Category Archives: climate
Re-post: Amsterdam houseboat gardens
In the aftermath of the 500-year storm event in Texas and the horrendous suffering it has inflicted, offering lovely houseboat scenes may seem overly naive, if not downright cruel, but just try not to dwell on the design issues that … Continue reading
Posted in climate, design, MB Maher
Tagged "Houston's Flood is a Design Problem", The Atlantic
3 Comments
the Virginia Robinson Garden
There’s always a local, hometown garden or two that we never get around to visiting, right? And that holds true even in garden-starved Southern California. The Virginia Robinson Garden in Beverly Hills has been written and rewritten in seemingly vanishing … Continue reading
cooling down the house with a garden; a modest proposal
I know I mostly talk about plants with a micro focus trained on their singularly gorgeous attributes, like Echium wildpretii above, but with this post I’m going to pull out of that narrow focus a bit and go wider. Normally … Continue reading
musing on Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden
Today I’m coveting this long water tank “rill” in British landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden flanked with bearded irises, Stipa gigantea, and astrantia, a scene possibly from late spring/very early summer? The first two I can grow here in zone … Continue reading
Posted in artists, climate, design
Tagged rill, Stipa gigantea, Tom Stuart-Smith, water tank
5 Comments
a May visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens
“If you want to have an easy life as a weather forecaster, you should get a job in Las Vegas, Phoenix or Los Angeles. Predict that it won’t rain in one of those cities, and you’ll be right about 90 … Continue reading
Rancho Reubidoux up close
Continuing the documentation of Rancho Reubidoux now that Reuben and Paul are moving on from their widely loved home and garden, as promised, here’s a companion piece to the previous post, a parting look at how Reuben styles the sitting … Continue reading
Posted in artists, climate, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Rancho Reubidoux, Reuben Munoz
7 Comments
the light is left on at Rancho Reubidoux
I’ve been dreading completing this post, but since Reuben and Paul have officially decamped from their house and garden at Rancho Reubidoux as of last week and moved into their new home, it’s time to unpack these last images and … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, climate, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Rancho Reubidoux
9 Comments
a succulent garden in February
On the way to picking up a family member’s weekly box at the CSA Growing Experience in North Long Beach last week, I took the opportunity to drive slowly through the surrounding neighborhood of mostly Spanish-style homes. It was drizzling … Continue reading
Unforgettable Fire! Natural Discourse 2016
I usually have at least a hazy impression of the origin lands of the plants in my garden. Drawing from the five mediterranean climate regions for low-rainfall plant inspiration and choices as well as arid and semi-arid regions keeps my … Continue reading