san francisco | Far Out Flora

Sunny San Francisco

March 14, 2013 by Megan | 2 Comments

We flew in over the city

Flying with an almost six month old was nerve-racking, but Zoe was great. No crying and lots of sleeping. Ripping up and trying to eat the Skymall magazine provided lots of entertainment. Our flight to SF arrived 30 minutes EARLY and we flew in down the coast over Marin and then over the city. Our old apartment is pretty much below the plane in this pic. The golden gate bridge is peeking out at the top of the pic. To top it off our luggage popped out in less than five minutes.

Flora’s Edsel

Our first stop was Flora Grubb Gardens, which is looking amazing as always. Did you know that the Edsel was in this spot before Flora?

Bro poles

Love the new vertical bromeliad hangout. Matti needs to build us a plant pole for our new epiphyte collection when we move back.

Java Beach

Before we hit the road for Pacific Grove we stopped at Java Beach for our favorite sandwich. We left our big camera at home, so we only have phone pics. We’re both still instagraming like crazy at faroutmegan & fofmatti

California Here We Come

March 11, 2013 by Megan | 15 Comments

It’s true! We’re moving back to California. You may have noticed we’ve recently been facebooking and instagraming pics from California. We were back in San Francisco with a little side trip down to Monterey & Big Sur, but will be making the official move back from Wisconsin as soon as our lease is up at the end of May.

Since we moved Matti has been working for Flora Grubb Gardens remotely from the frozen tundra doing reporting things that require spreadsheets and other things I don’t understand, but will increase these geeky things in the SF office. I’ll be taking care of the web shop action and have exciting plans for expanding the awesomeness on that front.

Let us know if you just happen to have a spare two bedroom house, in-law or apartment in need of a great garden, that’s available around June and dog friendly. We loved living in Outer Sunset and would happily move back, but are open to many options. We can’t wait to be back!

Here are a few pics from the trip:

Matti next to the Bixby Bridge

Big Sur Spirit Garden

SF Botanical Garden Aloe flower fest

We’re sorry if we missed hanging out with you while we were back. Matti worked a good chunk of the time in SF and I did something unfortunate to my foot that made getting around pretty painful. Combined with a good dose of extreme sleep deprivation, I spent the last part of the trip sitting on a couch in a zombie like state watching trashy tv… Here’s a link to more pics we took on the trip.

Outer Sunset Super Garden

April 26, 2012 by Megan | 22 Comments

Sweet Succulent Planter

Last Friday before I headed to the San Francisco Botanical Garden I had to pay a bill, so I took a different route to the muni stop than normal to hit up a mailbox. I busted out my camera when I saw this awesome example of a succulent planter. Lots of different colors and textures, plants that are practically impossible to kill in our neighborhood and common enough people won’t steal them (succulent theft is a problem here).

Super Sweet Succulent Container

Then I saw this in front of the next house and kind of freaked out. Seriously? Agave attenuata ‘Kara’s Stripes’ and a bunch of other cool plants thoughtfully arranged in containers. There are tons of succulents in our hood, but not usually put together with this much care.

The Container Craziness Continues

Wholly crap, it doesn’t end! Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’ looking hot next to a golden Sedum with a dark purple Aeonium backdrop. Then something crazy happened. The owner of the house was out front saying good-bye to visitors, saw me freaking out taking tons of pictures and invited me out back to check things out.

Really?

Look at the beautiful raised bed down the center full of edible greens! This is how I envisioned our garden in a perfect world, but we drew the line at messing with hardscaping. As renters you have to draw the line somewhere.

Kalanchoe 'Fang' & friends

Dudleya pulverulenta (I think)

Man, this is embarrassing. You’d think I could easily pick out the difference between D. pulverulenta and D. brittonii by now, but I can never tell unless the two are both next to each other. My guess is for D. pulverulenta since the leaves don’t seem as narrow as the brittonii.

Lettuce land

Echium candicans

Big thanks goes out to Alan who let me check this fabulous garden out. I didn’t get to meet his wife/garden designer, but she did an amazing job!

Driftwood Insanity in the Sunset

March 17, 2012 by Megan | 28 Comments

Succulent driftwood container of happiness

About two years ago I blogged about this rock star of a garden in Outer Sunset. While walking the dog a couple weeks ago I ran in to it again and it’s gotten better with age. Whoever created this work of garden awesomeness rocks! It’s on 44th avenue around Pacheco maybe (I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it’s south of Noriega).

Aeonium nobile

Succulents on the street

Ceanothus and super sweet fence

The fence was still a work in progress last time we visited, but we knew it was going to turn out amazing. Now I want to copy it. Looks like they used bits of reclaimed wood mixed in with driftwood. Hurray for Ceanothus bloom time!

The border

Sexy Salvia africana-lutea

My all time favorite Salvia. It’s gotta be the orangey-rust blooms. Now I know I planted ours in a ridiculous spot seeing how big they get. Ooops. I seem to have a problem with size denial… “It won’t really get THAT big”.

More happy border

Driftwoody container

This place is definitely worth swinging by if you’re in the neighborhood. Be sure to check out the best succulent garden on the Great Highway while you’re at it.

Clarion Alley Murals

March 6, 2012 by Matti | 8 Comments

Capitalism is Over - Clarion Alley Mural

Going a bit off topic today for a quick street art fix. No better place for an urban hike than the Mission hood…and the murals on Clarion Alley never lets us down.

Capitalism is Over - Clarion Alley Mural

Exactly where’s Clarion Alley? This particular nugget is found between Mission Street and Valencia a couple step south from the 16th St BART station. It’s not the most pleasant part of the Mission, but if you head a block or two in any direction, it only gets better.

Oh, back to the murals. There’s a community of artist that put paint to walls all over the Mission neighborhood. Clarion Alley is pretty active, that is new artwork replaces some older work.

Elephants on Parade - Clarion Alley Mural

Themes vary from current events, to local folklore, to blissful feats of skills. It’s easy to stroll through the alley in a couple of minutes, but I suggest picking out a piece and get lost in it for a spell.

Clarion Alley Mural - Lo llevas por dentro, Mission '04 by Jef Martinez

I was drawn to this mural by Jef Martinez’s, Lo llevas por dentro, Mission ’04. It has to be the succulents and foliage that caught my attention. The detail below is a sagittate leave…maybe its some sort of Alocasia…don’t you think?

Sagittate Shaped Leaf (Alocasia?) - Clarion Alley Mural

I bit of history on the The Clarion Alley Mural Project (aka CAMP). It seems to have been established around 1992 by six local residents and inspired by the older Balmy Alley murals.

Lonestar Swan Feeding the Pigeons - Clarion Alley Mural by Daniel Doherty 2006

This one is probably my favorite of the bunch during this trip… Daniel Doherty’s Lonestar Swan Feeding the Pigeons. Want some more Clarion action…pop over to Found SF.

– Far Out Flora