Dear Daffodil, I have deep regrets that I did not pick you a few days ago, at your peak . – To have snipped your stem and set your shapely beauty in a slender vase. But the sun was low and you were so lovely, with your grassy companions, blooming […]
Want to solve the world’s problems? Yeah, me too…but today I’ll settle for a few specifics in the garden. The movement toward using less water in the landscape, along with the human urge to seek novelty and beauty, has created a huge interest in succulent plants for years. Succulents are generally described as plants […]
You could say that America’s National Parks changed the course of my life. So I want to add to the chorus, in celebration of 100 years of the U.S. National Park system. I don’t have the most beautiful pictures of our National Parks. In fact, none of my old personal photos, with their poor composition and […]
This is the time of year where we traditionally reflect on the past as well as look forward to the future. There have been a number of important anniversaries to celebrate this past year; 800 years since the Magna Carta, 250 years since the first French restaurant – and yes, 30 years since Saturday […]
The best landscapes enable us to see something new or to see something familiar from a new perspective. That is certainly the case with New York City’s High Line. Famously created from an elevated rail line and opened to the public in 2009. The story of how this unusual garden went from an […]
This is the year to highlight some of my favorite gardens in the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa. The New York Times has named Cape Town as the #1 travel destination for 2014, for it’s rich heritage and the “renaissance of it’s creative class”. The city is also the 2014 World Design Capital […]
Rivers ebb and flow. Empires rise and fall. The mighty phoenix only rises from the ashes of its predecessor, and so on. It was impossible for me to visit Detroit last year and not have these obvious metaphors in mind. The voice-over in the Chrysler commercial says of Detroit “we’ve been through hell and back” […]
The common name California Lilac is nice but, in my mind, doesn’t adequately describe our lovely native plant with the botanical name Ceanothus. Yes, some of the varieties have lavender blossoms or buds but the genus specializes in shades of blue that would make a common garden lilac blue with envy. The Ceanothus color spectrum […]
I have a client who wants a cutting garden and loves pink. I’m happy to say that this classic request can be accommodated with relatively low water and low maintenance. This is what is blooming now, in the February garden, that I brought samples of, to our meeting; Camellia, Narcissus, Manzanita and Australian Fuchsia ‘Sister […]
Been there, done that. That’s how she was feeling about the front lawn. The kids are grown and so are the grand kids, but my client, Marie, is as busy as ever with her many interests and lots of entertaining. She has maintained the classic front yard swath of green grass for many years, but […]
