More sidewalk garden barriers

Here are several more ways to protect a sidewalk garden…   It’s not good to have soil surrounding a tree trunk like that but the walls of the box seem nice and sturdy.  And I like the horizontal slats.   A simple wood edge is okay if the main goal is to keep your mulch enclosed.  It won’t protect delicate plants but keeping the…

Urbanite wall in Lafayette, CA

This is one of the best urbanite walls I’ve seen.  Turning some of the pieces on end so the flat, large side is visible was a nice choice.  Most of the time the pieces are just stacked and it looks fine but this version looks more like a stone wall.  

Rope sidewalk garden barrier

Planting in a city sidewalk is a noble endeavor but almost always a gamble. Between the car doors, peeing dogs, and rambling drunks, these plants endure a constantly threatened existence. Protective sidewalk barriers are often flimsy and get beat up quickly. But build one out of half-inch thick rope and four pieces of rebar, and you have a sturdy, inexpensive, and easy solution. Even better, the plants remain in…

And we’re back!

It’s been about 6 months since the last time I posted any pictures … partly because it’s been a crazy summer and fall full of gardening.  And partly because I really don’t like writing 🙂 So I’ve enlisted my friend (and founder of the amazing Phyteclub) Katie Renz to take my thoughts and turn them into something readable.  You’ll love her!

Why, yes, that is a weed wacker on my bike…

It’s kind of amazing what kind of garden maintenance you can do with just a bike.  For instance, I can do very (very) small lawns with a 3 lb weed wacker that easily attaches to the bike.  A little crazy but it works – sometimes people have just a tiny patch of grass and a full mower would be overkill. On a side note…

If a sidewalk garden is too much, consider weeds

Knotweed (Polygonum capitatum) is considered a weed in San Francisco because it’ll take over a garden.   I wouldn’t advise planting it in a yard but look how great it looks when it grows in cracks in the sidewalk: It’s invasive in natural areas but it seems like it couldn’t spread far if it’s surrounded by concrete.  I’d hesitate to plant it but probably…

Good plants for under street trees . . .

. . . do not include Echium.  Or any other woody shrub.   Kids, there’s a reason these trees are so unhappy:

Big tree in a tiny pot

In the Mission on 22nd St.  The owner said there’s concrete under the pot.  Hmmm . . .

California wildflowers in full bloom

Spring hits at the California native garden in the SF botanical garden . . . It’s definitely not a small garden but the same planting scheme can be used in a smaller – but still sunny – space.  My neighbors planted a mostly CA native meadow along their strip of sidewalk that looks great every spring.

“Stone” wall

This is a concrete wall in the SF Botanical Garden made to look like ancient layers of stone by lining the inside of a form with tinfoil and pouring multiple layers of concrete, each with a different texture and color. Very cool way to add interest to what otherwise could have been a boring garden wall.