We were driving home from something, and passed a parking strip full of plants including some still in their nursery pots. I exclaimed with some joy, "There's a plant addict!" and made a mental note to return to investigate further. My mental note taking isn't what it used to be. These days it seems like I'm writing on an upside-down Etch-a-sketch. By some miracle, I remembered the location and went back for a closer look.
A garden after my own heart! Every space stuffed and planted way to close together, potted plants plunked in the beds and even more plants waiting to find a place.
Dracunculus vulgaris was blooming in the parking strip but the lovely fragrance was not present.
Some potted edibles out on the sidewalk.
Plants that look like they came from recent nursery visits and are waiting to be planted. Gosh this looks familiar!
Out in the parking strip was this cool cracked pot with a heap of sempervivum starts. Wonder what the eventual plan is?
Here's a view down the sidewalk between the front yard and the parking strip. Heaven!
A view from the street. Finding this garden of plant passion encouraged me to do some further exploration in the hood.
I've admired this tetrapanax grove from the car for several months but until today didn't stop.
There's a nice rock walkway through the big leaf forest.
Persicarias and grasses... Does Scott have a place in Tacoma that he's not telling us about? No, couldn't be as there's some bare soil here.
Another view of the Tetrapanax. I love those big leaves alongside grasses and the acer palmatum that echoes the Tetrapanax leaf shape but on a much smaller, finer, and purpler level.
Also catching my eye while Alison and I were on our way out of my neighborhood headed toward one of our adventures was a large bed of poppies. While I was out exploring, I thought I'd check that out too!
I love Papaver somniferum and have grown them in my parking strip for years but people steal all of the seed heads when they're still green. Clearly they aren't interested in seed or they'd wait until they naturally dried. No, the freaks in my neighborhood pick the green heads to make some concoction. I wouldn't so much mind except that they've taken every head for so long that I no longer have the plants as this is a reseeding annual. One summer there was a young woman who regularly visited with a plastic bag and harvested. I asked her to stop and she said that she knew the owners of the house and they said that she could. On another occasion, when asked to cease she informed me that she wasn't hurting the plants at all but just taking the seed pods and besides, they're on the street so anyone can take them. I tried to explain the concept of reseeding annuals but this didn't seem to make a dent. Ignorance and crust, what a lovely combination. She simply thought she had the right to take whatever she wanted. She never quit and it turns out that she lived not far from our house. A year or so later we were at a gathering in our neighborhood and she was introduced as the best friend of someone I knew. They delighted in telling me in giggly tones about how they practiced witchcraft. I wanted to inform them that stealing and lying are not consistent with the practice of Wicca but that might have gone over the heads of these particular twenty-somethings.
Sorry for the rant but I'm a curmudgeon, it's what I do. I've heard from other gardeners that the stealing of the green seed heads is a problem whenever this is planted in public view. Have you had any experience with growing these and having them pilfered, filched, lifted, appropriated, snatched, plundered, stolen?
Anyway, bright sunny day and who should stop by for a visit but a happy honey bee or two.
There are several folks in the hood who keep honey bees and it always makes me happy to see them buzzing around.
All done here, gotta fly!
Hope you enjoyed these random visits!
