What's Really 'Growing' On? Community!

Yours Truly leading the 2013 Allendale Avenue Neighbors Garden Walk.

About a dozen of us neighbors – long-timers and newbies alike – got together on a sunny Sunday for the 2013 Allendale Neighbors Garden Walk. In the spirit of community – because that’s what the walk is really about – I had the great pleasure of guiding our group to several gardens up and down the avenue. We covered a lot of territory topic-wise, too, including what’s easy to grow in our heavy clay soil, the beautiful possibilities of replacing a front lawn with ornamental plants, and how to create a garden that’s good enough to eat. 

I think I speak for everyone when I say that it was amazing to see the variety of garden styles our resident green thumbs have. We visited a couple of professionally landscaped gardens, but toured mostly those that are of the do-it-yourself variety, which were equally as impressive. 

It was rewarding for me to point out the virtues of every landscape we visited and answer all of the questions that arose along the way. At a few stops, it was extra fun to have neighbors tell us the story of their garden – what inspired them to create their little patch of paradise the way they did and what they do to keep it thriving.

Taking full advantage of our wonderfully mild climate, folks are growing everything from veggies and fruits to roses and iris to succulents and California natives. A few peony plants even popped up on the tour. With all this blooming and lushness that’s around us, maybe we need to think about renaming our street “Eden”-dale Avenue.

Check out what some of my fabulous neighbors are growing!

Photos (c) Paul Lee Cannon