Everything Grown From Seed...

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Fall 2022

Our garden literally sprouted as a result of pandemic isolation, so we sometimes refer to it as our Pandemic Garden. Beginning in April 2020 with COVID shutdowns in full swing, city-wide walks with my canine companion Maya were a much needed ticket outdoors. Over time, if I came across an appealing plant, I collected its seed - or made note, and returned at the appropriate time for collection. I carried little bags and bottles everywhere. No matter where I went, I would be ready. My friends thankfully got used to this peculiarity. Maya misses the amount of free time we had on those 2020 journeys, but she's adjusted, unconditionally happy and loving to the last hair on her waggly tail.

In time an indoor nursery took root at home. Over months, into the fall, it filled the living room and its large south facing bay window, as well as every available inch of outdoor space - and basically every spot in the house where sun finds a way! It became a magical lush green forest. By fall 2021, one of the trees was a 9' Jacaranda mimosifolia (parent tree on Noe St near 19th St), along with 6 other trees ranging 3'-6' tall, and many other typical San Francisco plant varieties. Most parents of garden inhabitants are within a 3-8 mile roundtrip trek from our home, some are within blocks. Other community members picked these plants for their gardens, and I wholeheartedly concurred. In this sense, it truly is a community garden. As well, I ordered seeds from vendors I trust, like Swallowtail Seeds (SS), Botanical Interests Seeds (BI, from Cliff's in the Castro), Baker Creek (BC), Eden Brothers (EB) and specialty seed companies for plants like Passifloras (4 species), tomatoes (Tomato Growers Supply Co., which was an entire effort on its own with 16 varieties of tomatoes that year!), peppers, and certain tropicals.

However, since all plants began as seeds in spring, summer and fall of 2020, they had been in containers. Most had already been upsized (potted into a larger pot) many times by late 2021 and most would require it again in spring. I couldn't imagine upsizing them once more, just no space. Fortunately a breakthrough occurred in the fall 2021 when a new 76' x 4' garden bed was installed, where 4 garages used to be, on the south facing side of our house. Our neighbourhood sidewalks are nicely wide, 12'-14'. Magnolias were installed roadside, and this garden plot against the house. Light bulb! Everyone loved the idea of moving the container garden into the new space - and no more potting up plants! In late November we broke ground, and over the course of the next 3 months, moved the containers from above to freshly unearthed ground below. My mind exploded with possibilities. They were going to be placed in the same environment they were raised. Now we had a place for our homegrown jungle to be free, as a Pollinator Garden, designed with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds in mind. I have pictures of this entire process. Check out the gallery below.

Through March 2021, more than 99% of the plants in the garden were grown from seed, with less than 1% collected as cuttings. Of those grown from seed, 87% were collected from community gardens and city parks on Maya walks. The remaining 13% were grown from seeds ordered from preferred vendors. I am a math geek, so this kind of thing is right up my trellis, so to speak. As time went by, quite a few plants - especially cuttings - were given to me by friends and neighbours. Through fall 2022, the proportion of plants grown from community garden seeds has declined to about 45%. The proportion grown from vendor seeds has risen to around 51%. The proportion from cuttings or other plant sources is roughly 4%. Presently the garden has over 210 flora species, with over 940 individually seeded plants, though that gets sticky sometimes.

This story continues evolving. Stay tuned!

(Last updated Fall 2022)