Neighborhood Love

Last week we were thrilled to come home to find this lovely note tied to one of our flower bins. We have to tell you that made our week. One note like this makes up for anything the Grumple could ever do! The note was from a girl who is doing some guerrilla gardening around some trees in the upper haight! She gave us some seeds (thanks!) and had a couple questions about what we did to prep soil around the trees were planted. So over the next few weeks we will try to post our guide to guerrilla gardening in San Francisco! We are by no means experts. But we have figured a couple things out over the last two years. Hopefully some of it will be useful to others. This was the real reason we started this blog so it is about time we go to it.

Before we start our "how to" posts we wanted give some love to the neighborhood.
I took a quick walk around the block with my digital camera and found lots of trees that other people are taking care of. And what's even better Friends Of The Urban Forest has just planted a bunch more trees on Church between Market + Duboce and at Fillmore and Herman.
Whats more - some flickr love was just reflected back at us from a woman who passes by our place! We really believe that outward expressions of love no matter how small reflect and reverberate thruought the universe. They effect others in ways that you never imagine when you start!

Love and Light


Thanks to everyone for all the love they give!

ChinaCat Sunflowers

One of the things we were most proud of growing this year were these sunflowers.
Unfortunately it looks like a car door knocked them over. We were able to salvage them and they are in a lovely vase in our apartment. I am always amazed by what you can grow with a little love. These brought us lots of enjoyment!

China Cat Sunflower is a song by the Grateful Dead.
China is our Cat

Lewisia!

We got this Lewisia plant a few months ago at Hortica on Castro.
These plants are native to the west cost but are somewhat rare.
I worried that this would be a plant that bloomed once and died but it seems to be pretty happy here.

That's What I like to call a "Christmas Kiss'"

This is what Old Gill says when he gets bitten by a spider while reaching in to his christmas stocking during the Simpsons episode with the Grumple. It seems like the Grumple is back and he has given us a kiss.

When I got home today I saw that all of the blooms on the lillies were destroyed. They even went so far as to shove some of them thru our mail slot! Needless to say we were pretty blown away at this act of vandalism. I wonder if Mr Grumple (or Ms. Grumple) is reading our blog and saw how much joy we got out of these flowers or if they are just a malcontent. The problem for them is that they were too late. In my last post I came appreciate the beautiful moment I had with these flowers and released them to the universe. As Jerry Garcia sings in Stella Blue "There is nothing you can hold for very long". This act did not hurt us it just made us sad for the person who feels compelled to do this. Who does this? Really? They need some help and we hope they get it.

Because of this incident, we will make no more Grumple postings. No need to give them any power or space on our minds. One positive thing I can see (maybe it is not so positive) is that this is personal. One of the reasons that we started this blog was to encourage others to plant stuff around the trees in their neighborhood. I worried that my constant postings about the Grumple with leave people with the impression that this is not worth doing because some person is just going to destroy their stuff. Well it certainly is worth doing! It makes the neighborhood that much more wonderful and it is a great way to spread love and positivity and to meet your neighbors. It seems like all of this is just directed at us personally so others will not have to face the same hurdles with their street gardening.

As for the lilies, they will return to the earth from which they came and become compost so that more things can grow their energy.

Fair thee well Grumple. We will not speak of you again.

Peace,Love and Light to All.

Pictures of Lilly... Make My Life So Wonderful!

Todays post is called "PICTURES OF LILLY "

We are not the painting by Alphonse Mucha

Or the awesome song
by the The Who


But rather pictures of the awesome lilies we grew on the street this summer.
I have been waiting to make this post for a couple weeks now as I was unsure how things would turn out. We picked up 4 bulbs at the Garden show and paid $1 each for them. I really wanted to grow these because they reminded of my grandmother and the orange lilies she grew at her house. We were super excited with they all sprouted. These are some pretty showy flowers and we were very worried that the Grumple would not let them survive. I said to myself we just get one bloom and it last long enough for me to take a picture I will have gotten our $4 worth. As the summer progressed they grew and grew. The more they grew the greater the odds that the Grumple woud stop by. Well at one point he did. Mr. Grumple got hold of one of them and broke off the top of the plant and took us down to 3.
We know it was going to happen.
The question was would any survive?

As they were just about to bloom Mr Grumple came running down the block in a fit of rage.
Several of our plants were dug up including another one of the lilies. I was sad to see this but it happens when you put stuff out on the street. Then something magical happened. While watering the next morning a girl (I think her name was Kara) came up to me and told me that at around 3 AM the night before she was coming home and found a lot of our plants destroyed and littered all over the sidewalk. She told me that she had replanted the lilly bulb in an effort to save it and took the other plants home and made a bouquet with what she could salvage from the dug up plants. She proceeded to pull out here digital camera and show me pictures of the flowers that the Grumple had trashed. It was absolutely magical to see someone make lemonade out of the Grumple's lemons! Because of her actions I was able to to take the broken lilly inside and it later bloomed in our living room. (Thank you Kara for doing this. You made my day so much better!)

So now were were down to two of the four lilies. Well just before July 4th the first one bloomed. I was sooooooo excited! I wanted to see the lilly that reminded me of my grandma. Well it turned out that a yellow one had bloomed first. I took some photos and waited for the next morning when I knew the orange ones would bloom. I rushed out in the morning to see them and found that someone had picked all of the blooms off of the flowers. I do not mind people picking an occasional wild flower but to take 9 on the lilly blooms their first day really irked me. I am ashamed to say I was pretty angry for a couple days after that. I had not been this angry about a plant since I was a little kid and grew a punkin in the back yard only to have it smashed by some mean neighborhood kid right before it was ready to pick. Anger really defeats the whole purpose of planting flowers. I know this inside but sometimes it gets the best of me. Guerrilla Gardening is an experiment in "letting go". You have to. This however was the one time I could not. I really wanted to see the orange lilly bloom. It reminded me of my grandma and I wanted that moment so bad. But it was not to be...at least not yet.

There were still a few buds left on the plants. For the next week, every day I got more anxious. Would the Grumple return to reek havoc on the remaining two? Would I ever get to see that orange lilly? Well around July 8th the orange lilly bloomed. And did it ever! It currently has two beautiful blooms on it and I bet by tomorrow there will be another. If you have looked at the Flickr Photos you know I went a little overboard with the photos (believe me I edited out a lot more!) but I finally got my "Pictures of Lilly". The Grumple can never take it away! (No matter what happens on the street the rest of the summer!)

This post is dedicated to my grandmother Alice Oakley. I miss you a lot.

Happy Birthday America

To celebrate the Fourth of July this year we took a walk around Golden Gate Park and visited the Conservatory of Flowers. Whenever I get down about things in this country it is nice to visit a park and see what community and government can achieve. It was absolutely inspiring. So many wonderful flowers! We set up a flickr account so you can view our pics from our little adventure.
We hope you enjoy them.
-Peace

Patience

Patience is a good lesson in gardening. Around the end of may I was debating pulling out a plant that I thought was never going to bloom outside.

The result:










Sometimes you just have to wait awhile!

It seems Jennifer also learned this lesson. Last year we planted some stuff out back including some lettuce. We grew some leafs that did not look like much. This year the those leafs came back and did much of noting. We were getting ready to reuse the container when I noticed a sprout. We decided to let it grow a little longer.

The result was not lettuce but a BEAUTIFUL FLOWER.














We did not even remember planting this! I can hear Axl Rose singing "Patience" in the back of my head every time I look at this beauty.


UPDATE!

We found about these plants on our trip to the Conservatory of Flowers.
It seems they grow leafs the first year and then flower the next. I guess this is a lesson in remembering to mark what you plant! But then again it made a wonderful surprise.

Lipstick Lesbians

To celebrate Gay Pride we decided to plant some seed cards we had. One set of seeds came from a bookmark from Astraea, a lesbian rights organization, and the second set of seeds came from a lipstick carton. We decided to plant them together and call the result Lipstick Lesbians.

The #2 Enemy of the Guerrilla Gardner - Thiefs!

So this morning I am walking to work and what do I notice. Someone has STOLEN 3 of the plants we put out on Mother's Day! We now have to deal with the grumple, dog doo, litterbugs and THIEFS. Who does this? Really!?!

To Mr or Ms Plant Thief. PLEASE STOP! The flowers are for the enjoyment of the whole neighborhood. When you take them you take them away from everyone. We are willing to help out anyone plant flowers in the neighborhood. We could even hook you up with flowers, all you need to do is ASK, not TAKE.

Pretty silly isn't it.

Mother's Day Belated

On Mothers day this year we planted some more annuals around a couple of the trees that the grumple hit earlier. We had hoped to grow some wild flowers here but it just was not to be. Two times the grumple came by and pulled up a lot of the wild flower sprouts. :-)

We made a trip to 3 Bees Nursery and lodaed up on some fun plants and planted them on two of the trees. Things are growing well. Look for an update on the progress of my lilies soon!

Lilies, Shrooms and an Occaisional Grumple.

The bulbs we planted are doing FANTASTIC. They have grown a lot in just under a month. The question I just started asking myself is: How big do they get? Well I decided to actually look at the information about the bulbs we planted and came up with a shocking answer...


3 FEET!




I picked these because I wanted to try some bulbs and they were very cheap at the Garden Show. They had a "Plant now for summer blooms"sign on them and the orange color on the picture reminded me of my grandma's Tiger Lilies so I was sold. I never really looked a the tag. Jennifer is always telling me to "pay more attention" and this may turn out to be a time when I should head her advice. I think I am going to have to stake them down so they grow in a controlled manner. I looked them up online and they look like this!

They are really impressive. If we have four of these blooming this summer this tree is going to look amazing. I really hope they make it.





In other news we had a quasi-Grumple visit. Someone pulled out all of the wildflower sprouts on one tree and about half of them on another. Jennifer thinks they were "weeding" and then realized they were flowers but who knows. Just another set back. When you plant on the street you take your chances.



I am very much into the idea of trying out some pots on the sidewalk and seeing if they make it. I am going to write our city supervisor to see if there are any city regulations against it. I would really like to make Fillmore look like Noe. I was talking to a neighbor at Fillmore and Waller and they have done some amazing things on the street. They have really shown me what is possible. I now have a goal in mind. Lets hope I have the follow through. I did manage to get off my butt and offer to do some more trees near the church on the corner. I hope they are into it. I can really sense that more and more people around the neighborhood are into planting!





We also have a mushroom growing on one tree .

It is pretty cute. Nice to look at but we sure are not gonna eat it!

Bulbus Eruptus

2 of the bulbs we got at the garden show have start to sprout.

We are really happy! Now we have to control the slugs that have already started eating them. :-(

Another Beautiful Sunday

We had another wonderful weekend spending time working on plants. On Saturday I put up a new windowbox. On Sunday we went out to Sloat Garden Center and picked up lots of new plants. We got enough to fill the new window box and even had a few left to add to one of the trees out front. Things are looking good. We also got a bunch of impatiens. Jennifer made a couple containers and placed them on our back porch. We are trying out some copper tape on these new containers to see if they will stop those darn slugs.

One down point... I walked by some young street type kid urinating all over one of the trees where we had just reseeded and planted some bulbs. Urban guerrilla gardening presents more challenges then you can imagine! I told him I did not appreciate it, he could give a damn about my opinion. Hopefully I have not "baited the Grumple". I want people to respect our beautiful city. I know this is a crazy dream and we are crazy dreamers. Hopefully the flowers we put encourage people to care just a little more about their surroundings. That is what we really want to do.

Our Big Plant Weekend

This weekend we spent a lot of time on the plants. On Saturday we went to the Flower and Garden Show at the Cow Palace.

We scored a lot of loot!


We got four bulbs that I planted on one of our trees. They were Jolanda Asiatic Lilys. I hope I forget all about them and then in the summer we will have some wonderfully Lilys. If all goes well they should come back every year. One of our goals is to have at least one plant that is fixed on each tree. We can fill in the others will perennials.

We also got a Pelargonium Shanti that we planted out side and it is beautiful. Lots of little red and white flowers.

In additon to all of our new plants we also rebuilt the last of the fences that the Grumple distroyed, reseeded that tree with some fun new seeds. Things are looking up. We are very excited to see what all of the new sprouts turn into.

Meet the Grumple, the #1 enemy of neighborhood beautification

Meet The Grumple. I first saw him on the Simpsons Christmas special this year but I realized he has been living in our neighborhood for some time.

The problem with street gardening is the complete lack of control one has over the outside world. When planting flowers on the street you have to be ready to loose it all at an instant. This was a very hard lesson for us to learn. When we first scattered wildflower seeds in 2005 they grew amazingly well.

Up until someone decided to pull them all up one night We made a nice bouquet from the remains we found on the street. Despite this we vowed to keep planting. The positive effect flowers have on the neighborhood is AMAZING! People stop me all the time and tell me how wonderful the block looks and how much they enjoy walking by every day and seeing what pops up.

This morning was especially hard for me. The grumple came by at about 1:30 am last night and decided to do his thing

This one was hard to handle. I have two Saturdays building these fences not to mention cleaning up the trees. But the Mr Grumple can not keep us down. For every act of vandalism he does we are coming back with double the amount of love. WE WE REBUILD and the flowers will THRIVE. Some days are harder than other. If you are going to do this you have to stay strong. The amount of good the flowers do far out weighs the pain caused by Mr. Grumple.

Sprouts!

It has been less than a week since we put down seeds and thank to some unexpected San Francisco sunshine WE HAVE SPROUTS! I can't wait to see what the turn out to be!

Oh How They Grow

I have to remember to have some patience.

Over the course of a few months last year one tree went from this ...









To This!

Our first post

Welcome to our first blog post!

It is March 03 and we finally got our seeds planted for the new year. It is also the perfect time to start this blog!

If you have walked by the first block of Fillmore street in San Francisco last summer, you saw a lot of wild flowers blooming around the trees. That was the result of a little experiment we tried. We wanted to see what we could grow around the trees in our neighborhood. It turns out that after cleaning up a lot of trash, and putting down a little extra potting soil, you can actually grow quite a bit. We had so much fun keeping working on the flowers we wanted to do it again this year.

This year we built fences around 5 of the trees on the first block of Fillmore.
We used wood and some green fencing that we think will hold up a little better than the ones did last year. One of the trees has a daisy bush that we planted last year and it has really taken off. We are going to leave that to continue growing and really take root. We are going to do one other tree with some annuals but the remaining three on the block will be wild flowers. They really worked well last year so we hope they will again. We planted one tree of "Oregon Wildflowers" another tree has a "Bird and Butterfly" mix and the last one has a "Cut Flowers" mix. We have picked these up at various places over the last year. Lets hope they all bloom.

Now is the hardest part. Waiting for the seeds to sprout.