Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A new angle…

Any guesses as to where this landscape is?

Maybe this view will help?

Yes that’s the impressive crop of moss growing on our roof!

Inspired by Alan at It’s Not Work Its Gardening, who took advantage of gutter cleaning day to snap some photos of his garden from above, I handed the camera to Andrew when he was up on the ladder taking care of our gutters. This was actually the first photo he snapped, of the sedum growing on our fireplace. I still wish I knew how it got there.

Here he’s captured the front garden, all but the large planting area against the house where the Bishop’s Weed used to be (on the right side of the sidewalk where you can't see). The space is actually a little bit larger than it looks, since the slope down to the street is all but lost from this angle.

Next he turned the camera on the back garden…

Looking at this photo a couple of things caught my eye, first how shapely Clifford (the leafless Magnolia tree on the left) is. And secondly just how big those houses behind us are. When you're on the patio they disappear behind the bamboo and laurel, thank god! In case you're surprised  how small it looks our lot measures 45.38 ft by 111.2 ft, just a slight variation from the Portland standard 50 x 100 lot.

He was quite taken with the different colors on the Hydrangea...

From the "spring-green" leaves back near the garage to the yellowing leaves toward the front, the rose colored blooms, forest-green of the clematis leaves and the sprinkling of blue blossoms...

Looking to the north. This is a shot that would have been great for my "backyard project" post.

These do make a nice pair...

And the different textures in this photo are lovely. Heck happy banana leaves the 3rd week of December! Who'da thought?

Inspired by those banana leaves I did a little research on frost dates here in Portland and discovered my memory isn't as good as I thought it was! Here are the dates of our first frosts at the Airport (4.9 miles from my house) and Downtown Portland (5.5 miles away) starting in 2004, the year we moved to Portland...

2004 
Airport: Nov 5th, at 31F
Downtown: Nov 28th, at 32F
2005 
Airport: Nov 20th, at 31F
Downtown: Nov 21st, at 31F
2006 
Airport: Oct 30th, at 32F
Downtown: Nov 28th, at 29F
2007 
Airport: Nov 2nd, at 32F
Downtown: Nov 25th, at 30F
2008 
Airport: Dec 5th, at 30F
Downtown: Dec 14th, at 26F
2009 
Airport: Dec 2nd, at 31F
Downtown: Dec 4th, at 32F
2010 
Airport: Nov 21st, at 32F
Downtown: Nov 21st, at 32F
2011 
Airport: Nov 2nd, at 30F
Downtown: Nov 20th, at 31F
2012 
still waiting...(although we did briefly have snow yesterday still no freeze!). The latest frost date on record at the airport was December 25th 1966, with 1934 beating that since there never was an autumn frost that year.

31 comments:

  1. I love your green roof. I have seen many roofs like this in England. They say it protects the roof. Now you need to grow some succulents on the corner of the roof, like they have on many cottages in England, including Great Dixter. It will ward off the witches! Also when we are grave hunting over there many of the graves are covered with moss and they ask you to replace the moss to protect the stones.

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    1. I've always heard that moss is bad for a roof. I like your version better! Ever since seeing a photo of a Fascicularia pitcairnifolia growing in the gutter of Great Dixter I've wanted to try that here. The husband doesn't think it's such a great idea though.

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    2. I didn't see that. Just what they call house leeks.

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  2. beautiful! I love your banana leaves .... soo lush!!! that is a sight to behold and warm your heart during this cooler weather we've had. I've had two frosts. one at 30F and one at 32F... I just hope thats the extent of the coldness.

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    1. I had decided I wouldn't wrap the banana pseudostem this year (I always have in the past), but at this rate it won't matter!

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  3. I'm really surprised to read your lot dimensions; I'm used to thinking of our yard as small, because it's substantially less than most of our immediate neighbors, but we have more than twice as much yard than you do. (And we're doing way, way less with it, too. I am shamed.)

    Also: moss is awesome.

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    1. More than twice as much! DANGER! There are a few lots nearby that are extra deep, like half again as much, that could be cool. Or I would even be happy to have a bit of a side yard, here our house and garage fill the lot side to side. In fact the garage sits right on the property line, not acceptable by today's standards.

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  4. So cool to see things from a different perspective...love that little vagabond Sedum! Wow...we really are late for frost...guess our year of weird weather continues.

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    1. Seeing how happy that sedum is, and reading Lancashire rose's comment above, I'm starting to think I could creatively plant a few things on the chimney!

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  5. Moss is one of those plants that we can grow here to perfection! Love the way it looks on your roof! Really a pretty remarkable thing isn't it the way it shows up everywhere, can tolerate the dry heat of the summer and then spring right back when it gets some water.

    Crossing my fingers that you don't get frost at all this year!

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    1. Remarkable indeed. There's a patch on the curb that got zero water all through the summer...not a drop. Right now it's as lush and green as you can imagine.

      I said something to that effect (no frost, wouldn't that be fabulous!) to Andrew and he looked at me like I was crazy. Then he reminded me that the insects would be out of control bad without a freeze to knock them back. That darn man always has to be so tied to reality!

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  6. It really does put things into perspective, doesn't it?

    Anybody who doesn't have a mossy roof loves mossy roofs, don't they? I know I do. :)

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    1. Yes it does. Since I'm ladder shy (terrified) it was fun for me to see the view from up there!

      Wish I could share the love. Maybe I can box some up and ship it to you?

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  7. I love moss too, but I prefer it on the ground, not on my asphalt shingles. I love the photos that Andrew took from the roof. It's great to get a different perspective. The sedum on the roof is interesting.

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    1. Our brick fireplace has a stair stepped side to it and that's where the sedum is growing. It's up probably about 8ft off the ground.

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  8. Still no frost here either, aren't we a fortunate group of gardeners. I was just admiring the banana leaves the other day, happy to see it's the same where you are. I too enjoy mosses, you couldn't grow them that good if you tried. Seems to do their best on their own. I often collect this stuff and tuck it into bonsai pots. oh.. and that echium. Very nice!

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    1. Really? Well I guess that helps paint a picture of just how the water helps to moderate your temperatures!

      I used to collect moss to and use it around the base of some plants in containers. I wonder why I stopped? Uhm...need to do that again, lord knows I've got lots of natural material.

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  9. I don't know that frost free winters would amount in exploding numbers of insects,(thrips and leaf rollers excepted), but I can guarantee you'd have more snails; there numbers explode here in our area in winter. We had a bit of a scare last night here in my area, but it only got down to 35°F. These next two weeks always seem the most dangerous for potential freezes here, and only those right on the coast or in San Francisco can really rest easy with little fear.

    All that moss looks beautiful, but I don't think it is great for the life of the roof. I don't have moss so much as things like Cymbalaria, Claytonia sibirica, and Freesia laxa which spring into overdrive with winter rains here.

    Like those views from the roof certainly adds a different perspective!
    David in Berkeley

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    1. Nope, don't need any more snails (or slugs) around here thank you. While the idea of more of any garden pest is rather undesirable I also can't help but think a freeze free winter isn't good for the plants, at least not the ones that require a cold period. Still the thought is interesting...

      The moss actually gets under the shingles and lifts them up doesn't it? I suppose a good cleaning is in order. Doesn't sound like much fun.

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  10. I never could see what possible harm moss could do to a roof, but R insists on putting zinc strips up there to combat it. I guess it could make it slippery, but who wants to wander around on the roof anyway...oh, to get those aerial photos. Those are cool. Is Andrew perhaps having trouble saying "bye bye" to the hydrangea?

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    1. No roof wandering, not even for Andrew. It's all done from the ladder (an advantage to having a small house I suppose). Andrew has wanted that Hydrangea gone for years. He didn't have the romantic attachment to it that I did, he just saw it as an "old fashioned" plant that didn't belong in our garden.

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  11. Very cool...you'd like the NM version of that, a cholla sprouting on a roof. But moss...last Friday, I forgot to take a photo of the sudden flash of brilliant green my moss patch (very sheltered) got after a morning of rain...already faded. I like the aerial views, and especially the weather stats...I must finally do some aerial garden shots!

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    1. Yes please, I'd love the NM version! And maybe some Opuntia too, like in those photos on Steve Martino's blog! (speaking of, thank you for the tweet this morning with his lecture notes, I really enjoyed reading that).

      I had a heck of a time finding those weather stats...I should have linked to my source though (what was I thinking!). Gonna do that right now!

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  12. How cool is it to see photos from that perspective! You'd done a marvelous job with the space you have. I, too, was surprised to read that your property is just 5000+ sq.ft. Your space planning, and the plants you've chosen, make it seem so much bigger.

    I wish I weren't afraid of heights, otherwise I'd climb up on our roof and take some photos. But even the thought gives me a queasy feeling.

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    1. I'm feeling that queasiness right along with you...plus your house is a couple of stories tall too isn't it? If not for the tall fearless husband I never would have seen this perspective.

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  13. Loree, it's interesting how similar our first frost dates are ..I'll bet mine are now more than a week or two off yours..I think the difference is that it almost always hits the 50's here daytime , and snow is a rare event .

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    1. Interesting, I'm surprised too! Thankfully snow is also fairly rare here, I don't think I could ever go back to a place where it is common...

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  14. Here, last week, it froze on the Monday night and didn't rise above freezing at all until Thursday afternoon. Low of -5C/23F. Echeveria glauca does not like this.

    I like to look out of the loft roof light onto the back garden. Only problem is, it makes it appear so short!

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    1. Oh my...those temperatures (especially the duration) sound rather damaging. I'm sorry.

      I know what you mean about the short-factor. I looked at that picture of the front garden and was amazed, and not in a good way.

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  15. I do love the gradient of colours and different textures in your garden, with foliages and subtle blooms both contrasting and complementing each other. The garden does take on a different appearance with photos taken from a higher area. Mind you even the planting on your roof ain't bad either :))

    Looking forward to what you decide for your backyard project!

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    1. I wish I could take credit for the roof planting...

      I lay awake last night listing to the rain (not a soft pitter patter but more sounding more like the end of the world) and thought about the pack yard project. So many ideas!

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