Category Archives: design
The Porch Steps Up
As garden space shrinks, the focus becomes ever more minute, with no strip of soil too narrow to remain unexploited. For example, I’m really starting to work the back porch. Every inch, as in the crevice between porch and brick … Continue reading
Landscape Crit
A new shopping center was planted with sharp plants four years ago. Agaves, yuccas. I was thrilled but also slightly alarmed.
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, succulents
Tagged Agave 'Blue Flame', Agave 'Blue Glow', Agave americana, Agave attenuata, Agave desmettiana, Agave parryi var. truncata, Agave weberi 'Arizona Star', California, Del Amo Mall, Salvia greggii, sansevieria, Senecio mandraliscae, The Malling of America by William Severini Kowinski, Torrance, Yucca aloifolia, Yucca rostrata
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Lemon Arbor
Arbors of roses, wisteria, grapes, long trusses of laburnum…timeless horticultural cliches under which one glides lost in the quandary of which Jane Austen heroine one resembles most. (Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.) Never had I walked under an arbor of … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit
Tagged arbor, Fanny Price, Jane Austen, lemons, limoncello, Lotusland, Mansfield Park
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Photographer James Wojcik
Possibly one of the most visually inventive editorial product photographers working today. Some garden themes. James Wojcik
Free-Range Succulents
At Lotusland (USDA zone 10), it was thrilling to see succulents set free from ceramic pots to creep and spill over rocks. Increasingly, even in frost-free gardens, succulents have become the darlings of container designs, but where they can overwinter … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden visit, succulents
Tagged Lotusland, succulents, USDA climate zones
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Changing Tastes
I visited a couple nurseries today and was a bit horrified by the seemingly overnight invasion of flat after flat of “spring color,” a reaction which made me wonder if I’m growing snobbish. So am I a snob? I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in design
Tagged bearded irises, beschorneria, Henry Mitchell, Rose 'Bouquet d'Or', Stipa gigantea
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Orange Is A Color You Either Love or Hate
The front gravel garden is aglow in orange. Dyckias, Spanish poppies. Personally, I’m on very good terms with orange. Some good plants refuse to come in any other color.
Le Prince Jardinier
Véritable chaise des jardins parisiens restaurée. Google translation: “Chair of the true Parisian gardens restored.” The Parisian shop Le Prince Jardinier is mentioned by Natalia Hill in her piece “Get Stuffed — The Animal Wonderland of Deyrolle,” found on the … Continue reading