Category Archives: design

shelves again

It’s true, I’m fixated on shelves. I love how they can lend a veneer of intention to one’s magpie tendencies. With the spring plant sales not far off, I’m getting ready to make some new shelving to hang on the … Continue reading

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the new courthouse

Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, Long Beach, California The old, crumbling, brutalist-era courthouse where I did a lot of jury duty time was finally, mercifully shuttered, its broken escalators never to confound us again, and the new courthouse went up a … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, design, driveby gardens, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

garden rooms year-round

With one main living area to work with, to accommodate the holidays here, it’s an inescapable fact that furniture must be shoved around and rearranged. Things are just now slipping back into their former places. Around late November, the everyday, … Continue reading

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flea market 101

Getting to our first ever flea market as buyers sellers last Sunday was a journey of just five miles. Still, it was epic in scope and had all the hallmarks of a serious expedition: Not sleeping the night before, endless … Continue reading

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flea market prep

I had so much fun yesterday organizing for the flea market this Sunday. Tapping poppy seeds into packets, gathering up all the lab beakers into a partitioned wooden box for a safe journey, making bunches of dried poppy seedpods to … Continue reading

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a very merry flea

Where & When: Find us Sunday, December 15, 2013, at the Long Beach Antique Market. It opens early (6:30 a.m.!), so it won’t take too big of a bite out of your day. Who: Me, garden designer Dustin Gimbel (non-secateur), … Continue reading

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where would Holly Golightly keep her tillandsias?

For the holidays, it’s okay to ditch the earnest glass orbs that imprison tillandsias the rest of the year and take a leaf from Holly Golightly’s decorating book, the one that epitomizes her insouciant glamour. The one each of us … Continue reading

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the awkward age

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

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Bernard Trainor’s Landprints

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

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glass artist Amanda Dziedzic

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

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