Victorville, CA: Tumbling like a tumbling tumbleweed

High winds are prevailing in southern California and the Central Coast, reports my mother in her first, eyewitness contribution to Urban Plant Research. In Santa Barbara County, she can hardly venture outside because of winds over 25 miles per hour. She also read that over in Victorville, which lies between Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, the wind has residents trapped inside for another reason: it has swept mountains of tumbleweeds against their houses, blocking doors and windows! Check out these Google Image search results she sent over:

We here at Urban Plant Research have long been interested in tumbleweeds and urban tumbleweeds (tumbling, windblown plastic bags). Are their tumbleweeds where you live?

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Slam dunk plant near Eureka, CA by Jes McDowell

If you like oddities in urban space, plant-related or otherwise, @jesmcdowell‘s photos are for you. One of the funniest folks I know on Instagram, whom I’ve been following for almost four years now.

This is but one of Jes’s kooky finds. If anyone has an idea how this basketball hoop plant was grown/constructed, I could really use some theories.

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Plants and city scenes in Korea by Florian Bong-Kil Grosse

“When I think about my first impressions of Korea, I see before all else overpopulated, hectic, noisy cities, modest, traditional architecture side by side with the ubiquitous functional yet disconsolate prefabricated housing blocks; I see Buddhist pagodas hemmed in by 8 lane traffic arteries…” writes Florian Bong-Kil Grosse about his new book of photography, Hanguk. This thoughtful, plant-appreciating Berlin artist shared some photos on this blog last year, and now we’d like to share his new publication and other recent work.

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A piano flowers and grows in Brighton and Hove

 

This old piano, exploding with ivy and potted flowers, stands on a sidewalk in Brighton and Hove, UK. A passing urban plant aficionado shared it with us, asking to remain unnamed. Thank you, friend!

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San Francisco: moss grows on a rolling bike

Ever seen an old bicycle, repurposed as a planter, in a quaint grandmother’s garden, with pots of trailing vines attached to every available spot? These little grasses and weeds seem to aspire to the same romantic arrangement. Props to eagle-eyed Ms. Hustrulid, who just spotted this amazing interaction between sidewalk flora and sidewalk paint in San Francisco. For more of her photos, please visit her Instagram feed: @glovecompartment.

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San Francisco: Ask a Plant Nerd

Real live plant nerds are offering their knowledge to the public at San Francisco’s Mission Community Market every Thursday. Asking a question is free; they also have small, affordable young plants for sale, such as nasturtiums, plectranthus…

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San Francisco: Tree heist

In a recent comment, Phoebe reported: “I was driving to work from San Francisco, grabbed my camera, and took a shot through the windshield… Plants trying to escape from an unmarked white van. I smell a tree heist.”

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Berlin: Balancing Wolf’s well-balanced plants

Wolf Klein runs a nomadic flower shop where all the flowers are photographs. Back in the day, he was also one of Urban Plant Research’s first readers. And, in more recent times, he’s been balancing things on his head. Some of them are plants.

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Berlin: Giant tulip on the Spreeknie

Stumbled on a very large tulip doubling as a bike rack in a very small front garden at the Moving Poets studio complex. Was there for the Kunst am Spreeknie art festival happening this weekend, which includes a free solar ferry up and down the Spree river! The Spreeknie is a kink in the river that really does look like a knee.
Update: more pictures from our field trip in this post from Beton + Garten.

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Berlin: Giant strawberries, wild in the streets

Every June and July, big red metal strawberries pop up all over Berlin. I always smile when I see them, pause to buy a pound or two of strawberries (the best in town) but rarely stop to photograph them. Now Kate Seabrook, the photographer behind Endbahnhof, is searching for strawberries every Sunday, camera in hand, and sharing her observations here.

I found the strawberry above at Alexanderplatz station; for Kate’s photos, visit her blog.

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