21 July 2011

garden update: mid-summer


As a follow-up to yesterday's tiny taste, here's a huge main serving of what's up in the garden. Summer has come to San Francisco! At least, this week.

Seriously, it's been heavenly here: warm, so the plants and people are happy, but not like crazy mid-west heat-wave hot. It's been lovely, which makes a girl want to linger over watering and finally bring the camera outside again!

wild morning glories in the sun
hello morning glories (they're wild here)


herb strip
herb city (who needs some mint? sage? thyme??)


summer veg beds

The timing of Summer in SF is, as you must know by now, a tricky thing. The reliably gorgeous late Spring can trick you into planting heat-loving plants, only to have them go all yuck in the fog. (See: last year.) This year, I decided to wait out the fog a little and hold off on the big-time Summer stuff (tomatoes, squash, etc) until now-ish or a little later. Still figuring this place out.

But, even though Summer here is elusive and tricky, it's undeniable that it's a time of transition and overlap out back. Spring plants have been holding on for a long time (we still have peas & favas!), the kale seems to know no season (hello harvest!), and the squashes (summer & winter) are off and running.

It's a season of many players:

1. The pretty

summer flowers
sweet peas & sunflowers
(plus our other "weed": nasturtiums)


'cupani's original' sweet pea
'cupani's original'


'april in paris' sweet pea
'april in paris'


'cupani's original' sweet pea
'cupani's original'


blue borage volunteer
volunteer blue borage (ok, it'll be prettier when it blooms!)


baby sunflowers
super baby sunflowers


blackberry flower
the promise of blackberries

2. The yummy

alpine strawberries
Alpine strawberries


strawberries
"regular" strawberries

3. The Future

baby blackberries
more blackberry promises (aka bee mecca)


climbing beans
wee, delicate green bean vines


tiny baby green bean
...and the wee beans


future snackin'
future snacks (aka sunflowers)


summer squash
summer squash (we're growing regular zucchini & 'ronde de nice')


tomato transplants
future slicers
(for Kristen's dad;
I've learned, begrudgingly, to limit myself to cherries and other small tomatoes)

4. The New

tall raised bed
new standing-height bed for herbs, lettuces, overgrown(!) spinach and blueberries


native flower bed
new native plant bed


native flower bed
so fuzzy


native flower bed
love this foliage


echinacea
'starlight' echinacea


echinacea

5. The Old

bolting & climbing
the bolting kale & the very tall, very senior peas.
i'm saving seeds for both.


bolting lettuce
beautiful bolting lettuce.
it will give me seeds for my new favorite lettuce, so it can stay and do its thing.


cilantro flowers
cilantro, in flower


dill seed head
dill, in flower.
these you can dry and put whole into pickle jars. pretty no?

6. The tenacious

lemon verbena
lemon verbena, from the previous homeowners
we've built a deck in its sunlight, squashed it with bags of soil.
it wont stop, and it smells soooooo good.


6 comments:

  1. Your garden is stunning, Blake! I need to try planting those sweet peas. So pretty. Mine garden is in "fight for your life" mode because of the heat right now. Can't wait for things to calm down again...

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  2. dude. seriously with this?
    i kind of idolize you a bit.
    (and it's not the first time!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. SO pretty of your flowers! Love the sunlight and it makes me feel the summer breeze. Refreshing and relaxing is all I can say.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stunning garden! I love the pictures and hope you don't mind but I took the one with the strawberries for my desktop wallpaper!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amazing garden! And nice pictures too! With such a lot of varieties of vegetables and herbs which all look very healthy, I would say that you’re a professional in gardening. Keep it up bro!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone! I do love that garden.

    Child Piano: Thank you! But I must confess that I'm neither a professional or a bro :)

    ReplyDelete

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