November 02, 2018
Cocktail party at Shirley Watts’ Garden: San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
July 12, 2013 Early arrivals to San Francisco for the recent Garden Bloggers Fling were invited to a cocktail party at designer and artist Shirley Watts‘ home in Alameda. Shirley graciously opened her home and garden to about 50 complete strangers, and we eagerly trooped through her kitchen and into …
Audubon magazine cites Lawn Gone!
July 11, 2013 I’m about to plunge into a series of posts about gardens I visited in San Francisco late last month, but first I must share my excitement about a mention of Lawn Gone! that appears in this month’s Audubon magazine. Titled “Food Network,” the article by Rene Ebersole …
Lawn Gone! GIVEAWAY and other perks from San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
July 11, 2013 Did you miss me? I’m back from nearly two weeks of fun Flinging with garden bloggers and sightseeing with my family in beautiful San Francisco, California. Since 2008, the Garden Bloggers Fling has been an annual tradition for me, a can’t-miss meet-up of garden bloggers from across …
Read This: Succulents Simplified
July 02, 2013 Succulents are a garden trend that shows no sign of slowing down. Easy to pot up for summer and tolerant of watering forgetfulness, they make the perfect seasonal accent even in freeze-prone climates. For those in mild-winter climates, a variety of succulents can be grown outside all …
Read This: Landprints: The Landscape Designs of Bernard Trainor
June 27, 2013 I was captivated by Bernard Trainor‘s designs the moment I saw one of them on the cover of New Garden Design, which I briefly reviewed in 2010. The image: A brimming bowl of water, mirroring the sky, is set apart on a gravel patio. To the left, …
Shirley Fox’s golden xeriscape garden in San Antonio
June 25, 2013 A week ago I traveled to San Antonio to give a public Lawn Gone! talk at the invitation of the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas. Among the 100 or so people in attendance, two Alamo City bloggers I follow, Shirley of Rock-Oak-Deer and Heather of Xericstyle, were …
Water-saving, no-lawn garden of Cyndi Kohfield
June 21, 2013 When Cyndi Kohfield and her husband bought their northwest Austin home in late 2010, they inherited a tidy front yard of lawn accented by swaths of Asian jasmine and a couple of large sago palms. As she noted in a before-and-after post on her garden blog, Growing …
Potted plants and stripey leaves for Foliage Follow-Up
June 16, 2013 It’s so simple, but I really enjoy this collection of potted plants on my back steps. I can see them from my bedroom and living room windows, and they’re a focal point when sitting outside on the upper patio. I just chose single plants to pot up …
Jewel-like cactus flowers for Bloom Day
June 15, 2013 I’m discovering the joy of growing cactus, not just for the plants’ unique shapes and light-catching spines, but for their stunning flowers as well. Their flowering may be brief — generally just a day or two, so you don’t want to miss it — but what they …
Santa Barbara street painting festival, Old Mission, and jacarandas
June 13, 2013 Santa Barbara’s 23rd annual I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival was held Memorial Day weekend on the plaza in front of the Old Mission. We stopped by on that Monday to see both. A crowd was gathering under bright-blue skies to watch the artists — the madonnari …
Native California plants shine at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
June 11, 2013 The day after arriving in Santa Barbara over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I used our Wildflower Center membership for reciprocal free admission to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Like the Wildflower Center, the SBBG is a natives-only garden — but here of course the plants …
Visit to Lotusland, part 5: Cactus Garden
June 09, 2013 Just before closing at Santa Barbara’s Lotusland, we explored the Cactus Garden, which I found even more fascinating than I expected. Despite what outsiders may imagine my home state of Texas to be like, this isn’t it. Tall, columnar cactus like these, for example, are largely unknown …
Visit to Lotusland, part 4: Rear terrace, parterre & lemon arbor
June 08, 2013 Around back of the main house at Santa Barbara’s Lotusland, you find a Spanish-style courtyard with curlicue wrought-iron gates, pink stuccoed walls, and verdigris cafe seating. A Moorish tiled fountain and rill, on axis with the gate, make a cooling focal point. The tile work makes me …
Visit to Lotusland, part 3: Aloe pool, Blue Garden & Bromeliad Garden
June 06, 2013 As we charged into Santa Barbara, California’s Lotusland, knowing we had a limited amount of time and wouldn’t be able to see everything, my first must-see areas were the oft-photographed Aloe Garden and the Blue Garden. Luckily both are fairly close to the visitor’s center. A kidney-shaped, …
