Category Archives: essay
Living Walls: Meet the Fedge
More detailed information on living walls keeps trickling in, this piece from today’s LA Times, where Emily Green takes a contrarian stance. I have to admit, I’ve been silently skeptical but nevertheless reading all I can on this trend. The … Continue reading
Life Without the Lawn
Driving for work or errands, I can find myself passing by and through endless suburban housing subdivisions which look as though they’ve been dozing through the controversy over whether to keep or lose the front lawn. (This is Los Angeles, … Continue reading
School Gardens
The April 2010 issue of The Atlantic, which I grabbed for haircut reading yesterday, published letters to the editor (“Grading the Gardens”) in response to their January/February article by Caitlin Flanagan entitled ‘Cultivating Failure.” Readers of Gardenrant might remember the … Continue reading
Posted in essay
Tagged Caitlin Flanagan, Dolichos lablab, Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Garden Rant, school vegetable gardens, The Atlantic
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4th of July Manifesto/A Garden Needs Legs
In a long growing season, a garden needs legs. A firm belief of mine is that it must not be allowed to flag or pause or become excessively disheveled. (Would that I was imbued with a similar belief system for … Continue reading
Laughter in the Distance
Not a title to a pulpy romance novel but a snippet of Hinkley’s hilarious prose from his infamous Heronswood nursery catalogues. (The nursery was opened in 1987, bought by Burpee in 2000 and closed by them in 2006.) The catalogues … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, essay, Plant Portraits
Tagged Begonia grandis, Ceanothus thrysiflorus var. griseus 'Kurt Zadnik, Clematis recta, Dan Hinkley, Embothrium coccineum, Garden Cottage Nursery, Heronswood, Melianthus 'Purple Haze', Monrovia, Olearia 'Henry Travers', restios, Rhodocoma capensis, Roger Raiche, Roger's Gardens, Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain', Stiga gigantea, Vita Sackville-West, Windcliff
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Mergers & Acquisitions
If nature abhors a vacuum, then I am nature’s willing handmaiden. By late May, the garden is stuffed, bursting at the seams like this potted Euphorbia tirucalli. Echevarias and sedums tucked into every available spot. Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ filling in … Continue reading
Posted in essay, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged 1970 Volkswagen bus, Atriplex hortensis, Debra Lee Baldwin, Ein the wonder corgi, Euphorbia rigida, Euphorbia tirucalli, Heuchera 'Southern Comfort', plant nurseries, Polygonum orientale, Roger's Gardens, Sticks on Fire, succulents, Teucrium 'Fairy Duster', Verbena bonariensis
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The Succulent Lady
I kept telling everyone, “I’m going to a talk by the Succulent Lady!” Unlike my friends and family, most garden bloggers need no further description to know I’m talking about Debra Lee Baldwin, in Southern California promoting her new book … Continue reading
Notes on Venice Garden Tour 5/1/10
Venice, California, Zone 10, Sunset Zone 24. There was no zonal denial on display on this tour. (What would zonal denial in zone 10 look like? One example I can think of offhand would be massive, stately homes with endless … Continue reading
Tending the Front Garden
Couple weekends ago I worked in the front garden. Removed a few bricks for Sempervivum ‘Spring Beauty.’ Then weeded the Spanish poppies from the bricks and cleaned out this agave of pups and old leaves. Why’s it such a big … Continue reading
Eschscholtzia Day
Fine. California Poppy Day. But there’s a lot more Far Side of the World in the name Eschscholtzia. No, Paul Bettany hasn’t played the role of Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, at least that I’m aware of. That’s Bettany portraying the … Continue reading