Philip’s Garden Blog

This last Valentines Day we exchanged cards, savored specialty chocolates and planted trees in our city.

“Share The Love” was the name of the Valentines Day tree planting event held by The Friends of The Urban Forest. We joined up at 9:00 in the morning with other volunteers and neighborhood residents to plant over thirty trees .

Since 1981 the non-profit Friends of The Urban Forest has overseen the planting of thousands of trees on the sidewalks of San Francisco. Friends of the Urban Forest obtains permits, removes sidewalk concrete, purchases and delivers the trees, supplies, tools and materials. Neighborhood residents select a tree from a list of trees that will do well in the climate and that is appropriate for the situation. On planting day neighbors come together to assist each other in planting the tree that they will be responsible for outside their residence or place of business.

Except for a few neighborhoods, most of San Francisco in the past had few trees on its streets. The city itself is dense with Victorian apartment building and flats, and there are few front yards and other street planting. The Friends of The Urban Forest has transformed the cityscape with thousands of trees, reducing the “heat island” effect and providing habitat for many birds. The group is committed to the belief that trees are a critical element of a livable urban environment.

Volunteer extraordinaire Charlie Starbuck, looking dapper in his green beret, gives a demonstration planting before we break into smaller groups.

I could not help but notice all of the “For Rent” signs in what is normally a very popular neighborhood. One of the residents, Marta, confirmed that all parts of the city have been hurt by the economic downturn. I was impressed looking at this group who had come together in uncertain times: an older couple, the stylish group of Japanese-American young women, gay and straight neighbors who were meeting for the first time.

Planting manager Naomi Le Beau answers our questions.
Should we use planting mix?
No, the existing soil or “backyard dirt” is best
Should we place the bushier part of the tree away from the wind?
The stronger side of the tree with the most branches, if there is one, should be placed into the direction of the wind.

With Naomi’s calm assurance and winning enthusiasm we think to ourselves “Yes, we can do this! Let’s go!”

Our group heads up the hill where Kris, a Friend of The Urban Forest volunteer, is our guide planting the trees for this street.
Kris holds a planting stick, while David, the homeowner, is engaged.

Everyone gets into the act.

An evergreen pear (Pyrus kawakamii) is the tree that has been selected for this location. Native to Asia, this tree is tolerant of poor soil and does well in coastal California. A suitable choice for this location, this tree will not become overly tall and conflict with utility wires. This tree is effective when pruned, an important consideration in a narrow sidewalk. Evergreen in winter, this tree will delight in the spring with a display of white flowers.

A curved saw is used to gently score the roots.

Now that this tree planting has begun, a number of volunteers and residents split up from this group and begin the next tree planting.

Kris uses one of the stakes which will be used later to ensure that the root ball is at the proper height with the sidewalk.

A cardboard tube is inserted and rocks are placed into it. David will water the tree for the first year into this tube, allowing water to get to the roots. The rocks filter dirt, and eventually the cardboard tube will decompose.

Donning a hard hat and climbing a ladder, a volunteer pounds the stakes for the tree with a post driver.

I am struck how when strangers join together in a common purpose, what is needed to be done is achieved naturally and instinctively without language. I cannot help but think that today we are isolated in so many ways: working inside corporate cubicles and behind locked doors watching television. When given the opportunity to join together in a task such as planting a tree, we immediately know what to do. Perhaps working together is what really makes us human.

Ta Da!  Now that this tree is planted, this group will join with the other groups in the neighborhood until all the trees are in the ground. Around noon the tree plantings will be done, and the volunteers and residents will enjoy a potluck lunch.  I look forward to visiting this tree in the future to see it grow and thrive.  I will never forget the people who planted these trees, and in the act of planting a tree, a city becomes a community.

The week before Christmas we woke up to the sound of soft rain. Now, most people would pull up the bedcovers and linger over a cup of coffee. That does sound wonderfully cozy, but I could not pull on my hiking boots fast enough. Armed with my coat and camera I set out into the misty rain to one of my favorite gardens in San Francisco: the Native Plant Garden at Strybing Arboretum.

Longfellow writes of “Air sweeter than wine”, and in the park this rainy morning I breathed in the heady ozone: damp, earthy and of green, growing things. I was not a completely solitary visitor to this garden as numerous house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), golden-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) and other small birds clustered in the shrubbery, their presence made known by droplets of water as they flew from branch to branch, and by the babel of their birdsong. I imagined they were saying “Party over here! Party over there!”

With the arrival of the winter rains in northern California, now is a time to plants seeds of all types, and especially native plant seeds. These native wildflowers are uniquely adapted to this area’s climate of cool, wet winters and long, dry summers.

A few years ago when I first visited the Native Plant Garden at Strybing I thought to myself, ” I know these plants, this place, this feeling. This is the California landscape in which I was born and that I love”. Other parts of the arboretum are quite beautiful, but the trees are too big, the lawns too expansive for me to attempt to re-create in my own garden. I felt this native garden could be a teaching laboratory for me. This last year I planted seeds representing some of the plants shown here to see how they would do in my own garden. Most of the native plants in my December garden are dormant or are just seedlings. In a few months these plants will begin to grow and flower.

 The following pictures are from a visit I took to the Native Plant Garden at Strybing in April of 2008, and assists me with plant selections when planting seeds right now.

Tufted Hairgrass, Deschampsia cespitosa, has grown luxurient in this spot by April. In the arboretum one cannot venture off the path, but imagine sitting in the springy grass with your back nestled in the hollow of a California Buckeye tree, Aesculus californica, just coming into leaf.

The yellow flowers of meadowfoam, (Limnanthes douglasii) are spectacular planted en masse, and to do that economically one must do this by seed. This plant is delightful in flower, but I have learned a few things along the way in its cultivation. Limnanthes in my expeience can be devastated by slugs and snails when tender and young. Also, It is not reliable as a bedding plant. In reviewing again how it grows naturally in its habitat, I can see now that it prefers a natural, dry watercourse. There must be enough moisture deep down for this plant to “live happy and grow”.

I think I will try this again in the descending walk between the upper and lower sections of my own garden. The natural stepping stones could be made to effect a natural watercourse, interplanted with meadowfoam. Let’s see what happens this spring!

Without a doubt, one of the easiest of California wildflowers to plant by seed is the orange flowered California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). I have found to my delight numerous species of this type that have white flowers, yellow flowers, pink and even apricot flowers! The orange is the most common, but withstands a variety of climatic conditions. It can be a perennial in the right conditions, and very happily re-seeds. This time of year I am busily transplanting Eschscholzia sp. from where I feel they should not be (like under the garden table), and to where I think they could be set off best. When planting with seed, thinning the multitude of plants that emerge will allow a few to grow to be quite vigorous and provide a delicious display of blooms for bees …and for you!

The pink flowered Clarkia sp. turned out to be one of my great dicoveries this last season. Shown here intermixed with native grasses, planted alone in my own “test kitchen” in a miniscule plot of my own garden, I was amazed by the vigorous and showy blooms we had from this seed to plant. Clarkia comes in a number of species, some double, some single flowering — all are spectacular.

There is a common misconception that one can simply throw native plant seeds willy-nilly about and expect a flowering garden. My personal experience is that this is simply not the case. Most seeds like good, well-drained amended soil, and do need to be planted in the soil to prevent being eaten by birds.  But I do love birds and I have a birdbath and feeder with good seed for them. Mother nature has many seeds to expend to birds, and the law of averages applies. If you have a limited budget, and wish to plant directly by seed with plants such as Clarkia, plant them carefully in a well prepared bed.

In this type of garden, pure color appears to float like daubs of paint on a green colored ground.

One of the California native irises, Iris longipetala flourishes in great stands in the coastal prairie.

Iris douglasiana produces many different colored flowers. It is instructive for me to see how nature arrays these plants in clumps. Where one Iris in the garden is a jewel-like specimen, a great drift of these flowers provides a spectacular display in the spring. In the background is the yellow flowering tree, Fremontodendron californicum

 Admission is free to visit the native plant garden at Strybing Arboretum http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/

Further information can be found with The California Native Plant Society: www.cnps.org

From their website:
The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of California’s native plants and how to conserve them and their natural habitats through education, science, advocacy, horticulture and land stewardship

Many seeds and rhizomes of the plants shown here can be purchased online with Larner seeds: www.larnerseeds.com.  I hope to visit Judith Larner Lowry’s demonstation garden on the coastal bluff of Bolinas soon. That will be another garden adventure!

 

 

Oh, heck! I thought we would have this beach to ourselves”

 

This has become a favorite family expression since my aunt Joan first said this on Ten Mile Beach many years ago. We were dragging long canvas sacks, formally U.S. postal bags, now filled with the driftwood we had collected. Far down the coast, obscured by spray from the long rollers off the Pacific,a solitary figure could be seen at the water’s edge. We laughed till our sides hurt at the absurdity of the situation. Even today all one of us has to say is” Oh, heck” to produce a smile. It was not that we were unfriendly, but we had come to love this long stretch of sand and grassy dune for its splendid isolation.

 

It was here that nature seemed at its most elemental. Rocky coves where pines met the sea gave way to the grand gesture: the expanse of water and sky in the brilliant light, rolling hillocks of sand, their southeasterly progression slowed by beach grass shimmering in the wind.

 

Not for me are the crowds of a summer’s beach. When November arrives the lonely, windswept coast north and south of San Francisco calls to me. There is a place between twin lighthouses where the shoals part to reveal a curve of sand and grassy dune not unlike the ten mile beach we had enjoyed all those years ago. Elephant seals congregate in the reserve adjacent to this spot. Once when we were hiking this stretch of coast I spied a long tree trunk on its side, probably washed ashore in the last storm. Ah ha! the perfect place to sit with one’s back to the dunes facing the sea. As I approached, one end of the” tree trunk” moved! It was a male elephant seal, a rogue, banished from the nearby colony. We quickly left him to his place in the dunes.

In the lee of the fore-dunes, lagoons fringed with green and gold rushes pool without access to the sea.  Driftwood and the occasional saltwater deluge adds a brackish tang. Some winters, a storm coincides with an extreme tide sending waves through the hollows of the dunes to the lagoons resting beyond.

The hollows of the dunes are irresistible for me to lie down in.  Sheltered and warm, the rythmic sound of the surf is hypnotic and somnolent. If one lies still long enough, birds and other wildlife will come quite close. I have opened my eyes to see a towhee regarding me next to my face as it scratched about the grass. Here my mind wanders to thoughts of life and of nature; thoughts about grasses surrounding me in the dune hollow and then to grasses in gardens.

In a corner of  the Barbro Osher sculpture garden at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, landscape designer and University of California professor Walter Hood evokes the topography of grassy sand dunes which once covered this site.

Designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & d’ Mueron, the de Young museum incorporates a cantilevered canopy over the terrace of the sculpture garden. Clad in perforated and embossed copper panels, the monumentality of the structure required a landscape that speaks to primative essentials. Hood’s grassy dune alludes not only to the original landscape of the park, but to the reductive qualities of the dune landscape itself.

As night falls over the grassy dunes the soothing sound of the surf become a roar. What is seen and unseen in this landscape is like the lighthouse on the near point sending a whiplash of light over the waves and dunes. Without the companionable focus of a driftwood bonfire surrounded by friends, the dune landscape at night is grand and terrible in its immensity.

                moonlight -

                                    a sand dune

                                    shifts
                                          
                                                              Virginia Brady Young, 2002      

               

 

 

Eleven years ago the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened its doors to visitors from all over the world, and thus ushered in “The Bilbao Effect”. Cities wishing to be considered “world class” and attract those tourist dollars have since constructed remarkable structures to house cultural institutions, from the Getty Center in Los Angeles to the new museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. These museums put the capital “A” in architecture and I think of them as the cathedrals of our time. The impulse which built the Canterbury cathedral and sent thousands on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela was of course by nature, spiritual. Within that paradigm, however, was also the desire to get out into the world and see something new, to gather together with others and to be inspired.

The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco recently opened its doors to a wildly enthusiastic public. Located on the site of the previous academy which had been damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the new academy designed by Renzo Piano not only houses a stunning collection of exhibits celebrating the natural world, but, in the tradition begun at Bilbao, the building is itself a star attraction. This building, however, takes the next leap by going beyond architectural theatrics. Receiving platinum certification under the LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) the academy boasts an impressive list of recycled materials and energy savings. Rather than merely discussing environmental concerns such as climate change and alternative energy, the new academy is an environmental philosophy made real in three dimensions.

One of the things that I particularly wanted to see during my visit to the academy was “The Living Roof”. Green roofs in other applications have shown to reduce the “heat island effect” of higher urban temperatures due to large expanses of black tar roofs and pavement. Green roofs reduce the interior temperatures of buildings reducing energy costs for cooling. The living roof incorporates these qualities with an original and artistic arrangement of undulating hillocks which lies over the domes of the interior rainforest and planetarium. To keep the soil and plants secured on the slopes, an ingenious solution was developed by the firm, Rana Creek. Biodegradable trays with planting mix were placed like tiles over the structure. A collection of native plants knit the whole together.

California native plants thrive in this environment despite months of drought. Floral displays of California aster Aster chilensis delight as well as provide an important nectar source for butterflies and bees.

Upright stands of purple flowering Prunella vulgaris emerge from wild strawberry Fragaria chiloensis.

Numerous plants are yet to emerge. Look for glorious displays this spring of pink flowering Sea Thrift Armeria maritima, yellow and white Tidy Tips Layia platyglossa, and orange california poppies Eschscholzia californica.

The glass roof of the central piazza can be glimpsed from above

The academy’s central piazza is a place for people to relax in an atmosphere of structual lightness and transparancy.

Views of the surrounding park are invited into the museum. The twisting copper tower of the neighboring De Young musuem is enjoyed from the piazza as a kind of monumental sculpture.

I spoke with Larry Reed and John Loomis, landscape architects with the firm SWA Group who designed and implemented the construction of the academy gardens. They described that when the living roof was first installed and before the planting trays had time to set, they came to the central piazza each morning grateful that the plantings had not collapsed into the piazza below! The Living Roof, seen from below, has proven to be a technological success as well as an artistic one.

The living roof is enjoyed by visitors from a viewing platform. This arrangement brings to mind the Karesansui, Japanese viewing gardens. The roof terrain is an abstraction of the hills of San Francisco, contemplated from a set location.

From the viewing platform one can see the band of photovoltaic cells which contributes to the energy needs of the academy.

The living roof affords new vistas into the park. Beyond the concourse is the Japanese Tea garden and the De Young Museum sculpture garden.

Flanking the academy are the east and west gardens. At first glance, I thought these gardens were lacking in much to interest the plantsperson. After being in them for a bit I found that their direct approach with rectangles of expansive grass was the perfect counterpoint to the busy interior. After visiting the busy academy’s exhibits, the gardens are a respite where childeren can run around and people relax.

A hanging sculpture by Maya Lin and carved sculptures of animals by Benny Bufano grace the grounds.

Landscape architects Larry Reed and John Loomis describe the former site of the east garden as a “cesspool of trash cans and concrete. The former academy was a collection of mis-matched buildings. The new academy has a smaller footprint, allowing the creation of the gardens. The new design is also pulled back from the site of the Shakespeare Garden.”

 

“The forests of Golden Gate Park were in decline” according to Reed and Loomis.
“Pine trees were dying, and rather than try to recreate a formal 19th century style garden, SWA group focused on de-selecting pine trees and planting redwoods. Understory plantings of oak and bay laurel were established to impove the park’s forest in a wholistic way”

If you plan to visit the academy, I would recommend becoming a member. It would be less expensive in the long run if you plan to visit more than once and there are times set aside for admittance to members only . The academy is worthy of support not only for the museum itself, but for the important contributions it makes to the field of science.

From the Academy’s website:

The California Academy of Sciences is a multifaceted scientific institution committed to leading-edge research, to educational outreach, and to finding new and innovative ways to engage and inspire the public.

The Academy’s mission - to explore, explain and protect the natural world - extends to all corners of the institution; from a research expedition in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, to a teacher training program in a California classroom, to an interactive game on the museum exhibit floor.

My personal thanks to landscape architects Larry Reed and John Loomis for discussing with me their work on the academy.
http://www.swagroup.com/

For more information of the California Academy of Sciences
http://www.calacademy.org/

Academy Sustainability Statement:

Sustainability is often defined as meeting current human needs without endangering our descendants. There is a broad, scientific consensus that our current environmental demands are unsustainable, causing climate change, degradation of natural habitats, loss of species, and shortages of essential resources.

The California Academy of Sciences’ mission to explore, explain and protect the natural world compels the Academy to engage in scientific research relevant to sustainability, to raise public awareness about these urgent problems, and to minimize its own environmental impact.

The Academy’s green building signifies its commitment to sustainability. The culture and internal practices mirror that commitment in the areas of energy, water, waste management, transportation, purchasing and food. Academy programs highlight the living world and its connection to the changing global environment. Academy research focuses on the origins and maintenance of life’s diversity, and its expeditions roam the world, gathering scientific data to answer the questions, “How has life evolved, and how can it be sustained?”

In comparing the portrait of Marisot by Manet and the artist’s own self portrait, important differences can be discerned. Manet (not to be confused with Monet) depicts a woman of direct charm and beauty; a woman whose compelling qualities are set off by her costume all in black. There is an underlying eroticism at play here. In Morisot’s self portrait the artist stands upright; her expression is forthright and without guile. Frippery such as costume and their props are deemed unneccesary to reveal truth.

 
Born into the  Haute Bourgeois, Berthe and her sister Edmé were given art lessons as a natural course of instruction for certain young women of the day. What set them apart was the dedication to their art beyond conventions; a determination beyond all odds to utilize it in art,  taste and new ways of expression. In 1858 Madame Morisot inspired her daughters to paint. She desired that the girls take art lessons so that they could present a birthday gift to their father. She sent them first to the academic painter Geoffrey Alphonse Chocarne who focused his teachings on drawing, and soon afterward to Joseph Benoît Guichard, a former student of both Ingres and Delacroix. Edmé and Berthe enthusiastically applied themselves to his instruction. Under Guichard’s tutelage, the Morisot sisters began to journey to the Louvre in order to study the old masters first hand.

After three years of studio work under the supervision of Guichard, Berthe decided that she wished to study the plein air motif under master landscapist Corot. Edmé joined her sister with these weekly lessons. As part of Corot’s instruction, the family embarked on summer-long painting trips to picturesque locales. In 1862, they rode mules through the Pyrenees. In order to accommodate these expeditions, the Morisot family organized their holidays around Berthe and Edme’s art work for there was no question that the two would have set off on such an experience unchaperoned.

In this painting, we can infer much: the desire to reach out to the outside world, even though it is the cloistered terrace of the home. The subject’s ribbons are like a yoke, the fetters now broken and free and in the same value as the bars to the right of the composition. The cumbersome dress is held up in a natural way, a subtle protest towards the lack of freedom of movement in dress. In this painting, what at first seems a charming scene, is in fact a manifesto for the emancipation of women.

In a personal breakthrough of subject and style, Morisot defines the Impressionistic method with this revolutionary painting, executed in triumphant plein air. All is conditioned by light and natural effects. The viewer is no longer dispassionate, but one with the atmosphere. There is no horizon line, no mythological “other” to inform the scene but what it is: a modern wet nurse and a child. The honesty of this composition and painterly approach cannot be underestimated.  

Morisot produced many paintings of varied scenes. I have selected a few of those which relate to the garden. In her mature work there is a dynamic painterly approach which adresses Morisot’s concern with capturing the ephemeral.

In this remarkable pastel on paper, Morisot treats her subject, pears on pendulous, leafy branches, by dispensing with the subjective; these pears are not a literal representation, nor, indeed an Impressionist reflection. Here, Morisot takes the great conceptual leap of the artist in depicting the idea of pears. In this composition of color and line, Morisot has prefigured the 20th century concern for abstraction in art, and in doing so takes her place in the canon of not only Impressionistic art, but in the revolutionary approaches in thought and the depiction of modern art to follow.

In one of my favorite works by Morisot, the artist is personally direct in this self portrait with her daughter with an economy of line and shade on unprimed canvas. A tour de force of meaning and truth, Morisot deconstructs the process of painting to its most elemental.

The gardens depicted in the paintings by Berthe Morisot always include the family: mothers and children, at times fathers and friends. The immediacy and experience of the natural world is what is celebrated here; the comfort and delight that a garden setting affords to families, and a platform for the artist is what had meaning for Morisot. The ideas found in Berthe Morisot’s paintings are eternal and relevant, and can yet inform us today.