I haven’t stepped out into my garden since Wednesday. It rained so hard on Friday, that our back patio flooded and my daughter and nephew started scooping up water using buckets and throwing it onto the back lawn. To top it off, I have been rotating between my favorite chair in the family room and […]
The other day, I was driving home from a landscape consult and as usual – I was on the lookout for examples of good and bad landscaping. This particular day, I saw some great examples that I would love to share with you. First the good… my favorite flowering shrubs Isn’t this landscape grouping, attractive? […]
This past weekend, I had a special helper accompany me on one of my landscape consults…. My son, Kai. He has never expressed any interest in going with me before – but I think he was bored and his best friend (who lives across the street) wasn’t going to be home. So, Kai offered to […]
The ‘Torch Glow’ Bougainvillea Dilemma In my last post, I showed you a photo of a “landscape no-no” and challenged you to guess what the problem was. Were you able to guess what is wrong with this planting? I gave a hint that the plant in the middle is ‘Torch Glow’ Bougainvillea. Well, I am […]
Are you the type of person that notices what is wrong more then what is right? Although I would describe myself as having an outlook as a “glass half-full” and tend to observe the positive – it doesn’t carry over when I look at landscapes. I think that it is because I am supposed to […]
Rain shaft heading straight for us. Torrential rain began to fall just a 1/2 hour after I took this picture. You would think that living in the desert – that we don’t get much rain. While it’s true that we don’t get as much rain as most people, we do experience periods of torrential, summer […]
Some of you may recall me telling you about a young tree that had suffered terrible frost damage during the winter of 2011. The tree was located at Double S Farms, which is where my mother, my sister and her family live. This Sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo) tree had turned brown and ‘crispy’. We waited until […]
cool-season vegetable Oh, I have been imagining the bounty of vegetables that will come from my cool-season vegetable garden. I have visions of of harvesting lettuce, garlic, carrots, green onions, cauliflower, spinach and radishes fresh from the garden. Marigolds and nasturtiums will also be included in the vegetable garden to help keep bad bugs away […]
Every year, I hope to avoid a certain malady that always pops its head up in mid-August. I was pretty sure I had skipped it this year, but early this week – it hit me. What is this malady? “I don’t want to venture out into my garden.” seasonal malady Shocking, isn’t it? Now, there […]
A beautiful and successful garden, attracts pollinators. My three favorite pollinators begin with the letter ‘B’ – bees, butterflies and birds. First, the bees… Icelandic Poppy Begonia Rabbitbrush Now, butterflies… Swallowtail and Dianthus Pipevine Swallowtail White Checkered Butterfly And, my favorite – birds… Black-Chinned Hummingbird feeding from Ocotillo flower. What kind of pollinators do you […]
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