Category Archives: design
of ponds and pyramids at Digging Dog Nursery
Returning to the June 2018 visit to Mendocino for the Garden Conservancy Open Days, the second garden we visited belonged to Digging Dog Nursery, also the home of co-owners Deborah Whigham and Gary Ratway. The garden comprises five acres, the … Continue reading
S A Y A Designs
When Victoria at S A Y A Designs asked if I wanted to know more about her work in helping to replant rain forests in Indonesia, I told her most definitely yes, I very much would be interested in knowing … Continue reading
Posted in artists, commerce, design, inspire me, MB Maher
Tagged circular economy, deforestation, hair sticks, S A Y A Designs, tropical hardwood trees
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Garden Conservancy Open Days/Mendocino/Moss Garden
cooler on Sunday, June 24, Mendocino Bot. Garden, a plant mix like nowhere else of conifers, maples, perennials, redwoods. Island beds designed by Gary Ratway. The buzz started spreading at the Austin Garden Bloggers Fling in May, at least among … Continue reading
Posted in climate, design, garden travel, garden visit, journal
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new entry gardens at the Huntington; form, color, texture & time
On the 14th of this month I attended a lecture by Huntington Botanical Gardens head gardener Seth Baker entitled “The 4D Garden; Landscape Design Using Form, Color, Texture, and Time.” If I understood correctly, it was his first such public … Continue reading
revisiting Nancy Goslee Power’s private garden
The Los Angeles Times ran a profile on Ms. Power this weekend (“She spent decades transforming Southern California landmarks. Go inside Nancy Goslee Power’s private garden,” so I’m grabbing the opportunity to repost a visit I made to her garden … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden visit
Tagged Nancy Goslee Power, Southern Californnia, summer dry climate
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Dustin Gimbel’s garden in May
I’ve talked about Dustin’s ceramics a lot lately, but how’s his garden growing this very grey-skied May? Last week Shirley Watts was in town for talks on the next installment of Natural Discourse’s installation at the LA Arboretum in spring … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, design, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers
Tagged Acacia pendula, Agave mitis var. albidior, Anthericum saundersiae 'Variegata', Bilbergia 'Hallelujah', Dustin Gimbel Second Nature Garden Design, garden designer Shirley Watts, Natural Discourse 2018, Russelia equisetiformis, Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ogon Nishiki'
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the Nino garden gnome
You either embrace kitsch or you don’t (i.e. run away screaming). Or, in the case of Rome-based Plato Designs, you turn kitsch on its red-hooded head and recast it in cubist contours. “Garden gnomes: love them or hate them, there … Continue reading
multifaceted Mirador house, Austin TX
Heroic in scale, the agaves and Cor-Ten steel undulating walls wet with rain, topped by a grove of Yucca rostrata at the rear entrance to the property. I was so intrigued by this garden I visited in Austin earlier this … Continue reading
wrap-up; Garden Bloggers Fling Austin 2018
the last night’s post-tour dinner in a field of larkspur Austin opened its friendly arms wide, Texas-style, in a full-circle welcome to garden bloggers from all over the world. These annual soirees and orgies of garden touring and plant talk … Continue reading
wednesday vignettes 5/2/18
More Palm Springs-style landscape architecture from the recent Pasadena Garden Conservancy Open Days, in this case overlooking a deep arroyo, with some of the foothills’ iconic bridges in the distance. The landscape design zealously protects views and is as much … Continue reading