Tag: Regional Design

The Water-Saving Garden book party and giveaway

The Water-Saving Garden book party and giveaway

I’m thrilled to be invited to help celebrate the release of Pam Penick’s second book, The Water Saving Garden, with a party that you’re all invited to attend (awesome prizes included!) As a follow-up to her first book Lawn Gone (and one of my personal favorites), The Water Saving Garden delves even deeper into the practical […]

My February Garden

My February Garden

Thanks to the El Nino weather pattern we’ve been experiencing here along the West Coast (lots of rain followed by unseasonably warm temperatures) my garden is exploding with blooms much earlier that it ever has before. I’m a bit worried that my poor plants are being tricked into thinking spring has arrived, only to be […]

New Year, New Changes!

New Year, New Changes!

January has been a busy month for me, full of exciting changes (including a new look for my website and blog.)   And, in addition to my landscape design business, and writing for Horticulture magazine, I’ve also accepted the position of Seminar Manager for the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show. For the past few months, […]

A life changing journey for me and three gardens

A life changing journey for me and three gardens

It’s taken me several days to write this, as I just can’t seem to grasp that a year has already passed since I posted my glass pumpkin photo with the accompanying news of my cancer diagnosis. Some days it feels like it was a lifetime ago, while other days it feels like only moments have […]

S.F. Conservatory of Flowers: Aquascapes & Pitcher Plant Bonanza

S.F. Conservatory of Flowers: Aquascapes & Pitcher Plant Bonanza

This past weekend my husband, Tom, and I spent an afternoon wandering through the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, enjoying the rare chance to sneak away and visit a different world for awhile. I have a confession – while I’ve been there at least a half dozen times in my life and, yes, it’s truly […]

NYC summer garden tour wrap-up guy wolff pottery

NYC summer garden tour wrap-up

As summer comes to a close, I thought I’d share with you the last gardening tidbits from my summer in New York. They might seem a little disjointed from one another, but I hope you find them interesting  nonetheless!  (To read about the other gardens I visited, click here, here, here, and here!) 1.  Guy […]

New York’s Conservatory Garden central park conservatory garden

New York’s Conservatory Garden

Without a doubt, one of my very favorite places in New York is Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. This was my first time visiting this garden, and I’ll admit I mistakenly thought it would be yet one more formal garden filled with the predictable evergreens, fountains and acres of lawn (pretty, but probably not the most […]

Celebrating Community Gardens in NYC

Celebrating Community Gardens in NYC

One of the many things I love about New York is the surprising amount of community gardens tucked in here and there just waiting to be discovered.  Some are small, some large, some created for children, some for quiet contemplation.  They’re everywhere! As I’ve mentioned in the past, as much as my daughter enjoys hanging […]

The Heather Garden & The Cloisters

The Heather Garden & The Cloisters

After spending two months in Manhattan, it would be an understatement to say I was in dire need of a bit of nature. So one day last week, I hopped on the subway to the very edge of the city to explore The Cloisters (a branch of the Metropolitan Museum dedicated to Medieval art). While […]

Replacing a lawn with a garden – Part 3

Replacing a lawn with a garden – Part 3

Here we are at the end of May and I’m happy to share with you the final phase of my front garden re-do! As you may recall, in January I finally decided to remove my little-used front lawn and replace it with a low-water garden (you can read about it here and here). After moving around my new […]

P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm P. Allen Smith Moss Mountain

P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm

A few years ago, I spent a glorious weekend at P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Most of you know P. Allen Smith – he’s a gardening icon here in America: a TV host with 2 long-running shows (Garden Home & Garden to Table), a sought-after garden designer, artist, etc. But […]

Festina Lente – Filoli’s winter garden

Festina Lente – Filoli’s winter garden

 Festina Lente.  Powerful words used since ancient times by the likes of emperors, military commanders, authors, artists and even Shakespeare himself. Translated, festina lente means ‘hurry slowly’.  Personally, I think  my neighbor’s bumper sticker says it best –  ‘Hurry up and slow down‘. Out of the corner of my eye I discovered this plaque placed […]