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.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
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.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
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
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
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.
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.
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