I'm sure your neighbors were happy to see veggies, even bolting crops, over the weedy yard, Spaghetina. Here's a couple of suggestions I have from my time growing organically up in SF and Marin. 1) Most of those flowers of the bolted veggies are edible and tasty. While the leaf flavor has turned bitter through the winter and the taste change that comes with bolting, the blossoms often gain a very interesting taste that is great topping salads or lightly fried in certain dishes. 2) If like germinating your own crops from seed, remember which of your crops are heirloom (their seeds will usually produce true) and which are F1 or other hybrids -- it's seed is typically still viable, but may have very different characteristics than the parent. The GW seed exchange forum is a great way to get those exotic seeds you mentioned w/o having to pay catalog prices or drive all over the Bay area, but you need your own seeds to reciprocate. Some of the best plants & veggies in my yard are from trades I've made with other GW members. 3) To my way of thinking, your soil mix seems too heavily focused on decomposed organic matter and doesn't take advantage of the alkaline SF clay topsoil and it's associated soil flora. The compost/purchased soil is great for nitrogen and drainage and you can artificially pump up the P/K/Fe to grow good veggies & plants in it, but organic amendments like blood & bone meal, fish emulsion, seaweed and others need bacteria & fungi to free the nutrients for your crop's roots. That's generally not true for soluble inorganic amendments, which is why they are popular. There's definitely a risk of adding weed seeds by using your yard's topsoil in the garden beds, but that soil food web is necessary for growing good organic crops, IMO. For plants that need lots of N and like great drainage, I go 2/3 purchased soil/fully composted organic matter and 1/3 native topsoil. For tomatoes, peppers and others that suffer in N-rich soils, I use 2/3 native, 1/3 organic matter.

WOW WOW WOW! I was looking through your whole album. The brugs look great, and so does everything else! I would never make it to your front door with all of those nice plants to look at on the way up the stairs. I like all of your colocsias, especially stingray and nancys revenge. I have a philodendron brazil that does all sorts of funky things like yours looks like it is doing. I cut off a sport that is all yellow with none of the green. I love that plant, it grows so well. That pothos......if I get a regular pothos that you find everywhere and grow it out in the summer as a vine.....will the leaves get that big or is that a different kind? Thanks for sharing the pics. Shawn

Kelley - I think if my little valencia every produces I will try to grow from seed just to see what happens. Every January I setup my seeds, heat mat and grow lights in our kitchen to start all my plants for spring. I will add that to it if it every happens! MyerMike - thanks! I have been on here posting the pics since about 2016 when my poor lisbon and bearrs lime were sunburnt when i first put them in the ground. It was my first time planting a tree(we had just got the house) and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with them and I just didn't want them to die. I'd killed plenty of trees previously on a patio that was in full sun. Even my local nursery gave me BAD advice. I couldn't believe it. The good folks here have helped me get my trees thriving. I've since added a few more trees(and I want to buy more every year). I'm so thankful for this forum and all of you! Helped me help my trees. Nules - those lemons and limes are so beautiful! What do you do with them all? I hope to one day have a lime crop like that!!

This may be my favorite letter yet! All the clematis, coreopsis, campanulas... such color and loveliness! sandyslopes, I Just planted Crystal Fountain last year. So looking forward to the blooms! babs, your Roguchi is beautiful! I have one in a pot that needs to go in the ground. I hope it looks like yours someday. Pink Chiffon clematis, aka Hayley Hybrid. This one never stopped blooming last year! NOID. I call this one “Not Niobe” Lol. Coreopsis moonbeam. New to me this year. Grows like nuts. Divided one 4” pot into three plants, each was a full size blooming machine by the end of summer. Also calibrichoa.