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Showing posts from August, 2008
Remember even as we celebrate. Atlantic Hurricane Gustav updates Slow Food Nation 2008 , Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco

Rain (only) gardens: a plant palette and potential stormwater management

Garden designer Brandon Tyson’s curbside “rain-only garden” is featured in Pacific Horticulture’s Jul/Aug/Sep 2008 issue. Unfortunately for readers, the magazine does not provide an address for the Berkeley, Calif. garden. Also, the article is only available in print and I cannot borrow the issue from the library so could not include photographs. Tyson’s plant palette for the Berkeley, Sunset zone 16/17 garden includes yuccas, agaves, terrestrial bromeliads, succulents, palms, ferns, and daisies. Here is the list provided by Pacific Horticulture: Agave ‘Sharkskin,’ A. ‘Felipe Otero,’ A. victoria-reginae (below) , Brunsvigia josephine , Chamaerops humulis ‘Algerian Grey,’ Chelianthes lindheimeri , Dudleya thraskiae , Dyckia ‘Jim’s Red,’ Echeveria ‘Fleur d’Or,’ E. ‘Green Goddess,’ Gazania ‘Christopher Lloyd,’ and Yucca rostrata . Tyson on his rain-only landscape project, It’s been said that anyone can create a beautiful spring garden. It’s the same with watering. Anyone ca

Favorite essays from other blogs

The inspiration for our Tree Walk series is Spacing Wire 's Tree Tuesday essays written by Todd Irvine. Read about Ailanthus altissima busting a move. Katydid on the Street writes about two zelkovas with different growth habits due primarily to shade in A Tale of Two Trees . Pop City provided my first glimpse of Pittsburgh's Grand View Scenic Byways Park in The Best View in Town . The East Bay is lined with creeks - above and below ground - but in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, runs flow through the landscape. The Necessity for Ruins writes about improvements to the (lost) Dobson's Run watershed . The Detroit River probably does not evoke images of fishing, but detroitblog has a moving essay about a 59-year old Detroiter who fishes in the river "across from Zug Island." The New York Times article on designing seductive landscapes was blogged by many including Pruned . Re-Nest and Apartment Therapy: San Francisco carried the profile of my home fo

Tree Walk: Evergreen vs. deciduous, implications for stormwater

In the northeast U.S. where I grew up, large broadleaf deciduous trees are important green infrastructure for managing stormwater. These trees are in leaf when it rains during the spring and summer. However, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I now live, deciduous trees are not in leaf when it rains during the winter months. In this place, (broadleaf) evergreens are more appropriate. This distinction was highlighted in a conversation I had with Jane Martin, founder and director of PlantSF , about landscapes designed to manage stormwater. Martin recently got the San Francisco Department of Public Works to approve a second species of tree - Strawberry Tree - on her block. The Strawberry Tree ( Arbutus unedo )is a broadleaf evergreen with fruits that resemble strawberries. As an evergreen, the tree is in leaf during the winter rains. The tree is small statured so its stormwater capture function is lower than that of a larger stature tree but it also provides forage services. The

Two iron horse rides: Seattle to Emeryville & Chicago to Los Angeles, Part 2 (Gardens)

Not quite bookend gardens on the Southwest Chief Amtrak route, the perennial garden in Chicago’s Millennium Park and the rose garden at the Los Angeles Union Station, above, exemplify two types of design: native ecology and formal ornamental. The Lurie Garden though located in downtown Chicago and framed by well-known skyscrapers is planted with North American natives and designed in honor of Chicago’s pre-development prairie landscape. The garden was designed by the Seattle landscape firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd and won the 2008 ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) General Design Award of Excellence . Piet Oudolf, “world-renowned plantsman,” collaborated with Gustafson not only to “bring beauty to the Garden in every season” but to “reference Chicago’s Midwestern locale.” As the Lurie Garden sits on top of a garage, it functions as a green roof also, another strong element of sustainability. The park was well occupied during my own visit: people strolling along t

Two iron horse rides: Seattle to Emeryville & Chicago to Los Angeles, Part 1

The “iron horse” phrase in the title is inspired by the Bradt guide “USA by Rail.” After reading Paul Theroux’s account of his train journey from London through Russia to China , I thought of train travel as “riding the iron rooster.” However, the iron horse seems more apt because prior to the train, the fastest-moving mode of travel was by horse. According to John Pitt, the “first…regular steam train service went into operation on Christmas Day 1830 on the South Carolina Canal & Railroad….” The Philadelphia & Columbia line was “the first to be government-sponsored.” From the humble beginnings of 135 miles on the Charleston & Hamburg line in 1833, the U.S. had built “half the world’s railroad mileage” by the late 19th century. Pitt notes that “by the late 1920s most city-to-city travel” was by train. Despite the fact that Amtrak “operates up to 265 trains per day” during the week, rail travel is no longer the predominant mode of inter-city travel. Most famous for hi

Local ecologist's most frequently used words

The local ecologist 's word cloud was created with Wordle via Living in the O .

More than 36 hours in Moline, Part 2

The influence of John Deere is not limited to the exhibition hall in downtown Moline . A John Deere generator was employed at the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival to power an ice cream machine. Up the hill from downtown Moline, in the Overlook Historic Neighborhood, are three former Deere-family houses. The William Butterworth Memorial Trust funds two of the houses: the Deere-Wiman House and the Butterworth Center. The third house, the John Deere House, located at 11th Avenue and 13th Street, is otherwise funded and currently under renovation. The Deere-Wiman House was built by John Deere’s son, Charles in 1872. Twenty years later, Charles built the Butterworth house for his daughter, Katherine, and her husband, William Butterworth. The Overlook Historic Neighborhood is composed of two-story houses with porches and attics in the northern section of the neighborhood while the south side streets are lined with grander homes of brick or stucco with expansive, manicured lawns. Velie Par

More than 36 hours in Moline, Part 1

Mississippi River Stepping outside the Quad Cities Airport, I sighted my hotel across the parking lot. Although I requested a shuttle to the hotel, I would walk across the lot several times: to and from the restaurant in the main terminal and to and from the #20 bus stop to downtown Moline, Illinois. I only ate one meal in the airport. The second meal I ate in the area was at a restaurant in downtown Geneseo, pictured below. In addition to the Mississippi River, I was excited to see the John Deere Commons. The central component of the commons is the pavilion which is fronted by a large deer sculpture and several pieces of John Deere equipment. Equipment was also displayed inside the pavilion but I was fascinated with the interactive displays. For example, by pressing a button that represented a particular food group, say fruit, I could see the "yearly average consumed per person" which is 126.1 pounds. Another interesting interactive display was the biotech lab p

Tree Walk: Unidentified locusts in the Le Conte neighborhood & Trees in the headlines

I was captivated by a pink flowering tree this spring. The flower looks like a sweet pea, but my initially identification took be my surprise because the name is unattractive – the clammy locust (Robinia viscose). I was unfamiliar with the tree, but through observation, particularly of the leaves (pinnately compound, alternate), I figured it was in the legume family. (Like other legumes, the locust fixes nitrogen in the soil.) The City of Berkeley does not publish its tree list online, so I turned to my copy of "Tree, Shrubs and Vines: A Pictorial Guide to the Ornamental Woody Plants of the Northeastern United States Exclusive of Conifers." According to the guide's author, Arthur T. Viertel, associate professor of landscape architecture (!), the leaf stalk and twigs have "sticky glands," hence the name. However, when I got a chance to feel the stalks and twigs of a tree on Derby, I realized that my identification was incorrect. The stems were not sticky. I

Growing flowers and vegetables in small spaces

Seeing my food garden at Apartment Therapy: San Francisco spurred me to post about growing herbaceous plants--flowers, vegetables, and herbs--in small areas. The garden can be located anywhere, even in the sidewalk. Elephant Pharmacy in Berkeley planted a sidewalk planter, pictured below, with squash and lamb's ears among other things. In my small garden, squash, mint (volunteer and purposefully planted), rosemary, sage, Golden Bell sweet pepper, and Purple Cherokee tomato (below) grow in a 1-foot-by-10-feet bed. I started my garden a few years ago and over the years have seen and read about variations on the theme of small space gardening. Flowers, not surprisingly, can be grown in small spaces. Small gardens like the credit-card flower box at Instructables.com are one example. I have observed several eclectic flower planters and two examples are shown below. Toronto, Canada Berkeley, Calif. There is also incredible variety in food garden design. The portable sal