An evening visit to Scott Calhoun’s Zona Gardens studio
October 31, 2012 I don’t remember how I acquired Yard Full of Sun, Scott Calhoun’s 2005 memoir about making a garden that honors its desert setting. As soon as I read the first pages, his story, told with humor, crisp writing, and enticing photos, hooked me. Since then I’ve read ...
Visit to Tucson Botanical Gardens, part 2
October 30, 2012 Tucson Botanical Gardens, which I visited as part of the recent Garden Writers Association symposium, is a surprisingly eclectic place. As I wrote in part 1 of my visit to TBG, the gardens house a wonderful collection of desert plants from all over the world, are home ...
Visit to Tucson Botanical Gardens, part 1
October 29, 2012 An early morning photo shoot at Tucson Botanical Gardens, one of the events at the recent Garden Writers Association symposium, gave me (and about 60 other garden writers and photographers) a chance to see the gardens relatively uncrowded and illuminated by the rising sun. I expected a ...
Artful desert garden of Keith and Helga Zwickl
October 28, 2012Morning light gilds the cactus and succulent garden Keith and Helga Zwickl welcomed us to their Tucson, Arizona, garden during the Garden Writers Association symposium a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed this garden, not only for its stunning collection of cacti and succulents, but also for ...
The DreamFlower desert garden of Lorien Tersey
October 26, 2012Arizona adobe When you have to jackhammer the “soil” to plant anything, when your garden gets only 12 inches of rainfall a year, when you live in a desert, you just know gardening isn’t going to be easy. And yet, despite these conditions in Tucson, Arizona, which I ...
Colored walls in a desert oasis: Garden of Alan Richards
October 25, 2012Rhapsody in blue What do you expect to see when you visit a desert garden? Cactus, of course, in all its architectural, spiny splendor. I recently attended the annual Garden Writers Association Symposium, held this year in Tucson, Arizona. We were bused to three private gardens, along with ...
Mule skinning in the Grand Canyon
October 11, 2009 The mule doesn’t want to die either. That’s what I keep telling myself as I ride Buttermilk down Bright Angel Trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet and 5-1/2 hours below. Her sides are broader than the trail itself, so when I lift my ...
