Category Archives: MB Maher
succulents and ceramics
Following the new social distancing guidelines, by the time I came to the end of the prescribed one-way route through the Sherman Gardens last month, my camera battery was dead just as I reached the last garden before the exit; … Continue reading
oversharing 6/4/20
This post is not about plants, though there are some nice palm trees in the photos by MB Maher. I can tend to overshare sometimes (I got my surgical staples out today!), and this is such a time, so feel … Continue reading
Posted in journal, MB Maher
5 Comments
tree ballet performance for one
In a view from the garden office, lying on the pink divan found at the Long Beach flea market (remember those?), which we keep covered in a painter’s tarp, this clear blustery day is orchestrating a magnificent performance out of … Continue reading
Posted in journal, MB Maher
4 Comments
the Glatstein garden by Dustin Gimbel
I knew for the past year or so that the Los Angeles Times would eventually publish an article on the Glatstein family’s Long Beach garden designed by ceramicist Dustin Gimbel a few years back. Even so, the March 31, 2020 … Continue reading
Posted in artists, design, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
9 Comments
the blue garden
As of today, March 30, 2020, in Southern California we can still walk our neighborhoods, if not the parks, trails, and beaches, and that is no small comfort. Mitch’s base during this “safer at home” period has been Hollywood, and … Continue reading
Posted in driveby gardens, garden visit, MB Maher
6 Comments
Palm Springs flyby (and a glimpse of Sunnylands)
Notwithstanding the recent visit to Palm Springs for Modernism Week, I still have yet to visit nearby Sunnylands, the so-called Camp David of the West in its heyday, when it was the private residence of the Annenbergs, Ambassador Walter Annenberg … Continue reading
Posted in garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher
3 Comments
a garden’s long-term care
My mother turned 90 yesterday, and we celebrated this momentous occasion at her new living arrangement in a nearby board-and-care. Getting her here took months of medical, legal, financial, and familial wrangling, all while taking care of her as she … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, garden travel, MB Maher
5 Comments
the thoroughly modern tilly
Mitch has been tagging along with Josh Rosen (the airplantman) to check out some of his custom installation work to get a sense of how Josh’s tillandsia-specific designs work in situ. In this home in the Pacific Palisades, the classic … Continue reading
Posted in artists, design, inspire me, MB Maher, pots and containers
5 Comments
low humidity, high winds, pink houses
“The Santa Ana winds were blasting through the streets, bristling and smelling of desert, of white sunlight, of sharp, wiry plants and white rock…A hot madness was enclosing the city.” Kate Braverman, Lithium for Medea (February 5, 1949 – October … Continue reading
Posted in climate, MB Maher, science
6 Comments
letter from sagehen creek field station
(Shirley Watts’ series of symposia entitled Natural Discourse, bringing scientists and artists into botanical gardens to make site-specific work, has taken on an even fiercer urgency seven years after its inception in 2012, as scientists and artists grapple with the … Continue reading
Posted in artists, climate, essay, MB Maher, photography, science
4 Comments