Carter Gardens--Eureka, California

The Carter Gardens in Eureka are an excellent local gardening resource.

Carter House Inn guests are invited to help in the harvest, gathering produce for the meals.  "In addition to supplying the inn's restaurant with produce of the highest quality and freshness, the Carter
Gardens have become a center for horticultural education, home to organic gardening seminars, lecture series, and interpretive tours given by the inn's Master Gardener." (source)

The Carter Gardens' Plant Lists are a wonderful resource for planning your own gardens.

List of Herbs 

List of Flowers

List of Hotel Garden Plantings

List of Greens

List of Vegetables

Carter House Inns & Restaurant 301

Locally Delicious

Locally Delicious is a wonderful cookbook that can be utilized to design a garden based on popular, locally grown, fresh ingredients.  The Locally Delicious website is full of Humboldt-County-relevant gardening literature and advice.  Check it out!

I found my copy of Locally Delicious at Loleta Bakery, which is a charming cafe and bakery with a European vibe nestled in Loleta's downtown.  It has the best fresh bread that I've ever had and multiple varieties are baked.

So consider adding some raised beds to your garden and design and plant based on some of your favorite recipes!

Raised Garden Beds at Tudal Winery



Umpherston Sinkhole Garden--Mount Gambier, South Australia

While researching how best to make lush a border including some Hydrangea with an existing Tazmanian Tree Fern Dicksonia antartica, I happened upon a blog posting on the Umpherston Sinkhole Garden.  Its inherent interest lies in its below-ground-level orientation.  I recently photographed a below ground level garden at CornerStone Gardens which is topographically similar to the sinkhole garden.

Inspired by the Umpherston Sinkhole Garden, another lush residential garden border including Dicksonia, Hydrangea, Gunnera, etc. and several specimen shrubs and trees that I found at Singing Tree Gardens, a local nursery in McKinleyville, California with plantings that they sell installed in their own botanical garden; I am consumed with the idea of merging these plantings and gardens to create my own uniquely inspired border.  The moment when all of the parts have been found and seem to belong with one another, I am ready to design my garden border and motivated to take my ideas further and apply them to other potential/hypothetical projects, for instance, an old quarry site, which offers the same comforting below-ground-level vibe as the Umpherston Sinkhole Garden, a seemingly perfect place for a unique and stimulating garden experience.

loll rockers & chaises

 

A long row of chairs, Adirondacks, rockers or chaises aloft an expansive lake view is a good setting for relaxing with friends.  The long row of loll adirondack chaises ($1259) on a Chicago Rooftop is an informal venue that facilitates relaxation, being outdoors and socializing.   The idea of being somewhat isolated, with somewhere to gaze in good company is very appealing to me as is the idea of inserting modern design in rustic surroundings.



loll adirondack rocker ($660)

Photographs Courtesy of Loll Designs

Perfect Planter to Fill a Corner

This planter is so big it almost has a raised bed vibe.  It really appeals to me.

Once again something cool from Loll Designs.  I think this planter could potentially be a do-it-yourself project less the recycled plastic materials unless Loll starts selling building blocks; that would be cool!

Upcycled Industrial Planters

I saw this planter at Almquist Lumber Company in Arcata, California.  They always have handsome and unique landscape and home fixtures and furnishings with either a rustic or upcycled edge.

These are old cones from a piece of construction equipment.  I think with a fine screen welded to the base, they would make excellent large scale planters, especially striking if mounted to an equally large scale post with plants spilling out.  These I found in Fortuna.

McKinleyville, California--Mid-Town Trail

The Mid Town Trail in McKinleyville is a narrow, virtually unseen corridor between two fences that extends from Parkside Drive to Railroad Drive. 

I recently noticed a father and son using the trail, which lent the young child in the company of his father a safe place to ride his bike.  A friend and her son take this trail from their nearby home on their way Ramone's on some mornings.  Occasionally, uninspired graffiti is freshly scribed over night only to be painted over soon thereafter, one maintenance job the trail requires due to its canvas like edges.  The trail is somewhat stark.  It's lack of openness has caused me to avoid it when I jog alone.

The trail system concept is a good one and one that community members want.  McKinleyville's trail system is a component system largely paid for by the builders who develop residential properties and later by the people who buy the neighboring homes.  The entire trail system including the Mid Town Trail though not a complete loop at present is a McKinleyville treasure.  The trail system as it exists adds value to the community both in terms of property value and quality of life value. 

In cases where the residential population density is greater, setting back fencing or excluding fencing to allow for a more substantial green space segment along the trail with seating and a public square like atmosphere may enhance the Mid Town Trail in the future, creating destinations along the trail.  Treating some of the open space as more of a quaint, elongated, public square in addition to being a pedestrian link to McKinleyville's trail system would allow the trail system to function for more than one purpose, cause it to be used more regularly, and make the trail system safer and more welcoming. 

With respect issue of visibility on the current stretch of the Mid Town Trail, simply broadening the path entrance and enhancing the landscaping simply about the entrance will noticeably open and enliven the space. 

We live in such a lush environment, appropriate plantings are something we can use to inexpensively enhance our landscape architecture.  I envision entrances to these paths quickly enhanced with a broad arbor and a couple of vines.  Furthermore, if the green space were more substantial and perfected, people would be less inclined to fence it out of their view or at least to have gates that happily access the space.  For any size of planting bed, there are plenty of plantings that if selected for appropriate mature size and adaptability to existing climate and culture will take much neglect and bestow much beauty on the space.  Please refer to the Blake Garden or the Humboldt Botanical Garden for examples of plantings requiring minimal care. 

Perhaps as the trail exists now, the local McKinleyville Community Garden Project could turn this trail into a manageable botanical garden encouraging neighbors to take ownership of it elevating the existing space to something beautiful and coveted, something to be visited and enjoyed.

McKinleyville, California--Pierson Park Community Garden

Watch Pierson Park Community Garden Grow!

Garden Entrance

With generously donated materials and a core group of dedicated gardeners and husbands of and friends of gardeners, this community garden was quickly erected and is already much beloved.



Upcycled Pallet & Salvaged 12" Wood Post Potting Bench



Community Garden Bed in Need of a Little TLC



3' x 10' Raised Beds in Allotment Garden

Beds are available for annual lease from MCSD

Community gardens are good!