Monthly Archives: January 2013

driveby garden; 1/31/13

Do you consider the color of your house and its role as a backdrop/canvas for the garden? I can’t believe the luscious, creamy, chlorophylly color on this house was an accident. The plants are positively strutting and preening against it. … Continue reading

Posted in design, driveby gardens, succulents | Tagged | 6 Comments

scenes from Versailles

As promised, photos of the gardens of Versailles, the apogee of the French formal garden style, designed by landscape architect Andre Le Notre for King Louis XIV of France (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715). With itinerant photographer MB … Continue reading

Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

winter veg

This is my first winter in a new community organic garden. The first summer, which was 2012, was so dreadful that I couldn’t bring myself to post about it. I’ve participated in community gardens in the past, got too busy, … Continue reading

Posted in edibles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

comparative aeoniums

One of the perks of winter in a Mediterranean climate is stooping over plants, cup of coffee in hand, hair spangled and frizzed with rain, inspecting the beneficent aftermath of the previous night’s rainfall on the garden. Which are some … Continue reading

Posted in succulents | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

1/24/13 Thursday Garden Talk with Lili Singer

I had the belated, long-postponed, very intense pleasure of attending one of Lili Singer’s Thursday Garden Talks held by the Los Angeles County Arboretum, a tradition going back ten years. Lili Singer has long been so embedded and enmeshed in … Continue reading

Posted in design, driveby gardens, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Occasional Daily Weather Report 1/23/13

Eye strain has kept me away from the computer for a few days, so following butterflies around the garden has been more my speed. I blame the eye strain mostly on the amount of political news I read online, far … Continue reading

Posted in Occasional Daily Weather Report | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

driveby garden: Baker Street, San Francisco

For those who plan to attend the garden blogger meetup in San Francisco this year, known as the Garden Bloggers Fling, here’s a tiny glimpse of what the City offers mid January. And if you haven’t decided to attend yet, … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, driveby gardens, garden travel, garden visit, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

still lifes with flowers; work by artist Laura Jones

A welcome sight mid January are these lush, color-soaked still lifes by Laura Jones, an artist in Sydney, Australia. Nice interview, too, via the design files.

Posted in design | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

UCBG Natural Discourse: Form and Function 1/11/13

The final event in the unique, year-long collaboration that the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley undertook with “artists, architects, scientists and poets in the garden,” Natural Discourse, was held Friday, January 11, 2013. As co-curator Shirley Watts explained … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

no-burn day

On the drive to work this morning, my local public radio station advised that today is a no-burn day. I had never heard that term before, though I’m familiar with the reasoning behind it: “A ‘no burn’ alert is in … Continue reading

Posted in science, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments