Category Archives: Gardening

Jul14

The Warsaw University library gardens

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Thursday, 20-June-2024


I adore post-apocalyptic citycapes.

I mean, I adore landscapes in general. And even some contemporary cityscapes. But cityscapes of crumbling infrastructure, with plants reclaiming the world of iron, glass, and cement… Now that’s just a special kind of beautiful.

That’s actually the look that I aim for with my gardens, interestingly enough. “Plants reclaiming civilization” is the goal – that’s why I love rusted wrought iron, shattered ceramics, and crawling vines so much.



As I was exploring Warsaw, just wandering about and appreciating the calm and opportunity to walk without a goal, I saw a garden in the distance. A glass dome, specifically, with vines crawling up around it. It called to me, and I answered by curving my path and heading into the garden surrounding it.

I couldn’t have imagined just how amazing this garden would be… nor that it was actually part of the University of Warsaw!


It turns out – I first saw the University Library a bit earlier on my walk – the front facade is… well, it’s hard to describe, except that I feel like this is what the Library of Alexandria should have looked like. I’ll let my camera do the talking, here. You know what? I’ll just step back and let the camera paint you, my dear readers, a picture of the entire landscape:

Jun14

The Oslo Botanical Gardens

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Wednesday, 22-May-2024


My first day in Oslo, I wandered.

My goal was the Oslo Natural History Museum, or the Naturhistorisk museum in the Norwegian parlance, but I wasn’t locked into getting there in any rush. Oslo was still new to me, and I was enjoying the opportunity to wander.

I’d had a coffee, sandwich, and smoothie earlier in the day and was feeling well fortified, so I set up directions on my phone, grabbed my satchel, and headed out the door.

Nearly to the museum, I realized that it was guarded by one of the most effective barriers in existence against a member of my family… a garden. An expansive garden, full of beautiful flowers and interesting greenhouses. Those clever devils, they knew how to distract me from my destination! How was our hero going to get past this blockade??

I mean, I wasn’t in a rush.

I got past the cleverly-placed blockade simply by walking something like 5 miles, wandering into every corner of the gardens that I could find. Through outdoor pathways, paved and gravel, I wandered and appreciated the views and the smells. Through greenhouses, I ogled massive lily pads and sweat in the heat of a simulated Arizona desert. I saw a pineapple, and the biggest pitchers I’ve ever seen on a pitcher plant.

It was awesome.



I even found a cool “Viking longship” educational sculpture!

Oct8

A late summer garden

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Late August and early September, 2023


Just a quick post here, but one that I’m quite proud of – the final stage of my balcony garden!

It’s been going strong all summer, growing by leaps and bounds in the hot weather and drinking up a frankly impressive amount of water throughout the heat and sun. The hops have grown crazy, and I’ve frankly kind of given up on trellising them in any meaningful semblance of order – they grow wild now, searching and clawing around the beams and each other.

It’s beautiful, though, getting to see how big they’ve all grown. The spiderplants are huge and verdant, with gloriously deep green leaves. The hanging pot is already on its second stage of growth, and some of the flowers have already bloomed, died, and are now blooming again.

I adore gardens and growing things.