I don't say this to be argumentative, but personally I'm not crazy about this garden or the inukshuks. The garden is kind of pretty, and probably looks better than most disturbed areas in an urban setting. But in general I would rather see a natural gully with native plants that would naturally grow in such a spot, not exotic plants like Canna lilies and Mimosa trees. Especially a species like Albizia julibrissin which has shown invasive tendencies in Florida and the mid-atlantic states. When I'm out in nature, I want to experience nature - not yet more signs of human disturbance of nature. JMO.

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.

Hi Patrick, I don't know if it requires it or not, I suspect maritima definitely does, as it grows on sandy beaches in places like Scotland. Our soil is very sandy here, although it gets very saturated during the winter rains (very heavy clay as a subsoil from 2-20 feet down, and water runs out of all the gopher holes during that time. Still, they all happen to be in raised beds, even if they do get saturated, and next to the rock edges of the beds at that. Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies, and looking at that seakale when it was coming out this Spring I must say it looked delicious! But, I didn't try it, and I don't know what you'd eat, the leaves, the flower stems before the bloom (like broccoli and cauliflower) or what. A friend told me the leaves are so bitter that the cabbage butterfly caterpillars that love Crambe cordifolia and other cabbage relatives (almost impossible to grow broccoli here because of them!) won't live on the seakale. My experience bears that out, as they were untouched. Until this year, when the ducks started roaming the property, they were constantly chewing my the cordifolia plants. When the ducks discovered them, however, the caterpillars were goners and the crambe all took off! My plant is still in absolute full bloom, and the fragrance carries at least 15 feet, as does the maritima, which has now finished, but bloomed for about a month. I'm hoping they'll both set seed, I'd love to get more of them all. --Ron

You would have to post that pink Gruss first. I love that one. But they just keep getting better. What a beautiful place you have there! I LOVE the water on the roses, but don't quite understand what balling means as the shot where you mentioned it, the one rose is drooping is can't think of the right word. Glad you got some relief from the utility bill. It's always welcome. I've not run my central air yet, but my gf near St. Louis has, said she starts turning in on in April sometimes.