Category Archives: garden visit
more San Francisco Botanical Garden in July
It’s Friday. We’ve been up to our eyeballs in weird all week. How about a walk through the San Francisco Botanical Garden? At the southern entrance was a searing melange of annuals that was repeated beyond the gates throughout the … Continue reading
Posted in garden travel, garden visit
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revisiting the Courtney garden June 2026
I first visited Mary and Harlan Courtney’s garden in late July 2022 and wrote about it here. It is a strikingly unique, materials-driven, artfully idiosyncratic approach to managing a slope, where the retaining infrastructure designed by Harlan is as prominent … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden
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a garden in the ruins
I was in the Bay Area last week catching up with familiar places, and discovering some new ones too. Immediately upon arriving at the southern entrance to the San Francisco Botanical Garden (free admission before 9 a.m.!), I was struck … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit
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a city garden’s rare trees
On May 30 I visited another fascinating Portland garden through the Open Gardens program of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Sometimes the open gardens are closer to me in the farmland surrounding the city, where they of course tend … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden
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the pond and creek at Dairy Creek Meadows
Dairy Creek Meadows was one of two gardens I visited last weekend under the HPSO Open Gardens program. Both were familiar to me, one because I had visited it a few years back (the Courtneys’ garden), the other because I … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden
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revisiting Old Germantown Gardens Portland OR
I visited this garden in 2014 with a group of garden bloggers and didn’t really absorb much of the back story of its creation. Visiting again this May, my knees aching after lengthy explorations along its sloping paths, I researched … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden
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Euphorbia ceratocarpa at Cistus Nursery
An HPSO open garden visit on Sunday took me about 20 minutes from Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island, so I popped in to check on some plants I’ve been eyeing in their catalogue. After parking I wandered into the private … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits
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scenes from May
A few images from local nurseries and garden tours, courtesy of that incredible team, gardeners and the month of May. Every May this perfectly proportionate, quietly elegant iroid lures me in for close inspection. The Tasmanian Flag Iris, Diplarrena latifolia, … Continue reading
Posted in driveby gardens, garden visit, Plant Portraits
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Wonder Garden, Manzanita OR May 2026
The Wonder Garden is a volunteer-driven, horticultural branch of the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon. Since I’ve been volunteering the past several years, the Wonder Garden seems to evolve effortlessly from strength to strength. But having participated … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Oregon garden
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Presidio Tunnel Tops
I first heard of what has come to be known as the Presidio Tunnel Tops in 2015, when visiting landscape architect Rania Reyes mentioned her involvement in a new Presidio Parklands Project in San Francisco. Rania was being given a … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, succulents
9 Comments