An Inner Sunset Treasure: Plum Trees in Bloom

Over these last couple of weeks, San Francisco has enjoyed some great weather. The City's plum trees, meanwhile, have grasped at the opportunity to formally announce their reawakening. Fresh from a winter slumber, these beautiful specimens are in their prime, showing off branches full of beautiful white and pink blossoms.

All this time, I've been kicking myself for driving through the Inner Sunset at a pace just slow enough to take in the views, but still too fast to properly digest and take in the beauty up close. So, finally, on a gray overcast day, I trekked out to 6th Avenue, Kirkham, and Irving, and I got my fill of the gorgeous blossoms. These trees don't have a whole lot to do with stormwater management per se, but they comprise a damn good-looking portion of our urban forest. Without further ado, feast your eyes on these seasonal beauties:

Just one more reason to slow down and take a walk

Another great reason to slow down and take a walk in our urban landscape: you get to notice all the little things around you. On my way to various parts of the City, I often zoom by in my auto, looking around only to avoid crazy idiotic drivers, pedestrians, and to see the traffic signals. When I'm driving, I miss out on the little things that are so amazing.

So, this past weekend, I took a walk down to Cole Valley, hoping to find some inspiration to punch out a couple of sketches. It's been over a month since my Landscape Graphics class concluded, and I'm not proud to admit that I haven't much kept at it. So, I figured on this beautiful Sunday, I'd take a walk and just get out there. As I reached the intersection of Twin Peaks Blvd and Clarendon Ave, I came across a truly spectacular sight: I saw an urban grove of Garrya elliptica, more commonly known as Coast silk tassel. If you've never seen this species, I think you'll be blown away by its beautiful dangling tassels. In a gentle SF breeze, it's amazing to watch them just sway.

I don't know for how long these trees have been in bloom, but I know that until this past Sunday, I'd never even realized these plants were there! Of course, most of the time I'm at this intersection, I'm going too fast to observe anything that's not also moving. So, I'm grateful that I decided to take a step back, slow my roll, and take the opportunity to take a walk in this wonderful city that I call home. As much as I complain about the abundance of asphalt and concrete in San Francisco, pockets of green treasure are here - we just have to open our eyes to them.

I'd like to share some of my joy with you:

Is Spring Upon Us?

On a walk back from Forest Hill Station, I peeped a cluster of the oh-so-fragrant pink flowers on our native Pink Flowering Currant, Ribes sanguineum glutinosum. Can this be a sign that Spring is soon upon us?!

If you spot one of these guys in your 'hood, I urge you to take a whiff of the flower. The fragrance is sweet, just as you'd expect from a currant.


Source: California Flora Nursery website

VIDEO - Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act More Like A Sponge

Check out this new film made by Elizabeth Peppin for the CA Water Boards to show the impacts and opportunities associated with changing hydrology as a result of urbanization. SFPUC urban watershed planner Sarah Minick is among those featured in an interview. Check it out!

Slow the Flow: Make your landscape act more like a sponge from Greg Gearheart on Vimeo.

Vancouver, B.C. - Crown Street Sustainable Streetscape

An awesome project - yeah, up in the Pacific Northwest again - I just caught wind of:
The Crown Street Sustainable Streetscape project in Vancouver, B.C. This project incorporated community participation and sustainable stormwater management in retrofitting a dilapidated road that runs adjacent to one of the last salmon runs in Vancouver. The project includes native plant species, swales, and retention ponds for on-site stormwater filtration, infiltration, and peak flow reduction; narrowed and windy roads for traffic calming; and the creative reuse of construction materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

See photos and read more about Crown Street HERE.

Tanner Springs Park, Portland - pt. 2

Back again. So, you might be wondering: What the hell is all that?!
Well, it is in fact not some space-age Stone Henge, but rather a rainwater-culling apparatus. And the images are in chronological sequence. When rain falls, it hits the glass panels, it flows down the downspout/support, runs through the trench drain to the stairs, down the stairway runnel, and finally into the pond. A pump takes the pond water up through a UV filter, to the bubbler, where it trickles down the re-created spring, and returns to the pond. Lovely. =)

Tanner Springs Park, Portland - pt. 1

Wow, this park is pretty awesome. It's not too big, just the right intimate. Child friendly, sitting friendly, nature friendly. And what is really awesome - and you can see it in the last image here - how up close and personal one can get to water. Heck, you can touch the water, in the bubbler, in the recreated spring, or even in the murky-ish pond.

The one drawback of the place - from a planner's point of view, of course - is how vanilla, how whitebread the neighborhood feels. If you've ever walked around the neighborhood surrounding UIC in Chicago, you know the feeling I'm getting at. The whole place just feels too whitewashed. If you've read Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, you'd see the potential issues with having a neighborhood in which all the buildings are pretty much of the same age, same design, and same quality. In a nutshell, how do high-margin and low-margin enterprises co-exist peaceably when rents will be relatively constant? All in all, I do love Tanner Springs Park. Wish we had something comparable here in SF.

Enjoy.