Cloud Forest Gardening

I've gardened in central California, Nevada, Florida, and now here I am in the oddest climate I've ever lived in. As a gardener, I consider tomatoes an "indicator species." It tells me a lot about a place once I know how one grows tomatoes. I've grown them in Nevada where the sun cooks fruit on the vine and in Florida where the constant Summer rains will rot the fruit before it even ripens. But never have a lived in a place where tomatoes cannot be grown until here. It just doesn't get hot enough here to do it. Guess what else? Lettuce doesn't bolt here--ever. San Francisco doesn't get hot enough nor cold enough to satisfy the needs of many varieties of edible plants. We are stuck in a perpetual chilly day with many a year without a single frost or a single day above 80 degrees. And, to make matters even stranger, our hottest days are in the Fall and not Summer. When some fruit are expecting a good Summer heat to push them into ripeness, we linger into Fall before things warm up enough and by then the season is over. A great example is avocado. Yes, here is a place in California that can grow the trees quite well but they rarely set good fruit because it's too cold in the Summer. Just. Plain. Odd.

What we have here is an unusual and fairly rare climate called a "cloud forest." There aren't many of these around the globe. Two famous ones are the Andes in South America and the Islands of New Zealand. So, there are a lot of things I won't be able to grow. But I have this pretty rare opportunity to grow things other people can't. There are some pretty cool veggies and fruit you rarely see in most American markets that I get to play around with. So there's that, at least. And hey, I bet I could fit a small greenhouse in the back yard to handle the tomatoes.

So, to get started, I bought and read a book on local gardening. This is key to growing food in San Francisco because our micro climates will drive even the most experienced gardener bonkers. I live just a few blocks off of Mission street in the Ex and what I can grow is measurably different than what someone who lives just 2.5 miles North of me on the same street can grow. And here is the very best book I could find from someone who is clearly respected in the San Francisco gardening community:

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gate-Gardening-3rd-Edition/dp/1570616175

I purchased the Google Books version but some folks like to get their hands on real paper. Whichever you choose, this is the best book for talking about the variety of challenges and undocumented features that come with urban gardening in San Francisco. From this book, I gleaned a list of those vegetables I enjoy that supposedly do well in the Ex.

However, as I mentioned earlier, we are a cloud forest climate not unlike the Andes and so I started looking at things that are native to that region to see what fun and unusual stuff I might have a decent chance with.  There are two plants I'm particularly curious about and have already acquired the seeds for one of them:  tamarillo (also called a tree tomato) and a high mountain passion fruit with a local cultivar called "mission dolores." Tamarillo is grown for profit in New Zealand as well, which gives me some hope that this fun plant will adapt well to our local climate. Tamarillo seeds are easy to obtain online. The Mission Dolores passiflora is, sadly, much harder to locate.

Stay tuned for progress reports!




Hat Tip to Pam Peirce: http://goldengategarden.typepad.com/

Hello World!

Hello Neighbors!

We moved into the Excelsior in August of 2015. It's taken me this long to pull the blog together, though we've been exploring a bit since moving in. Like many new residents in San Francisco, we had difficulty finding a place to live. As we navigated the house-hunting ritual here in Foggy City, we learned to pare down our expectations and really focus on those things that mattered the most and ignore those things that aren't necessities. We quickly threw away expectations of having much of a choice in the style or age of our new home. I was hoping for a place with a sunny yard and a good Southern exposure but knew that this was also something I'd have little say over. Knob and tube wiring were such a huge problem for our home in Tampa I was shocked at how prevalent and accepted it was here and quickly got over that too.

What we focused on was access to reasonably decent public transportation, walking distance from shopping, and a structure that wouldn't require a lot of updates and repairs to make it comfortable. It had to have enough of a yard for the dog because, by that point, I was done with getting up in the wee cold hours to walk him. There needed to be a dedicated parking place for the jeep. And so here we are, in one of the few areas of town we could afford and find these must-haves.

In summary, I find that Excelsior has moderately good access to public transportation with the BART station being the key feature. We can walk to BART in about 15 minutes or take the 29 bus in 10. That means we only need one vehicle and we have access to the core of the city whenever we like via the subway. The Ex has shopping--lots of it. But let's be honest, it's mixed in appeal. There are too many boarded up places and a few illegal gambling parlors but if you see the world as it can be, then our stretch of Mission street has a great deal of potential. What it excels in today is a variety of world cultures; you can taste yourself through Latin America, Southeast Asia, Northern Asia, and the South Pacific. You can even find a Zagat rated spot to have dinner (shout out to Henry's Hunan!) Oh, and the neighbors have been pretty cool. Several came over to welcome us on our first day here. That's worth a lot to me.

So here we are, in a 102 year old Arts & Crafts bungalow, learning how to live in the Ex.