A Walk in the Park

I took the opportunity to go to Balboa park yesterday and came home with LOTS of pictures. A few lessons in variety of plants, changes in plantings that I remember from years ago and got some exercise too.

Right off the bat next to where I parked was this succulent garden. Low maintenance, nothing too pokey but wait, what's the bright splash of orange over there? A marigold bush. Yes indeed, honest to goodness marigold. 'One of these things is not like the other..' What the heck? Apparently everything there is thriving and it looks like it's been there for a few months. Who'da thunk right?

 

This is a small flowering perennial garden (and sorry for the sign being cut off, couldn't see my screen well in the sun) that is a designated Monarch Waystation. I was careful not to step on any of the plants in order to get the picture. This isn't all of the garden either, there was another twenty feet to the left.

Previously there were other plants in that bed, large perennial shrubs that were pretty for sure but it was nice to see that this garden was now a functional habitat aid for Monarch butterflies.

Speaking of butterflies, that little butterfly circled there is called a Grey Hairstreak and is a California native. Tiny little thing no bigger than a fingernail but it is attracted to this native Salvia for obvious reasons. I believe what it is sitting on is Black Sage or Cleveland Sage (I knew it when I saw it and now can't remember) 

Now on to the cool stuff.  One of the things Balboa park is famous for is it's collection of ficus trees (that's the fig family) the one in the lower pictures are the stuff of nightmares for some. These are younger versions of the larger, and more famous Moreton Bay Fig that now has a viewing platform surrounding it. These are all over the park and the roots are what people are amazed by.

 

 

This larger picture is the same tree from the other side. Spilling the roots over the retaining wall. There are similar trees in Angkor Wat in Cambodia completely engulfing an ancient temple. 

The only difference is those are aerial roots as well as soil roots. Just amazing.

Meanwhile back in San Diego, CA Roses were in full bloom in the garden!

Did I remember to note the names of these roses...nope, except for a few.

Don't remember which one this is but the following one here is George Burns. There is also a companion rose (though not seen in that bed dummies!) called Gracie Allen. The red and white striped one is not the same rose, will see that one in a bit.

Another beauty that I forgot the name of

This one I will never forget, Sally Holmes. It's a climber and I remember when we got this one in at the nursery the first time. It's more of a pale pink toward the tips of the petals which makes it a nice delicate flower.

This one here is one of my favorite roses for several reasons. It's variegated, has great fragrance and is named after one of my favorite singers, Neil Diamond. Wonderful rose and some day will get to plant it in my own garden.

This was just gorgeous too.

George Burns with a bee

Okay on with the rest of the park, wait...

SQUIRREL!

 

 

 

 

 The water lilies were in full bloom and as I showed before in the reflecting pool. There were so many different plants and flowers, lots of people too despite it being a Tuesday. A few small groups of school kids which made me smile.

I didn't walk extensively but did see all the high points for me at least.One of my favorite plants and am most knowledgeable about is camellias

Yes, those are two camellia....trees. Likely about ten feet tall, yes they can get that big. It is summer so they aren't in bloom.Wonderfully pruned up so they give shade but aren't a green wall as some people like to keep them. Underplantings of pink begonias and I believe white snapdragons. (knew I should have made notes)

The other possible reason for pruning these so high is visibility and safety. Like any other large city we have a good amount of homeless people and they tend to hang out in the park. This keep the walkway visible from the main 'street' of the Prado which is behind me.

So places like this are wonderful for seeing how various plants are used together. Despite the above picture not looking very attractive they will likely be swapping them out soon for fall color plants.

One of the lilies in the pond. No spectacular colors but this was one of the prettiest. As I mentioned I have dozens of up close photos of water lilies from the nursery.

This one could be used as a wallpaper on a phone as well.

This is at the end of the pond, used to be a small lawn area years ago. This is a wildflower garden, again a butterfly and bee collection. There was someone standing in front of the signage so couldn't get a picture of it. But look at the variety and yet repeated types so give it a wild meadow look.

  In the background is the botanical building which I will get pictures of another time. It houses some of the more rare and fantastic fern collections as well as unusual shade plants along with specific rotating collections from various garden groups.

So I think I've rambled on enough for this one. I have more pictures of a few things but will post those next time. Lovely day at he park, not too hot, breezy and just enough people to make it feel like a day in the park.

No real news and maybe a topic

 I finally met the other tenant who has the mint and weed beds. Hispanic lady that was watering her beds.  I opened with, 'Oh so that's your bed? This is mine." and pointed to my tomato and pepper plant. In a heavy accent she said, 'oh pepper?' I said 'yes and tomato, and that zucchini over there.' she smiled and nodded then went back to watering her weed beds. I was not going to go into the fact she had a bed full of purslane that was completely overtaking the tiny mint sprig she had put in the ground. Nor the fact that the rose cutting was completely dead. Communication difficulty (and possibly thought process) was not going to make it any better.

So I left her to watering and decided some people just want to see green whatever it was and if it got her out of her apartment to take care of something outside more power to her. But so help me if any of those plants invade my space, they are coming out.

The lemon tree is now getting a bit yellow, oh and when she uses the hose she puts it in the aloe pot before turning it off. Sometimes the lemon tree. I don't think she read the sign. The tree desperately needs food and am now thinking I should have kept the package of tree food to put on it myself.

I'm going to go walk around Balboa Park with my daughter so will likely come back with some pictures of plants and stuff. Going to be hot but so much to look at there and I think I've seen just about all of it ever since I came to San Diego twenty some years ago. 

A short history of Balboa Park: It started as the 'City Park' in 1868 then  expanded on with the help of Kate Sessions who is forever known now as 'The Mother of Balboa Park'. She is credited with responsible for the incredible variety of trees and plants that were planted and some still survive. The biggest claim to fame for the park is the 1915-1916 Panama- California Exposition that is the reason we have such amazing architecture and so many museums.  I am leaving out a lot of the history but to give an idea here is a picture of the reflecting pool in front of the botanical building (which would be at your back in this view)

and now:

I learned plant identification in Balboa Park and the college campus I was taking the course at. One of the reasons I'm so familiar with it.

Oh and the other thing Balboa Park is known for is the 'World Famous San Diego Zoo'. Which takes up a large chunk of the acreage and on a breezy day in some parts of the park you can be downwind from it.

As a plant note of the pond, the two large plants at the end are Lotus plants and lining the sides of course are the wonderful waterlilies. After working at the nursery for so long I have dozens of photos of lily flowers and a few of lotus flowers when we got the plants in.

So just a nice easy Sunday morning, the weather is still heating up so morning and evening is my times for checking the garden. I watered this morning very well and I think I have some tomatoes growing and the peppers are doing good too! Yay! I'll likely have peppers before tomatoes and hope that with my care there will be no incidents of blossom end rot. More on that another time.

You learn something new every day.

 While waiting for my (new to me) car detailing to finish I noticed on the stepped wall behind me a creeping fig vine.

Fairly common plant but most people don't realize that it gets big leaves on it and can take over a wall in a matter of a few years. This wall must have been 20' tall made of keystone type retaining bricks so you can plant in the pockets created by them. You can see some Red Apple ice plant peeking out underneath.

After all these years and even learning this plant when I was taking landscape design is that it will grow fruit just like any other fig! Totally fascinating and of course it isn't edible but I was kind of floored that I never had seen fruit on this vine anywhere.

A lot of the fruit were on the ground, this one I pulled off after I took the picture. They were soft and wrinkled of course but very dry. I luckily had a knife handy (from my sweetie) and was able to cut it open.

Unfortunately didn't get a picture of it. The inside looked much like an edible fig, brown brush like interior with the flower parts at the 'blossom' end.

Now a word about using climbing plants on structures. BEWARE!

Do not ever use a vine or plant that sits against a building and has the potential to attach and grow into the eaves. The reasons are a few but very important. 

1. Anything that attaches to the stucco will ruin it permanently. The attaching type rootlets if you will, dig into the stucco and if you've seen the remnants of ivy on a building you'll know what I mean. This is even bad for a wood fence. It can rip the wood fibers apart if it doesn't just break off.

 

2. It creates a living highway for various insects, including termites. Ants can use it to climb up into the eaves of your house and nest, same with termites. There are three or four types of termites and all of them are bad near a building or fence.

 

3. If you ever need to paint or re-finish or replace the structure/building/wall/fence good luck. You will have to rip the plant down and not have anything left to paint.

 

There are some plants that don't attach, but can still hug the wall and therefore still have a problem. Cat's Claw Vine uses little hooked tendrils that just hang on any rough area. 

 

Quite literally claws that hang onto a vertical surface. The yellow trumpet flowers are very pretty though.

 

 

Like this. That is a building's nighmare. See how it's headed to that vent?

Also cat's claw does not attach and therefore it can be pulled down or fall off the structure at any given moment. I've seen it happen.

So that is my plant tip of the day. Beware of climbing things on your walls and fences. We all know the insidiousness of ivy and as a side note, morning glory takes over so fast I call it the kudzu of the west.

Vines are very nice for covering chain link fences for privacy but it also can create a haven for four legged critters to nest. Bad bad things.

More on flowers and fauna next time.

Project complete, the growing begins.

 The bed was undisturbed from what I could tell and the sun doing it's job dried out anywhere the bag wasn't. You can see some of that in the picture below. I also did a rough measurement and it is a 2'x3'area. About perfect for zucchini.

Sprinkled fertilizer in the area and then worked it in, I didn't measure it because who has time for that? Just kidding, after cooking all my life I've got a good idea of how much I put down, besides this being an organic fertilizer it can't overload the soil. I actually may have under fertilized so I put about a table spoon or so into the hole and mixed it before planting.

I mounded the soil a little after digging, using the trowel and then a metal scoop that someone had left on the table about a week ago. Kind of like an ice scoop and perfect for moving soil, although the handle is a bit short.

And watered in.

Again, the soil was moist but not wet and very loose which means more airspace in between particles to heat up. I used the back of the hoe to pack the soil lightly before digging the hole and it was still rather loose and easy to work. Just so dang lucky this soil is not rock hard like it looks.

Because I still don't trust the locals.

I will decide if I want to use a stake or cage for it that I mentioned before, not like I don't have plenty of cages but these are the cheapest you can find and as you can see not in the best shape. I'd rather use a good green metal stake and tie tape but again, budget considerations and such.

All done, all pretty.

So on that topic, pest of the non insect kind deterrents.

Once the plants start growing I will have to use something else to protect the soil and the plant. Not like anything is going to eat the plant other than insects, I mentioned that before. Mulch would normally be a consideration but the only size that comes in is a 2 cf bag and that's enough to cover three times that. Not going to waste my money on that. Same thing with shade cloth or window screen, comes in overkill rolls for larger projects so can't use that. IF I find a problem I'll address it then but those are options people can use.

Now there are some areas that get opossums, raccoons and skunks digging in the garden. ::knock on wood:: there doesn't seem to be any evidence of any of those critters here. I've smelled skunk in the neighborhood and I think there was one that my other half saw creeping on our walkway that Rocky scared away. I wouldn't be surprised but we haven't seen anything since, it could have been the white and black stray. I have also heard coyotes and a random peacock in someones yard.

So possible deterrents for the larger animals are wire devices like I used, short term. If you have a large enough yard, use the 1/4 to 1/2 inch metal mesh to surround the bed leaving one end loose and secured with wire. Birds...that's another matter entirely. Good luck with that.

I actually encountered people that thought there were deterrents for everything out there. 'How do I keep birds off my plants?' Ummmm put your plants in a cage? No seriously.

I saw it decades ago about building a frame and using either bird netting and enclosing a fruit tree. Now that's a bit much considering trees get a lot bigger and you need to be able to prune it. For a vegetable garden there is one of the original ranches in a canyon area in San Diego, Peñasquitos Ranch and they have a community garden on the property as well. Because most of the houses in the area are condos with no yard to speak of. They build a wood frame around every bed and encased it in wire mesh because...canyon. They are also raised beds in frames and likely have mesh underneath for gophers. We don't have moles here we have gophers....

There is a door as well on each bed so you can get in and work the bed. Height was about seven feet? Tall enough you can stand up in it and grow beans or peas but not corn. 

There are ways of creating a more 'plant safe' environment for your garden but it just depends on how hard you want to work.

Speaking of corn, have to mention this as a ludicrous example of not paying attention to what you read.

A woman came in to the nursery and said she needed a ladder, okay we sold ladders. She then went on to explain that she needed a taller than six foot one because she was digging a hole six feet deep. We gave her puzzled looks... and asked. 'I am planting corn and they said that the roots can go six feet deep.'  We tried so hard not to laugh and told her the plant can get six feet high, it's a grass and the roots can only go about a foot down but spread six feet maybe. The look on her face.... she then asked what she could do with all the soil she had dug out. Put it back in the hole? Move it to your front yard and say free dirt? 

Honestly people. I have witnesses on that one.

 

I have baby peppers!

 

Diggin the dirt and doing the good work

 

 

I finally was able to go get some soil and my zucchini. Due to budget constraints I couldn't buy the really good stuff so this will suffice. MG Organic In Ground Soil and the best looking 4" container of zucchini that had good growth, more than one plant and no broken leaves. Also bought a shovel.

Pointed shovel with long handle. Almost bought the shorter D handle one but am so glad I didn't. That shovel sunk right down with only moderate pushing from my foot. Wonderful! It was still damp from yesterdays full watering and so it was perfect conditions. I waited until the garden area was in full shade before I went out to dig. Smart but still busted a sweat and worked some muscles I haven't used in a few months.

After dumping the soil onto the dug up bed. Didn't get a picture of the soil and that pile is about a foot and a half tall. I didn't work smart on this really but it got done. I'm thinking I needed another bag but this will do for now.

All dug through as well as I could, all pretty and had to reset the board in the front. Again. Total it's about 3x4 bed and I dug the full depth of the shovel down.  This soil smelled earthy and a bit manurish but that is good. I haven't even put the fertilizer in yet because I didn't plant the zucchini yet.

 

Do not be alarmed if some of your compost is a bit grey. This could be microscopic fungi that is very beneficial or it could just be dried compost. Either way, dig it in! Almost looks like charcoal but it's just dried up compost. Got a little baked in the heat.

All dug in and looking good. Still think another bag of soil would do wonders but we'll see.

The bed 'next door'. Yes that is purslane, some grass of some sort, a small sprig of mint that was pulled from the main patch, the dead rose branch they tried to grow and other assorted weeds. Sigh. (Oh and my zucchini still in it's pot down in the corner.)

Knowing that I will be leaving a nice loose fresh bed of soil that smells absolutely heavenly (to animals) this is how I decided to safeguard it over night. Lots of spare tomato cages and putting the empty bag on top along with the hoe. We'll see how that works. Going to have to get some screen or shade cloth to cover it until the plant is big enough to fend off critters.

Something that is very good to have on the back of a bag is how much soil you need. (Sorry it's blurry will take a better picture tomorrow) But roughly 24 sqft needs 4 bags dug in at 3". I was a bit deeper than that and for a raised bed it calls for the same amount. My bed is about 3x4 = 12sq ft so that's half. I was right thinking I needed two bags but I would also need a taller board to hold it. The instructions say to use a 3" layer mixed in to 6" of soil for amending a garden bed. That's about right, you want about half the composition of the existing soil amended.

I mentioned the composition about soils and fertilzers before so here's the label.

Now look at those numbers and the source. Not going to go into the details but it says you don't need to fertilze for three months. Horse Hockey. Those numbers are so low as to be insignificant to a starting plant or seed. It's what you usually find in any compost so they didn't really add anything to it other than trace amounts from feather, bone and soybean meal.

Now another difference is in the source for the compost above that analysis. California, Oregon, Texas and Idaho have to be mentioned for the difference of their components which the base product above is compost and processed forest products and the fertilizer. Otherwise it would have sphagnum peat moss, rice hulls and/or coir (coconut fiber) as well. 

Now here we go with labeling that is legally required but it is all the same stuff for those states. Why not just put it all on the same line? Because they had to fill in the area with some words that's why. Now one thing that could be different is where the forest products are sourced from. Forests are different in Oregon than Texas or, where MG is based, Ohio.

Believe it or not we have had people return soil because it smelled too much. Notice there is no animal manure in this mix and yet it stank to high heaven (in a good way). The more you look at that label and read it, the more ludicrous it gets.

I GOTS PEPPERS GROWING !

 

Diversity redux and other things.

 I mentioned not having a whole lot of diversity in my area but that was in general. The following pictures are in just one bed, mostly shaded and is packed with little nuances of plants that is just charming.

That is a plumeria overhanging a Xanadu philodendron (one of my favorite plants). Not easy to see just how far that plumeria is hanging over and didn't get a side view of it. Suffice it to say it is a full sun plant and it is planted in a shade garden. Lovely big leaves, but why is it not blooming? Hmmm 😕.

At the front in blue green is Rue, there's mint spilling down in front of that, a little basil plant in the blue pot and on the right a pop of color from a vinca in another pot. This is all happening to the right of the plumeria section. The succulent there looming over the basil is a type of crassula I think (not sure what the grass like leaves are, given the other things could be an bulb?). All of them just hanging out and thriving despite their different characteristics and typical ideal needs.

Again so much going on here! This is behind the Rue and we've got a mini rose in a pit, a hydrangea next to that, ivy, trailing geranium tucked in and under, round glossy leaves of an African Boxwood (not really a boxwood at all and is a succulent) and tucked way at the back and to the left a little looks like celery next to another geranium and that grass like leaf looks like I don't know, daylily or something? Wow. Oh wait, see the branch stem going left to right with a small white flower? That's a spider plant! Up against the wall is a fern, only reason why it hasn't taken over is either it's in a pot or it's been so crowded it doesn't have any chance. Oh yes and then there's the ivy behind the rue and an alocasia (elephant ear) on the left against the wall.

The whole bed with cat for size. Thank you Rocky!

 

 That is one awesome bed of just hodge podge planting but so interesting to look at and see what is tucked in here and there. This is on the east side of another building that is protected by sycamore trees planted in a lawn area behind me as I took the picture. Obviously enough sun for the rose and vinca, the xanadu is absolutely thriving along with the plumeria (despite not flowering) a few kitchen herbs thrown in and it's what someone would call a 'cottage garden'. Not exactly sure of the climbing plant on the right, almost looks like a climbing hydrangea. Maybe?

So this shows what a variety of textures and greens can look like in a bed. Not boring at all and for a plant geek it's kind of like Where's Waldo of plants. I'm sure there's a few I missed because there's so many and likely cowering under larger plants.

And yes I am sure that's a vinca and not an impatien, here is the difference in the flowers:

Catharanthus roseus, aka 'Vinca' The leaves are completely different than Impatiens as well.

Impatiens walleriana aka 'Busy (Bizzie?) Lizzie'

 

To the average person looking at them among all the things colorful they would look like the same plant. Always look for details and leaf differences. Oh and Vinca isn't actually a true name for it though it is similar to the actual vinca that we get a color name from:

Bowles Periwinkle

 Yes indeed this is where we get the color name of periwinkle from. This is a more purple form rather than blue as some other varieties are. Oh and this is a creeper good for shade,  vinca minor to be exact. I remember seeing it covering the banks of a stream under oak trees where I went to college the first time. Beautiful campus at West Valley Community College in Saratoga, CA.

So didn't expect to get sidetracked on a particular flower set but there you go. I need to go out and check my plants to see if they need watering and tucking up.