danger garden

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Opening day! (at Secret Garden Growers...)

Last Thursday was opening day at one of my favorite local nurseries, Secret Garden Growers, You know you've arrived when you see the witch crossing sign... (pardon the bad photo taken from inside my car)...

The day had been marked on my calendar for awhile, it was a good excuse to go for a drive (45 min to an hour from my house), see friends who work there (Ann and Evan) and of course a fine opportunity to ogle the plants...

Variegated Daphniphyllum

I want to clean out the pine needles and plant something in that cool slab. I forgot to ask if they had plans for it.

Lots of 'Spotty Dotty' (podophyllum)

Love the vibrant backdrop for the Schefflera delavayi.

That gunnera is wasting no time waking up and putting on some growth.

Aquilegia viridiflora Chocolate Soldier’

I bought one of these here last year that's up and blooming in my garden, but that didn't stop me from buying another on this visit.

Lathyrus vernus (spring vetch/perennial sweet pea), darn cute!

Everybody needs a rodgersia or two.

I thought I needed this euphorbia as well (Euphorbia polychroma 'Bonfire') but it doesn't need me. I've lost it more times than I can count.

OH MY GOD! More moss than foliage. I should have bought this! (I think it's a barberry?)

The SGG Yurt. I've never been inside.

Asarum caudatum will definitely cover some ground.

I quite like those flowers too. I recently posted a photo on Instagram of one of mine in flower and someone called it "ugliest flower in botany"... no!!!!

Rhododendron 'Tressa McMurry', how is it even possible that a rhododendron in a 4" pot is blooming?

Moving into the greenhouse now (technically not open to nursery visitors) and looking at these Aloiampelos striatula I'm reminded that mine COULD resprout from the woody base. Could. But will they?

Hardy-ish begonias. I've grown both of these but winter finally did them in.

More of that fantastic Cyrtomium macrophyllum I scored at Hortlandia. Evan grew these plants from spore.

Sophora prostrata 'Little Baby'. My three oldest plants are still bare after the winter cold. Fingers crossed they leaf out soon.

Marked as Abutilon 'David'.

Canna 'Cleopatra'

Schefflera delavayi babies! (maybe from my plant? Ann propagated a batch from seeds I gave SGG).

Arisaema ringens

Bletilla striata 'Shi-Ran'

Pyrrosia lingua 'Kei Kan', I believe.

I love that Pat (owner of Secret Garden Growers) shares my love of kinda obscure ferns.

Libertia some something. I love it, but it dies in my garden.

Finally I'll wrap this post with an obscenely large clematis bloom on a very small plant, Clematis 'Rooran' in a 4" pot. You go girl!

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note; these are sent from a third party, you’ll want to click thru to read the post here on the blog to avoid their annoying ads.

Monday, April 15, 2024

Logs in the urban landscape

Every time I drive by this log-filled hellstrip I think "I really need to stop and take photos" but I'm usually headed home and don't have the time.

However, one cloudy afternoon last week I made the time. Unfortunately the view from my car is my favorite, and since capturing that view would mean standing in the middle of a street with a blind curve, well, you're not going to get to see it.

Instead you'll see it from the sidewalk.

I can't tell if these trees were felled on site, or if they came in from elsewhere.

They're used in many interesting ways though, and there are rocks adding to the upscale look of things. I hadn't seen the rocks from my car.

Briefly stepping out into the street so you can see the border of rounds and upright sections.

I love the woven sidewalk border and wonder if there are more plants on the way, or if this is the finished look.

Mud and a rock base make the end piece solid.

The stacked rock wall on the other side of the sidewall is pretty sweet too.

Another quick street-side view...

And just a couple more from the sidewalk...

I'm curious what this purpose-built niche is for. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

From the street I hadn't noticed the property's twig fence.

They're obviously reusing/repurposing every part of a few trees here...

It's a corner property and the other hellstrip is filled with a mounding conifer, edged with rocks.

Looking up at the home, which based on the two address plaques I saw must be a duplex.

Oh ya... now THAT is a wreath. Damn. I hadn't noticed that before.

A fitting adornment for over the large wooden door at the top of those grand stairs.

Last photo at this location...

And now were at another spot I drive by fairly regularly, a much smaller lot/home that is also repurposing cut sections of trees in their urban garden and hellstrip.

This one is perfect for planting up...

Hellstrip pathways...

It's a bit austere, hopefully more plants are on the way.

I wonder if this (and the others) is a result of trees that came down during the January storm we had? So many trees fell with the wind and the ice.

Plant that stump!

This log-scape is on a super-wide median in NE Portland. It's also home to a linear arboretum.

Each block of the median is very different, depending on the style and desires of the homes that border it and the people who tend to it.

My very small and very unscientific study tells me people are doing more to let trees naturally decompose on site and maybe provide habitat in the process. These examples are of people really making it happen in a big way, but I'm seeing it in smaller ways too. Heck even when I built my table planting on the stock tank I used branches and stumps that I'd cut here in my own garden.

I'll wrap up with a screenshot from my friend Grace Hensley's Instagram. She'd asked to be reminded of the name of the guy who stacks logs decoratively, check out Nigel Dunnett's Instagram feed if you aren't familiar with him.