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August 5, 2014 by tomdalzell

Quirky Gardens

 

 

Illustration of Reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

I do not have a clearly delineated policy statement on what constitutes a quirky garden for the purposes of this blog.  The issue has been referred to the Rules Committee.

door

You can see my quandary as I await a definition from the committee.  For example, is this quirky?

1809 Cedar

1809 Cedar

Or is this quirky?

1311 Lincoln

Maybe.  Or not.  I thought that it was when I took the photo, but I am not sure.  But I’m not ready for the ultimate decision, so here I post only what I am sure about.

I am sure that vertical gardens fit my sense of quirky.  Here are two:

3109 King

3109 King Street

3109 King 2

830 Camelia

830 Camelia

And then there are green roofs.  Also known as living roofs or vegetated roofs.

Living roof Oz

The City tells us about them here:

Green RoofsI know of three.  First is the Eco House:

Eco House

Hopkins at Peralta

Dig Cooperative members planting the roof

Dig Cooperative members planting the roof

The second is on the cob house at the Northside Community Garden:

Quirky Berkeley

Northside, entrance on Peralta

The third is around the corner from where I live, at the corner of Spruce and Los Angeles.

1100 Marin

1100 Marin

In addition, Berkeleyside showed us two not visible from the street, but worth cutting and pasting here:

Animal Shelter

Animal Shelter

Freight and Salvage

Freight and Salvage

I can’t tell from the street if this is a rooftop garden or a living roof.  I will err on the side of inclusion.

2004 University

2004 University

This brings us to containers in which we plant our plants, some of which are quirky:

Quirky Berkeley 09-14-2016 Quirky Berkeley 09-14-2016

1645 9th

1645 9th

California and Tyler

California and Tyler

181 Brookside

181 Brookside

2901 King Street

2901 King Street

2211 Acton

2211 Acton

1439 Dwight

1439 Dwight

2514 Etna

2514 Etna

2339 Curtis

2339 Curtis

2339 Curtis2339 Curtis

2024 Parker

2024 Parker

1632 62nd

1632 62nd

722 Spruce

722 Spruce

1040 Colusa

1040 Colusa

1139 Cedar

1139 Cedar

1321 Lincoln

1321 Lincoln

1321 Lincoln

1321 Lincoln

1635 Dwight

1635 Dwight

2815 Forest.  Berkeleyside Photo by Sandy Friedland

2815 Forest. Berkeleyside Photo by Sandy Friedland

 3143 Eton

3143 Eton

 1601 Hopkins

1601 Hopkins

A Quirky Berkeley reader suggested one more that either is new or that I missed.  It is great:

1176 Arch

1176 Arch

I am amused.

Jay Jurisich is a quirky and clever man whom I met through soccer – my Rosalie and his Maddie.

Photo: Jay Jurisich

Photo: Jay Jurisich

He was struck by the trees at the North Berkeley branch of the Berkeley Public Library.  I can’t argue with him.  This is quirky.

I will try to come up with a workable working standard for garden quirk.  At the suggestion of a reader, I have ordered a used copy of Quirky Gardens by Jennifer Isaacs; maybe it will help.  For the time being I am happy with these.  They are quirking for me.

My friend is an avid gardener.  He especially loves delphiniums and dahlias and lilies and mums.  When I took the photos here to show him, he was reading a note from a mutual friend.  That mutual friend suggested that the gospel hymn “He Touched Me” might today have different connotations than it once had.  I said that I would look into it (and I did), but what did he think of these quirky gardens?

IMG_3677

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