Category Archives: books
Under Western Skies
“[M]ost gardens are a three-part alchemy between the riches and constraints of the natural and/or cultural history of the place, the individual creativity and personality of the gardener, and the gardening culture in which both the garden and the gardener … Continue reading
Posted in books
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clippings 4/28/21
For Southern California gardeners: Melianthus ‘Purple Haze’ was spotted at Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano this month, a single plant. After planting, try not to move it around too much; in zone 10, placement that avoids afternoon sun is … Continue reading
Fearless Gardening book giveaway winner!
Well, well, well, it’s February 1st, an auspicious day on AGO because it means the door has closed on the Fearless Gardening book giveaway. The names of those who left comments on the blog and Instagram were written on paper, … Continue reading
Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl; a review/giveaway
I’ve been following Pacific Northwest gardens and nurseries for decades and often fantasize about having a garden in a modified-mediterranean, 40 inches-of-rain-a-year zone 8. There’s lots of plants I’d be able to grow for the first time, but there’d have … Continue reading
Posted in artists, books, climate, design, inspire me, pots and containers
Tagged Fearless Gardening
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clippings, holiday edition 12/11/19
The brick-red thunbergia vine that I was training up to the roof eaves was blown off its fishing line support during a Santa Ana wind event and collapsed on itself, losing about 4 feet of height in the bargain. With … Continue reading
Posted in books, clippings, commerce, garden ornament
5 Comments
some good reads
Next time you’re visiting Joshua Tree National Park, take a moment from reveling in the restorative, otherworldly sights of the desert to give thanks to Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, “hailed as the first desert conservationist and called the Woman of the … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, books, succulents
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Gardenlust at the Huntington
One of the items on my wish list this holiday is the recently published book Gardenlust by Christopher Woods. And what better way to vet a book than to hear the author himself describe it, which I was able to … Continue reading
Posted in books, design, garden travel
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spooked!
True! –nervous –very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses –not destroyed –not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I … Continue reading
coloring outside the lines; Hot Color, Dry Garden
In her new book “Hot Color, Dry Garden,” botanist/biologist/educator Nan Sterman aims to reassure readers that in these uncertain, climactically challenging times for gardens in the drought-afflicted western U.S., there’s no need to scrimp on what compels us to make … Continue reading
Charles Jones, gardener & photographer
“Jones, the son of a master butcher, was born in 1866 and trained as a gardener from an early age. At the age of 27, he began working at Ote Hall in West Sussex tending the estate’s fruit trees and … Continue reading
Posted in books, photography
Tagged 19th century, botanical photography, Charles Jones, estate gardens, Ote Hall, The New York Review of Books
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