then she looks self conscious to be caught being so silly maybe.

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Kadee said:
We are heading to the snow fields on Sunday to see snow for the first time in my life …guess we will do some walks

Snow is nature …isn’t it :):)

Where we are going Thredbo ….bus trip .. @MarkD

https://www.thredbo.com.au/
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Ooh I just watched a wonderful episode about your continent on Amazon Prime. I'll be looking for more.

Wildest Places​

Season 1, Ep. 1 Outback Deserts​

 
Well looks like my spur of the moment decision to buy a Eucalyptus macrocarpa was ill advised. I now realize the one spot I thought I could squeeze it in isn't nearly sunny enough. But at least it served as an opportunity to at least make an overture toward sharing a plant with a friend when so many have done the same to me.

I first offered it to Jon whose garden we visted in June and posted about above around post 308. But he already has it and wouldn't like another. So I offered it to my friend Sara who has about five acres in Petaluma and also has a wonderful garden. She has offered to take it off my hands provided I visited and want to invite some friends when we come. Glad I didn't need to plead for visitation rights to that plant. ;)

The plant can be from 10 to 15 feet high and wide with foliage that can look white or blue depending on the light. The flowers are the largest to any eucalyptus. I believe it wants more heat than I can provide for it but Petaluma will make a better location and knowing Sara it will be better cared for there too. Some pics of it from the internet:

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And then here are some photos I've taken at Sara's garden.

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Friday, 7/18, a very long day, began with predawn snuggles on the couch.

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After breakfast and getting some things done at home we headed to Fort Funston beach for a hike on a nice cool day.

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We left the beach around 1 or 1:30 with a good chance of getting home before 3 but on the way my new car got totaled when traffic slowed quickly. My car and the Tesla in front of me stopped in time but the Prius behind me basically blew up his and my car by hitting us from behind at speed which also pushed us into the Tesla. Everyone was fine thankfully.

We waited by the side of the 280 freeway while the hi way patrol pushed my wreck to the side of the road. And then got a ride from a AAA tow truck with Lia riding between the driver and I and Ember sitting on my lap but leaning into her favorite human, Lia.

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By the time we loaded what could be salvaged out of our car and into an Uber and made it home it was after 5. So we got some dinner and called it a day.
 
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MarkD said:
Friday, 7/18, a very long day, began with predawn snuggles on the couch.

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After breakfast and getting some things done at home we headed to Fort Funston beach for a hike on a nice cool day.

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We left the beach around 1 or 1:30 with a good chance of getting home before 3 but on the way my new car got totaled when traffic slowed quickly. My car and the Tesla in front of me stopped in time but the Prius behind me basically blew up his and my car by hitting us from behind at speed which also pushed us into the Tesla. Everyone was fine thankfully.

We waited by the side of the 280 freeway while the hi way patrol pushed my wreck to the side of the road. And then got a ride from a AAA tow truck with Lia riding between the driver and I and Ember sitting on my lap but leaning into her favorite human, Lia.

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By the time we loaded what could be salvaged out of our car and into an Uber and made it home it was after 5. So we got some dinner and called it a day.
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Oh my gosh Mark I'm so sorry that you had that terrible accident! It's amazing that no one got hurt. Are you sure that you and Lia don't have some neck pain like the day after? Well I hope you get a new car soon and everything goes well with the insurance Take care. ❤️
 

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