garden

In the Garden

August 1, 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon in John & Jeffrey’s lovely, lush San Francisco garden, experimenting with the camera in my new iPhone 4. I’d say the results speak for themselves; I don’t think I’ll bother carrying around my old digital still camera anymore. Most of these were taken as macro-range closeups and further cropped afterwards. I [...]

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The Tomato Plant that Ate My Balcony

July 1, 2010

I think it aspires to be a shade tree.

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Italian Garden 2007: July

July 5, 2007

Unintended Consequences Here’s what happens when I leave my garden unattended: I get beautiful wild grains like the above – otherwise known as weeds. A weed I had been assiduously removing (but, obviously, missed one) turns out to have charming puffy purple blossoms. The insalata riccia (curly lettuce) bolted into meter-high stalks with delicate blossoms. [...]

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Italian Garden 2007: June

June 14, 2007

herbs for sale at an Italian garden center The garden has been largely left to its own devices in the last six weeks, and is thriving. We’ve had monsoon-like rains almost every day for weeks, so it certainly doesn’t need watering, and the vegetables are large enough now that they’re mostly holding their own against [...]

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Italian Garden 2007: May

May 15, 2007

yes, I know this isn’t a beetle, but at least he’s cute – even if he was probably eating my irises We had a lot of beetles this year, I’ve never seen the like in Italy! In May we had roses, oh how we had roses! I was so busy taking the close-up shots of [...]

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Italian Garden 2007: April

April 8, 2007

Yes, Italians love their gardens, and so do I. I just wish it loved me back. Oh, it’s doing just fine, but it keeps attacking me with nasty pollens, so I’m a sleepy, red-eyed, sneezing, drippy mess. Perhaps I should spend next spring in a desert. In spite of the confused weather, the garden looks [...]

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Italian Garden 2007: March

March 17, 2007

photo by Rossella They tell us that this past winter has been the warmest in Europe for 200 years. Certainly our plants are confused. Some of the bulbs I planted in October were sprouting by December. The mimosas bloomed before la Festa della Donna, which I’ve never seen happen before. Crocuses in Italian are called [...]

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