Category Archives: design

the awkward age

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Denise

My garden has lived through lots of them and will most likely continue to do so while I’m in charge. The latest awkward age involves a flowering agave and a young tree. Or maybe it will be a shrub. Neither … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, Plant Portraits, succulents | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Bernard Trainor’s Landprints

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Denise

Ages and ages ago (last July in fact) a bunch of us garden bloggers visited gardens in Northern California at last summer’s meetup known as the Fling. For the temperate Bay Area, it was an incredibly hot day, and we … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

glass artist Amanda Dziedzic

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Denise

As someone who has had the same Vilmorin Andrieux prints of oversized vegetables in the kitchen since we moved in 20 years ago, I’ve always admired artists who respect vegetables. The Design Files recently did one of their signature, long-form … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

So Cal Hort’s “Coffee in the Nash Garden”

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Denise

Potted dwarf pomegranate Southern California Horticultural Society sent out a “Coffee in the Garden” invitation to its members for a late October visit to Donivee Nash’s garden in Arcadia, redesigned by Judy Horton in 2009. Participation in hort. society events … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, design, garden visit | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

the colors of Bilbergia nutans

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Denise

The first bloom of the common Queen’s Tears bromeliad, Bilbergia nutans, is just so very startling when it arrives, especially if you’ve only seen it in photos before. Like drop-your-coffee-cup startling. As though David Hockney was in the garden overnight … Continue reading →

Posted in design, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

prowling the plant nurseries in fall

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Denise

A startling sight at a local nursery this week was Dalea frutescens in roaring, five-alarm bloom, a Texas native that endures extreme heat and drought, then explodes with flowers in fall. Imagine this Black Dalea with muhly grass, Muhlenbergia capillaris, … Continue reading →

Posted in design, Plant Portraits | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

in the news

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Denise

Since the government shutdown, I’ve been checking in with The New York Times at an increasingly feverish pace, several times a day, (and doing little else, it seems), so it was in real time that the story on James Golden … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, clippings, design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Natural Discourse: Culture & Cultivation 10/10/13

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Denise

What to make of this impulse to create gardens? Most of my ruminations are done leaning on a shovel, or moving a pot inches to the left and wondering why in the world it matters. One of the few constants … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, creatures, design, photography, science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

tithonia for Clarice Cliff

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Denise

I’m still cutting buckets of tithonia from the community garden plot and filling every vase in the house, even those I usually leave empty, like this museum reissue of a Clarice Cliff vase, the 20th century British ceramic artist famous … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, cut flowers, design | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

shrub

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Denise

What occupies my thoughts on the garden for next year this hot Sunday is nothing more earth shakingly consequential than planning the beginning of a smallish spine of shrubs to snake through bays of herbaceous stuff. Ozothamnus ‘Sussex Silver’ moved … Continue reading →

Posted in design, Plant Portraits | Tagged , , | 1 Comment