Looking for ideas: greenhouse bench layout

I'm not really sure what I'm doing when it comes to thinking about the layout of the benches etc in the greenhouse. It's actually a greenhouse/potting shed combo, and the purpose is propagation - and drinking tea. Here's a little sketch I did with some ideas. The dimensions of the greenhouse are about 10X14.

Two three-foot wide benches leave a 4 foot space down the middle - rather generous perhaps, but room for things to sit on the floor maybe. I thought a raised bed to the left of the door for planting directly into soil, an open area to right of door for storing tools and other supplies, and a seat for visitors to enjoy a cuppa. On the sunny south facing side at least two racks (one above the other) for seedlings and cuttings. Along the back wall a work surface you could raise on hinges to get at potting materials in bins underneath; and along the north-facing wall, a work surface with a sink, electrical outlets, and shelving above.

I would very much appreciate ideas from people with any knowledge about the best way to layout a greenhouse.

And also what flooring works best. I'm thinking small stones over gopher wire, with a thick rubber mat strip down the middle for comfortable walking.

There will also be some storage behind the greenhouse (i.e. at the top of the picture).

I'd like to have the ability to add misters and bottom heaters as time goes by, to increase success rates. Not sure if it will be needed for most native plants, but I think the mister anyway would be a great help. The commercial nursery space available to the CNPS propagation group has misters and I think it makes a big difference.

Next a few pictures to let you see the current state of reality. As you can see Wood Rat has also been busy building a beautiful fence, bamboo in a redwood frame, that I'll post about in a week or two when it gets closer to completion. It is also a pool fence and has to meet various safety criteria.

From Point 1 on the plan - looking at the glass window side.
Taken from the undeveloped "south garden." This fall I hope to make progress here.


From Point 2 on the plan: View from the pool (potting bench side)


What you don't see in the above is the garden area, also slated for development in fall, to the right of the pool. Here is a shot of that area early in the fence building project.

From Point 3 - View from our neighbor's yard:

You can see our house and the peak of the greenhouse, and the fence, from our neighbor's side. Our neighbors have hundreds of fruit trees and palm trees and South African plants. The strip of fruit trees just behind our new fence is actually shared: half of it is on our side of the property line - the fence is about 10 feet or so inside our property line. Mr. Neighbor is kind enough to look after the trees. We have a gate into the neighbor's property, to get access to the fruit, and also for access to the shared water tank, which is on their property. And also for simple neighborliness and safety in the event of fire - the fire fighters would use our pool water to fight a fire on either side of the fence. Our neighbors are very happy with the new fence which looks quite nice from their side, and we are glad to be able to return the favor of all the nice fruit we can just go pick any time, without having to work for it! What is the saying: good fences make good neighbors!?

So... I'm starting to get excited about "moving in" to the greenhouse, and hope to garner some good ideas from my friends on line and off. By fall I want to be in production!

Gold Medal Winner!

One of the highlights of my month is always the Picture This photo contest, put on by Gardening Gone Wild. After the topic has been announced, I go out in the garden, camera in hand, usually early in the morning. And then I have a look around, and discover things. It's often a different garden a see, through the lens of the topic, and I always come back in excited and happy.

Now, truth be told, I'm not an experienced photographer, and keep wanting to take a class. I do have a great camera, gift from Ms. Country Mouse's generous father. But, my pictures, even though the process of taking them gives me great enjoyment, do not usually measure up with some of the other photographers, who leave me open-mouse-mouthed with admiration.

Imagine my surprise when I found that my July photo has won the Gold Medal. Guest judge Rich Pomerantz (have a look at those photos!) discusses a number of the photos -- you can enjoy reading how he looked at the photos and made his selection here.

I hope you'll all take this as an encouragement to participate some time soon. If even a Mouse can win, you can too -- and besides, just to participate is so much fun!

Color in the Garden: In the Pink

 When we moved into our current house, we realized pretty quickly that the previous owners had especially liked pink and purple. And what's not to like? It's a bright, cheerful color, and it's easy to find pink plant. The only problem: For the color snob, pink goes with pink and purple (and white) but does not look so great with orange, yellow, and blue. I therefore decided to have a pink area in the garden where all the pink plants would harmonize happily and cheerfully (and not create havoc with the blue & yellow color scheme in other areas of the garden).

It all started with Mr. Previous Owner's Leptospermum (tea tree) an Australian native that is  drought tolerant, blooms profusely for a long time, and is popular with insects and birds. My tea tree is easily 8 feet by 6 feet, and I have to prune it at least once a year. But it's all worth it for the beautiful blossoms.

A Lorapetalum, from China and a little greedier for water, also blooms pink in February/March.

As a complement, I planted two Sidlacea malviflora (checkerbloom), a California native perennial that bloomed from October through April, and looked good with the tea tree close by.

But I knew I'd really be in the pink in May, when the Clarkia unguiculata (Elegant clarkia) would start blooming. And it's been a feast for the eyes and well worth the trouble with the seedlings.

I can hardly believe my luck. I started with a packet of seeds, and now I have beautiful flowers in different shades of pink, purple, and salmon.

They are 3-4 feet tall and bloom for at least six weeks. I hope they'll reseed, but will collect some seeds just in case (many plants have trouble coming through the mulch).

A little later, Clarkia amoena (farewell to spring) started to bloom. It bought the seeds from a regular vendor (not a native plant vendor), and they are of a vigorous hybrid that reseeds readily. Fortunately, I don't live near wildlands like Country Mouse, so it's not a big problem that I don't have the locally native variety.

The flowers are easily 2 inches across, and I enjoy the show from late May into July.

For July and August, I'm counting on Eriogonum grande rubescens to keep me in the pink. Here's a photo from last year.

I also planted a Cercis occidentalis (California redbud), which I'll try to keep as a smallish bush, and added some Yarrow 'Paprika,' not quite a native, but a close relative and a big attraction with the bee and butterfly crowd. And I just started to see the first blossoms of Erigeron glaucus (seaside daisy).

Are you impressed now, dear reader? Well, don't be too impressed. I also added Delphinium cardinale (scarlet larkspur), a southern California native that had, as yet, never bloomed in my garden, to the pink corner. I was thinking of the purple Catholic cardinals wear and thought it would all work out.

Mmm. It ended up being precisely the color combination I had tried to avoid.

But then again, isn't that Delphinium one amazing plant? Easily five feet tall, with big green blossoms. -- Can't argue with a plant like that.

Through a Glass, Brightly

Ms Town Mouse is travelling afar and I'm enjoying her amazing photos of stone arches and distant vistas. Meanwhile, I sit at my desk and look outside my window, doing worthwhile but non-garden projects (hence absence of posts from Country Mouse lately), and sometimes there's a lot going on. I snapped these photos through my window over a 15 minute period. You see the ubiquitous bunnies, one bunny in this case, peacefully co-existing with a covey of quail, young and adult, and one little wrentit (I think) who eluded my lens, so I include just one shot. I guess our rat terrier Duncan was taking a nap! I did see him one day with funny looking sticks coming out the side of his mouth. What've you got Duncan? quoth I. Guilty ears, drooping head. It was a baby quail, actually unharmed, gently held in his mouth, little feet sticking out sideways. (I put it far below his boundary on a leaf where I heard other quail nearby, and hoped for the best.)

You can see the guard, always a male (with the more striking plumage and topknot thingy) standing on the rock pile keeping an eye out. I bet the bunny feels secure too, under his watchful eye.

By the way what they are eating is a small annual ground covering weed that I've been tearing my hair out over. It took over in the open area where I attempted a "meadow" planting that failed. But when I see how much the wildlife enjoy eating it, then I don't feel so bad.

Looking for America (3) -- Arches National Monument

We left Town Mouse and her friend when they said good-bye to beautiful Big Basin National Park and started on the next stretch of their journey, which was to take them to Arches National Park. As was their custom, they managed to get a little lost right at the beginning of the journey, but quickly recovered and continued on Highway 50 toward Arches. The drive was, again, hypnotic and amazing. The two listened to music, told some stories, and gazed in awe at the landscape that was unfolding.

They arrived at a motel outside Moab, Utah, somewhat tired and somewhat hungry and were not thrilled to find out that the place did not serve food -- you had to drive to Moab for nourishment. Fortunately, they were able to make a meal out of trail mix, fruit, cheese, and bread, and went to bed early, planning to get up at sunrise for the best photo opportunities.

They woke up shortly before sunrise, packed quickly, got in the car, and drove the short distance to Arches (without getting lost). And it was indeed an amazing place. Just seeing the rocks, painted red by the morning sun, was stunning.

And the first arch, Delicate Arch, was breathtaking even from a distance. They later watched a video of how these arches were formed at the visitor center, but it was still hard to believe they existed.

After Delicate Arch, the next stop was Devil's Garden, a canyon landscape with a 2.5 mile hike and several arches one could visit along the way. Properly greased up with sunscreen and with freshly filled water bottles, the two started out, enjoying the still reasonably cool weather.

The first part of the hike was flat, with a wide path to walk on and views of canyon and the desert vegetation, the Devil's Garden. At the end of that first part was Landscape Arch, a very wide arch that fairly recently lost part of the lower section, proof that Arches is still changing. It was good to see that many families, with small children and grandparents with canes, were able to walk all the way to this arch, and enjoy the landscape propelled by their own power, not an internal combustion engine.

Photos can't do justice to the arches. Defying gravity, huge slabs of rock hang in the air. Underneath, a decent-sized tree is dwarfed, looking like a toy.

But the explorers had more in mind. Throwing caution to the wind, they followed the signs toward the primitive trail leading to Double O Arch. This turned out to be a bit complicated because there was a trail called "Primitive Trail" and a second trail, also primitive but shorter, leading to the same destination. After walking the same 500 feet 3 times, it became clear which trail was which and the two continued on the primitive (not Primitive) trail, which was populated by a lot of hikers.

Regrettably Town Mouse and her friend were used to following the lead of a male, and here came their downfall: They followed a family of 4 just in front of them, who seemed to know the way. But the trail narrowed. "Are we on the right path, I wonder?" said the Town Mouse friend after a while. "Oh, look, here is another cairn, we must be on the right path." replied Town Mouse. Except, after a while, there were no more cairns and the family actually came back, proclaiming that the path had ended. So, the two searched a little longer. Clearly there were paths, but equally clearly there were no more cairns, so after about 15 minutes, the smart choice seemed to be a return to Landscape Arch. Imagine how surprised the two were when, upon returning to the steep climb, they found the actual path, quite wide, veered off to the left while they had veered slightly to the right. Shaking their head at their folly, they looked at their watches and decided yes, they could make it to Double O. And...

Yes! They made it! And let me tell you, it was not the easiest trail in the world, with some areas where a stout walking stick would have come in very handy indeed. Mr. Mouse would have been amazed that Town Mouse, who does not like steep drops, managed to gather the courage to climb up some of those boulders. At the Double O Arch, the two had a well deserved rest and enjoyed the view, then they turned around and hiked back to the car (meeting, halfway back, the family they had followed, who had obviously managed to get much more thoroughly lost and looked quite exhausted). 

As the two drove on,  the views along the way almost rivaled those at Arches itself. Canyons in red and gray, mountains with incredible rock patterns.

Soon, they started driving on Highway 70, with more cars and more towns. But they much enjoyed the drive over the first part of the Rockies, past mountain streams, forests, beautiful scenery everywhere.

Early in the evening, they finally arrived, happy to be safe but also glad for all the adventures. And, tired from all the travels, the went to bed dreaming of rocks, wide open skies, and another sunrise.

(Stay tuned for one more travel post with photos of flora and fauna of Arches National Monument.)

The Intent of the Gardener

Gardening Gone Wild has graciously invited us to another photo contest, and I really could not resist this months theme "The Intent of the Gardener." I had hoped it would be easy, I'd just snap a few pictures that say "inviting", "California", "beautiful", that kind of thing. But now I'm far away from home, looking at the photos I made before I left, and, mmh, each one has a little flaw.

This photo shows off the grasses beautifully, but there's no color. 

And this photo with Eriogonom arborescens (Santa Cruz island buckwheat) should have showcased my "California Native Garden" sign, but somehow the delicate writing doesn't provide enough contrast in the photo. And the delicate Triteleia (a native bulb) in the foreground disappear in the noise of the foilage.

This photo is my second choice. It shows off the grasses nicely, the path to the stone patio and chair looks inviting, and I like the framing by the Lepechina fragans (pitcher sage). But again, no color.

So, I picked the photo of the back garden with the hammock, the first photo in the set. The hammock is inviting, and Monardella villosa (coyote mint) adds a welcome splash of color, framed by Festuca Californica in the foreground. And now, do check out everyone else's photos here.

Looking for America (2)

We left intrepid Town Mouse and her intrepid friend as they were planning their trip to Boulder. After the plans were firmed up, the Google directions were printed, and the luggage was stashed in the car, they left at 5 a.m. (well, 5:30, actually) on a Thursday morning to miss the Bay Area rush hour traffic and, following the directions diligently, made their way to Yosemite (well, they did miss a turn, but it was only a 10 mile detour).

Taking Highway 120 on a weekday, early in the day, was delightful. Who knew it was possible to drive through Yosemite without getting stuck in a traffic jam? Everything was green and beautiful and the two adventurers much enjoyed the stunning views of the granite, with early summer flowers everywhere. Even better, in contrast to last year, when there had been a lot of controlled burns, the views were clear and crisp. It would have been tempting to stop, but the two pressed on, driving even by beautiful Mono Lake (photo from Wikipedia above). Mono lake is an important stopover point for migrating birds and under constant pressure to be drained too much, do look at the Mono Lake Committee's website for more information.

Soon after Mono Lake, the two started driving on Highway 50, and actually found the wide open Basin and Range landscape, with the sagebrush and little twirling duststorms in the distance fascinating and enjoyable. In parts, the road had a lot of stomach-flipping little dips. These roller coaster rides made for fun interludes in the long journey. Still, they were very happy to arrive in Baker, Nevada, where they had reservations at the Jack Silver Inn and Electrolux Cafe (photo from their website). 

It was a very good choice. The rooms were clean, spacious, and reasonably priced. Where most motel and even inn rooms seem to be cut from precisely the same mold these days (boring, I say), this place had character. The two travellers also enjoyed a delicious dinner and, after a good rest, a breakfast of homemade granola with yogurt and fruit.

Thus fortified, they were ready to visit Great Basin National Park.

Here's what the website says about the park:

"In the shadow of 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, 5,000 year old bristlecone pine trees grow on rocky glacial moraines. Come to Great Basin National Park to experience the solitude of the desert, the smell of sagebrush after a thunderstorm, the darkest of night skies, and the beauty of Lehman Caves. Far from a wasteland, the Great Basin is a diverse region that awaits your discovery."

 And yes, it really is an amazing place. Quiet beauty, not overrun by visitors. Town Mouse and her friend both remarked each ranger seemed truly happy to see them and to share the beauty of this special place. They started with a guided tours of the Lehman Caves, a truly spectacular set of limestone caves near the visitor center (photo from the park website).

The group was small, and the ranger told stories and had a lot of interesting information. There was so much to learn, who knew there were not only stalactites and stalagmites but also drapes (also called bacon), soda straws, and disks? As the groups progressed through the series of caves, they understood better how the water had formed the different beautiful rooms, and also how humans had shaped the caves over the years. The ranger was excited to tell that just recently, bats had been seen in the cave, which might mean that the cave is returning to balance.

After the caves, the adventurers decided to go for just a short hike at the mid-elevation (around 9 000 feet). Regrettably, Town Mouse did not take her camera, so she did not take photos of the blooming cactus, columbine, and many other flowering plants and she truly regrets that. But along the road, they she snapped a photo of the quaking aspen against the sky, and a small blue penstemon.

The original plan had been to leave without completing the Wheeler Peak Drive, but then it was just too tempting, and the little Prius valiantly drove up to 11 000 feet without complaint.

The view was indeed worth the drive, and the two regretted having to turn around and drive back down to rejoin Highway 50. Before they left, they stopped briefly for another look at the sagebrush.

And a few photos of plants, here some poppies that reminded Town Mouse of Mantilleja poppies, but that were only about 3 feet tall.

Both adventurers were sorry to leave, there was so much else they could have done. Stargazing, hiking, ranger-led tours, campfire talks -- it's really a wonderful national park to visit, and they both hoped to come back one day.