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.