When the good folks at Star Apple Edible and Fine Gardening asked us if we wanted to give away a copy of their brand new book The Beautiful Edible Garden, we were thrilled! The book is GORGEOUS and incredibly inspiring. We’ve been loving their work since seeing their fantastic show gardens at the 2011 SF Garden Show. To enter just leave a comment below telling us what you’ve got planned in the edible department this year (if you have any bunny proof suggestions, we’d love to hear them, too). The winner will be announced on Friday, April 12th. Make sure you’re following Star Apple on facebook and keeping an eye on their blog, too!
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who entered. The lucky winner is Liz!
So we’ve been blogging slackers since moving to Wisconsin. My pregnant hormones started out as sad and weepy, then transitioned to pissed off and angry. I would have been posting things like, “Nice use of way too much ugly red mulch, did you forget the plants?”, “It’s 107 degrees, I think we’ve moved to hell”, “Your lawn ornaments are terrible!” and other crabby things. It wasn’t a pretty time. We’re a fifteen minute walk from Olbrich Botanical Gardens here in Madison and it’s FABULOUS! I love that it’s continuously changing in ways that SF Botanical Garden just couldn’t pull off due to it’s ginormousness and year round need of upkeep. It was looking extra awesome this August. For all our summer Olbrich pics check out this link. If you didn’t hear already our baby is here and a week old today!
After nearly two extra weeks of waiting, gorgeous Zoe Aloe (due August 30th) arrived on September 11th at 4:40PM weighing in at 7lbs 10ozs. We weren’t going to give her a botanical name, but couldn’t resist Aloe. Just check out all the cool species blooming in Berkeley in this old post, and even more going nuts in Huntington Garden here. Before moving to California we had no idea that Aloes even had flowers, but they soon became one of our favorite succulents. For tons more pics of Zoe check out our flickr set here. Here are a few more of our faves:
Long time no blog! We’re still alive and well. Made it to Madison, Wisconsin. It’s been one of the hottest, driest summers ever. I’ve been known to call it, “hell on earth”. Between the hormones and swollen feet it hasn’t been pretty, but then it happened. We’ve had consecutive days with temps below 80 and regular rain again. The grass turned from crunchy dead straw back to green and trees stopped dying. My feet didn’t swell up for five days in a row, too. Last Sunday we took advantage of the weather and checked out Allen Centennial Gardens on the UW campus (I’m due August 30th).
Amaranthus
Not sure what cultivar this guy is, but I’m loving the dark red foliage. We’re going for more annuals in our garden these days since we’re renting and don’t have access to the coolest free/severely discounted plants in town. I like the instant gratification of big, flowery annuals. With a shorter growing season I don’t have the patience for perennials to establish themselves these days. We were also blessed with some nice perennial bones. Don’t freak out, but I’m not all about succulents anymore and more about big bee/butterfly/hummingbird attracting blooms.
Amaranthus caudatus “Love-Lies-A-Bleeding”
Our Amaranthus
Here are our guys. Not sure what type they are, but they’re just starting to get blooms. I picked up plants from a vendor at the Farmer’s Market who was growing some old school (heirloomy) annuals for crazy cheap in mid-June. I’ve added more pics of our backyard to flickr if you feel like checking them out. Next spring we need to move some stuff around like that iris at the front of the bed and we’ll start more cool annuals next year.
The San Francisco Garden Show is going full force this weekend. That’s where we found this beauty…succulents growing down the center of a table made with pallets. Okay, okay…it’s our Succulent Pallet Table that was first featured at the Sunset Celebration Weekend, and is still making the rounds. After all this time, we’re glad to see that the succulent babies are looking happy.
Matti and Megan with the Succulent Table
Wanna see the best parts of the show? You must check out Bamboo and More, where Gerhard Bock and Candy Sweetstuff captured the cream of the crop.
Succulent Gardens' Growing Wall Garden
Speaking of greatness, we never miss see Succulent Gardens when they are at a show. Here’s a peek at one of their Succulent Vertical Gardens that Robin Stockwell masterfully creates. BTW, all the plants for our Pallet Table came from Succulent Gardens…they grow the best succulents found anywhere.
Anne of Green Gardens
Another person we had the pleasure to meet for the first time was Anne of Green Gardens. Anne is filled with garden info and brought in some of our Mini gardens to the Show. Stop and say hello.
Sproutopia Horton Hears a Who
The first place we darted to was Sproutopia. Kids and gardening…what a perfect combo. I’m always impressed how children design there special 2×2 foot space. In two words…No Fear.
Succulent Pallet Table
There’s still plenty of weekend left to…..Go to the Show, See our DIY Pallet Table, then Head over to watch Star Apple Edible Gardens at 2:30PM Sun. Stefani and Leslie will amaze you how easy it can be to Grow Food in the City.
