Category Archives: climate
abandonment issues
With just one week until we depart for Oregon, the Long Beach garden has finally taken a shape that feels horticulturally logical to me, according to my tastes and the slim resources it will have available in my absence. A … Continue reading
touring summer gardens
Lately I’ve been dipping more and more frequently into photos taken while garden touring last summer with the Garden Fling, a highly recommended garden tour group. Compared to what’s being reported in this crazy news cycle, making and caring for … Continue reading
“garden for fire”
This piece appeared in the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times February 13, 2025, by historian and landscape designer Wade Graham under the title: “Do more than clear brush. Garden for fire.” I wrote to the author asking for … Continue reading
Posted in climate, design
3 Comments
clippings 2/6/25
The Purple Fernleaf acacia was radically limbed up while I was in Oregon, due to its canopy encroaching on neighboring roofs and fences. It was one of the more shocking sights in the garden upon our return in October. Marty … Continue reading
Posted in climate, clippings
6 Comments
Bloomday January 2025
The 15th of every month occasions a long-running tradition for bloggers to post on blooms in their gardens wherever situated on the globe (started by Carol J. Michel). In my currently stripped-down SoCal garden, made lean on a diet of … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, climate, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents
4 Comments
August keeps its cool
August can be a rough month. In either of my gardens, I’ve never had to deal with summer rainfall, flooding, plants getting pummeled by rainstorms like some of the East Coast and South are suffering under. And coastal Los Angeles … Continue reading
Posted in climate, Oregon garden
5 Comments
thank you, Garden Fling 2024
A quick thanks, a few photos, and a short introduction to the Garden Fling, in the off chance a reader of AGO has never heard of this special garden tour. Since 2008, the garden tour now known as the Garden … Continue reading
Posted in climate, garden travel, garden visit
10 Comments
wet and cool in a temperate rain forest
I get it, most local people I talk to are ready for sunnier days. This day has flushed sunny, rainy, and sunny again several times, all before noon. The 90″ of rain that makes this temperate rain forest possible, a … Continue reading
Posted in climate, Oregon garden
9 Comments
March mixes it up
The month of March, fittingly named for the god of war, here at the coast is a pitched battle between winter and spring. Winter battles for supremacy lobbing hail, snow, and night-time freezing temperatures, but it’s a dead-ender’s ploy. Spring … Continue reading
Posted in blog, climate, Oregon garden
7 Comments
Oregon Coast garden in February
I apologize up front for the contrasty results of my point-and-shoot on this brilliantly sunny morning, but it will be too dark for photos within the hour under these temperamental skies. (This is as far as the working collaboration with … Continue reading
Posted in climate, Oregon garden
8 Comments