Anita Barbey and Todd Liebow kindly opened their historic garden to Hardy Plant Society members this weekend. (Just join already. Months of fabulous garden tours and all for $35.) From the HPSO guide: The garden was designed and constructed for Lady Anne Kerr McDonald...
I've gone through a bit of rough patch on the garden enthusiasm front. I'm wondering if all gardeners go through this. I think it a distinct possibility, but I'd like to know from you bonafide dirt diggers. Some of you seem to keep on chugging, no matter what. Is that...
I'm sometimes tempted to write off holidays that seem primarily Hallmark driven. But that's the curmudgeon in me. When I was a kid, Valentine's Day ranked right up there with Halloween. I can feel the cramp developing in my right hand just thinking about all those...
I've been holding out for rain, garden on pause. Avoiding the temptation of nursery visits. Averting my eyes to avoid confronting the sight of plants unquenched from my unreliable hose offerings. The weeds, they'll have to stay until the soil more willingly releases...
I hope everyone is having fun in garden this week. There's so much happening. I'm surprised, yet again, that it's all coming back, bigger and bolder. The Eryngium agavifolium above is going nuts, doing it's best to embarrass its buddy, the Nolina. If this keeps up,...
I feel giddy and witty and bright. Or at least I did until I woke two nights ago with a super duper sore throat. That ain't supposed to happen smack dab in the middle of spring gardening season. Nature is a riot of blooms. She's calling all pollinators. She's itching...
Holy smokes, a year goes fast. It seemed like forever when trying to sell our Alameda house. It was a good house, and we loved living there for 33 years. (We bought it when we were twelve.) But then came ranch fever--due in part to property-tax shock--and we packed...
Huge sigh of relief, we have arrived at spring. There will be plenty of time for celebrating the obvious beauty of the season headed our way. But now that winter is officially behind us, I want to take a moment to appreciate the plants that provided bright spots in...
This is my first full season in our Flamingo Park Gardens, and I can’t wait to get reacquainted with the plants. Oh sure, I put a lot of them in myself, and I have a spreadsheet, but I haven’t entirely keep track of what is where. At my Alameda (RIP) Gardens, I named...