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.
You can see my quandary as I await a definition from the committee. For example, is this quirky?
Or is this quirky?
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:
And then there are green roofs. Also known as living roofs or vegetated roofs.
The City tells us about them here:
I know of three. First is the Eco House:
The second is on the cob house at the Northside Community Garden:
The third is around the corner from where I live, at the corner of Spruce and Los Angeles.
In addition, Berkeleyside showed us two not visible from the street, but worth cutting and pasting here:
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.
This brings us to containers in which we plant our plants, some of which are quirky:
A Quirky Berkeley reader suggested one more that either is new or that I missed. It is great:
I am amused.
Jay Jurisich is a quirky and clever man whom I met through soccer – my Rosalie and his Maddie.
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?