Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Tag Archives: mendocino

The Driftwood King

September 2, 2011 by Megan | 7 Comments

The King of Driftwood

Mendocino rocks in so many ways, but its creative uses of driftwood push it over the edge to being super awesome. We love driftwood. When you live next to the beach you can get away with any sort of driftwood sculpture. Does anyone else see two scantily clad dancers frolicking on the right hand side of this picture?

Driftwood Horse

It’s a super cool gigantoid driftwood horse in front of the Mendocino Art Center! There were lots of cool, reasonably priced sculptures everywhere in the cute garden.

Driftwood Flower Arch

A flowery arch of driftwood goodness!

Driftwood Doorway

This is the charming backside of the amazing Mendocino garden we posted about a couple weeks ago. When you live next to the ocean why not go crazy with driftwood? I’ve always wondered about the legalities of taking driftwood from California beaches, and after doing a wee bit of googling it looks like each place is unique. Quite a few places seem to encourage it. I even saw a post about getting a permit for carrying away as much as possible from a state park. Anyone have any other info about it?

 

More Mendocino Flower Madness

August 6, 2011 by Megan | 10 Comments

Brugmansia love

If my last post about the bloomiferous Mendocino Gardens didn’t make you want to jump in the car and go, this post is should do it. It’s just pictures of the amazing gardens in town. I’m obsessed with Brugmansia sanguinea, and may have squealed when I saw this one covered in blooms. We’ve got a baby who’s about four feet tall in the garden. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it looks this good when it’s all grown up.

Alan, Roxy & Scooter's Garden

According to the posted piece of paper about the garden there are over fifty varieties going on here and the peak time to check it out is mid-to-late May. I keep having to remind myself that we should be able to grow all the same plants out here next to Ocean Beach. Same wind, salt, and fog.

Pelargonium lust

I want this Pelargonium. Does anyone know what it is? It kind of looks like ‘Lord Bute’ gone all ruffly.

Cottage garden explosion

You pretty much walk twenty feet in any direction in the town of Mendocino and there are flowers in all shapes and sizes going crazy. It’s seriously garden heaven.

 

Echium forest

We definitely need to plan a trip up here in spring when the mega-Echiums all over town are going off, but these fading guys were still pretty sweet.

Foxy Phygelius

Lychnis something

Not sure what this is exactly, but love the deep pinky red going on with the grey green stems.

Cute windowbox

Mendocino Garden Shop

We couldn’t resist stopping at the Mendocino Garden Shop on our way out of town. You can see it from the Mendocino exit to town on the way in and out. The display gardens were going nuts.

Mendocino Garden Shop

Check out the Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Arctic Summer‘ on the right looking cool. Penstemons were blooming en masse pretty much everywhere. I went a little picture crazy, but there are way more pics of the flowery town o’ Mendocino on flickr.

p.s. We’re still in the process of getting our crap where it needs to go after the move seven steps east to the way nicer apartment overlooking our garden. Pics of the new houseplant set up, our new bamboo floors and views of the garden from above will be coming soon. There’s also going to be an open one bedroom if you’ve ever wanted to live next to Ocean Beach & Golden Gate Park.

 

Simply Succulent = Sweet!

July 22, 2011 by Megan | 15 Comments

Succulent Bicycle Heaven

Last weekend we headed up to Mendocino for a little vacation. Before we go all crazy with posts from the botanical garden (looking super awesome right now) and the town which is pretty much exploding with blooms I wanted to call out a cool little succulent nursery we’ve never checked out before called Simply Succulent in Fort Bragg. Super friendly and knowledgeable owner Rella was happy to let me take pictures like a crazy person, and even brought me in to one her employee only Epiphyllum hoop houses to check out the amazing blooms.

Epiphyllum Awesomeness

I did a really crappy job getting the names of Epiphyllums, which shouldn’t have been the difficult considering they were written clearly in sharpie on the leaves. Never have I seen so many Epiphyllums in bloom in one place!  Fort Bragg resident Jim Goekler has been hybridizing them for years, and has shared quite a few with Renna for the public to buy. They’re amazing.

Senecio articulatus

Love this striking chalky blue Senecio, but I have to admit we did not buy a single plant on our entire trip. I think it’s a first for us.

Succulent Sculpture

Sedum Grouncover Lawn Alternatives

How cool would it be to have an entire lawn area covered in these Sedums? Rella has written an article about transforming your water hogging yard into a low water oasis in the most recent Mendocino Travel Guide.

 

Aeonium Forest

You gotta love mass quantities of Aeoniums grouped together. All in all, Simply Succulent is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Mendocino. Rella has an amazing assortment of awesome plants. You can check out all our pics from the nursery here.

 

November 30, 2010
by Megan
8 Comments

November Hot, Loud and Proud

End of the month = Hot, Loud & Proud where fellow blogger, Noel of A Plant Fanatic in Hawaii, challenges us to find some tropical-esque blooms. These guys were all taken at one of my favorite gardens, Mendocino Coast Botanical … Continue reading →