reviving the garden

its finally warm enough to take my indoor-wintering plants outside again. they made the move this weekend...right in time for a windy rainstorm. but they seem to have survived! all the dead grass and leaves also got cleared over a productive afternoon. here's a quick look at the progress so far:

those lovely pink and orange ranunculus (ranunculi?) are actually newcomers this season. the spring colors make me instantly happier. the rubber plant was sheltered from the freeze in our guest room and looks happy to be back outside. the leaves of the climbing hydrangea come back each year without fail, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed for blooms this year.  

no idea what this lush thing is, but it looked tropical so it went indoors too. it's grown some since the fall too! i've returned it to its shady spot on the table right outside the door. 

these grasses are coming right back! I'm soo pleased.  

the ones next to it aren't doing as well though. I've been anxiously examining it daily for new shoots.  

the cherry tree always looks so good in the spring and early summer, only to succumb to mildew in august. hope i can avoid it this year!

I loove these mini "blooms"...the stonecrop turns purple later on but they are a nice green now. so glad to see they survived this year's crazy temps. 

willa lounges in a sun patch while i work... 

what else should I plant this year? I need to put in my herbs soon...i'm thinking rosemary, thyme, parsley, and basil. the mint is of course coming back by itself (weed that it is) and so have the garlic chives (super excited about that since i didn't expect it). I also picked up a little pot of oregano at the farmer's market. man do I love spring. 

summer forever

there's something really lovely about the overgrown greenness of late summer. everything is filled in and climbing everywhere...

my neighbor's climbing vines are coming over the wall (free plants!).  i think these are clematis? 

the climbing hydrangea is hanging in there, despite its scale infection. the polka-dots are so hardy and cute (and cheap). 

i'm growing a baby fiddle leaf fig. it's thriving! but i'm a little concerned about it transitioning to the indoors. i hear it's finicky. (not sure what that other gorgeous tropic thing is, but it'll have to come inside too.)

still willa's favorite corner. she spent hours sunning herself there this morning. 

julie brought me all these terra cotta pots. all lined up for the next planting season...

where i read the sunday paper and ponder an alternate career as a gardner. but first i put out the cushions, which i was too lazy to do for this photo.

a lovely backyard (not mine)

on a sunny day not so long ago, lizzy and i were practicing chinese in this lovely backyard, which belongs not to me but to albero dei gelati. that place is full of surprises. for months, i thought that they only had gelato. organic, sustainable, and addictively delightful gelato, mind you, but just gelato. then winter came, and they put up a sign in the gelato window telling me that i could go inside for gelato. well, once i went inside, i got a lot more than gelato.

it was a gorgeous spring day, unlike today.

i got, like, three kinds of tuppo (which they kindly explained was italian brioche): chocolate, cream, and raisin/honey. then i spotted some focaccia pizza, which i added to my bag. i'm pretty sure i also got some sort of tiramisu, but at this point, who can remember? (numerous subsequent visits have blurred my precise memory of that first foray indoors.)  then i discovered that they had really good frittatas that come on a platter with all kinds of other things like cheese and bread and salad. anyway, enough about the food (for this is not a food blog), and onto the backyard. this was the newest surprise from albero dei gelati. 

pockets of green are always especially enchanting in a city, and this backyard enchanted my pants off. the pots of herbs on the yellow shelf are cute, but look at those tables! they are salad tables! i mean, what more can i say? and that green fence is pretty cool too. 

i'm intrigued by the idea of putting a ladder (see below) in our yard so that i too can have hanging plants. but then i remember my paranoia about people rappelling (or if i had a ladder, climbing) into our subterranean yard. also, would it crash to the ground on a windy day and squash all my flowers? i also think about what would happen if a bird/squirrel died after descending into the yard. but you know, that's not really on topic so if you want to hear my thoughts on that, you can ask in the comments.

the ladder that sparked my paranoid trains of thought. it looks great there, though. 

the space was definitely conducive to expanding one's linguistic repertoire, and also to eating, drinking, and general relaxation. they also have wifi. i can't wait until the weather clears up so i can go back. what is "gelato" in chinese? lizzy? anyone? 

in addition to the salad tables, you can sit in this bright corner...

..or at these ikea green tables.