PlantFiles Pictures: Tower of Jewels, Pride of Tenerife, Tajinaste, Taginaste (Echium pininana), 1 by Kell

Kell wrote:
I was told an interesting story about why that house was not painted. I had walked down between 2 buildings to get pictures of a garden in someone's backyard. The year before, the owner had invited me back from the front when he saw me taking photos of his plants in front. He said I had seen nothing yet! LOL. On seeing his garden color, I immediately started calling his yard "jubilent gardening" in my mind. I wanted pictures again!

So here I was taking photos from the back and this young man was sitting right in my way. Finally he got up and walked to these stairs right there and started going up. I asked him if I could stand up midway to take some photos, He said NO! LOL Then I must have looked so sad for he said alright. He rents the apartment on the second floor. Then for about 90 minutes he talked nonstop about his life (left home as a teenager and hitched around and ended up in Meno) and the town of Mendocino. He seemed to know it all. He said that the town of Mendocino has very strict rules and if you want to do any improvements the city charges you a per foot "tax." for permits. And you have to get permits for everything including painting houses. He said it is so bad and so expensive that people try not to do anything. And for this reason, this building has not been painted. Evidently the town fought the owner.

I thought the lack of a paint job actually added to the charm. Mendo is full of old time charm. And every yard almost has amazing color in the form of a garden. Lots of textures and colors. Many of the plants are reseeders. So many houses have echiums which reseed all over. It is so fun and just the perfect plant for Mendo gardens!

Jubilent gardening in Mendo