Deep purple, decorative pepper offers flowers and fruits. Viewable from kitchen desk.

ベランダの紫色の唐辛子には、フルーツも花もあります。台所の机から、見えます。

From my kitchen desk, I can see this lovely decorative pepper, that has purple fruits and flowers at the same time.

Edible walls

Edible walls are a new idea alongside green roofs and green walls: maximizing urban space for plants and food. A New York Times article discuss how a collaborations between garden designers and a metal fabricator to create relatively simple soil and drip water systems that support lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, spinach, leeks, and even baby watermelon. The article mentions an antecedent in espaliered fruit trees in European cities during the Middle Ages. Recently, edible walls are being used in a Los Angeles homeless shelter to feed the residents and generate a small income.

The Cutting Garden at Flora Grubb Gardens

One of my favorite nurseries anywhere, Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco, just announced the opening of a floral store within the store, the Cutting Garden. Susie Nadler will be featuring plants from FGG’s farm and other California growers, using unusual local plants like proteas to create unexpected and wonderful bouquets. I have seen Susie’s flower arranging, and know she’s talented.

I also like the idea of a flower store that feels like it is gathering plants from its own “cutting garden.” It is far more ecological than the supermarket-style florists brining agri-chemical roses from other continents. And it may inspire some customers to grow the plants that they admire in the arrangements.

I love the description of some of the plant material they will be using: “otherworldly palm fruits and flowers; California pepper berry branches, with their spicy pink pods; delicate tree fern fronds with coyly curled tips.”

Definitely worth checking out! Here’s some fall bouquets.