A Year on Cherry Street...early spring (February)

I take care of a garden in San Francisco that belongs to my mother's cousins. Their mom, my great-aunt Marcy, was a tiny lady with a huge spirit. She went to UC Berkeley in the 1920s and was one of the founding members of Planned Parenthood. I was lucky enough to stay at this house with Aunt Marcy in 1994 and get to know her more. She loved this garden and did something in it every day even into her 90s. Here she is studying the central bed which is now dominated by a large lilac shrub.

The paving stones are actually recycled broken-up concrete. This was installed in the mid-20th century sometime. You have to watch your step or you'll trip over one. Marcy's son John tells me there used to be a mobile chicken coop back there in about the 1940s-50s. He built it with no bottom and moved it around the yard every few days so the poop would fertilize the soil. I'm not sure if that was before or after the paving stones went in. It's clear that my family had a "green" sensibility long before it became fashionable...

Every season, something different is in bloom. Knowing Aunt Marcy, I'm sure she planned it that way. However, many of the plants are naturalized - they spread to places they were not planted - by seed, (foxglove), underground runners (strawberry) or multiplying bulbs (Spanish bluebell). So every year flowers and plants pop up in unpredictable places. I sometimes help this along by shaking seeds or transplanting bulbs into locations that seem to need it, but truth is the garden doesn't need my help in this regard.

Here's what's blooming in February:

Pink-flowering current (Ribes sanguineum) Planted after Aunt Marcy's time. This shrub had to be dug up and replanted when a large tree came out next to it a few years ago. I'm happy to say it has recovered with a vengeance!

Camellia and azalea on the right (probably planted by Aunt Marcy), small geraniums on the left.

Mystery bulb - anyone know what it is? It doesn't spread, but the one plant comes back nicely every year.

An elderly fuschia...I tend not to remove plants unless they are completely dead or causing a problem...

A hidden hellebore treasure - I have to keep the surrounding foliage pruned out of the way so this baby is not totally overrun.