garden
Artists and Island Gardens
Like many people, I look forward to reading Robert Genn’s Twice Weekly blog. If you aren’t familiar with him, Robert Genn is a Canadian landscape painter who happens to write extremely well. Each entry is an insightful essay marked by a generosity of spirt. One entitled “Summer Joy” caught my fancy well enough to check […]
Christmas in July
It’s July and summer is in full swing. Thoughts turn to beach blankets and BBQs. But for me, it is never too soon to start thinking about Christmas. Not because I am wishing the summer away–anyone who knows me knows that summer is my favorite time of year, even here in LA. While others wilt […]
Orange Crush
A profligate impulse buy for some women is a pair of Jimmy Choos. Me, I walk into a farmer’s market to pick up a few veggies and come home with a pomegranate tree. Small children and dogs know that late June is the absolute worst time to plant anything in LA, what with four months […]
A Tale of Two Caterpillars
This is a tale of two caterpillars: the Gulf Fritillary and the Tomato Hornworm. The former, I invited into my garden; the latter is an unwanted guest. To my eyes, both are beautiful, but I revere creepy crawly things more than most people. The Gulf Fritillary grows up to be a beautiful orange butterfly; the […]
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Free Pups!
We’re not talking Chihuahuas; we’re talking Agave Tequiliana (aka Blue Agave) pups. This handsome Mexican native anchors my Los Angeles garden and produces prodigious numbers of offspring with no help from birds or bees or me. The pups are the genetically identical baby plants that spring up from the base of the parent. While the plant can […]
Hug some trees, have some fun: Arbor Day events at LA Valley College
Come Celebrate Arbor Day at the LAVC Arbor Day Festival on April 26 at Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC). Did you know LAVC was awarded Tree Campus status by the Arbor Day Foundation last year? It is the only community college in California and the only college in LA with that honor. The LAVC Associated […]
Sealed with a kiss
A kind assessment of my gardening style is “Desert meets Country Cottage.” Others might call it chaos. This speaks to a complete lack of restraint on the part of the gardener. No time is this more evident than in April when California poppies, tall pink Clarkia, Blue Flax, and Lavender “Spanish Dancer” all but obliterate […]
Forget Burning Man…
The event of the year is Tomatomania!–at least in this household. For the past month, Mark has been anxiously waiting for tomato planting season. (No matter that when we lived in Massachusetts that was after Memorial Day…not St. Patrick’s Day) The anticipation has been killing us. We’ve argued long and hard about which heirloom tomatoes […]
Uneasy being green
OK, in the vein of full disclosure, I am uneasy being green or labeled as politically correct. The risk of hypocrisy is just too great. I can picture myself at the end of my life standing in front of Ed Begley Jr. guarding the Green Gates of Heaven. He’ll pull at his long white beard […]
Cultivating my garden
At the end of Candide, after being buffeted by the trials and tribulations of life, the title character concludes that all he can do is cultivate his garden. As with Candide, it is clear to me that we do not live in “the best of all possible worlds.” While there is nothing I can do to […]