I’ve been meaning to mention a piece I read in the local paper a few months back. Dick Streeper, gung-ho local rose grower and one of the founders of the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden in San Diego’s amazing… Read More »are roses dead?
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that people often hate to go shopping with me. Plants, clothes, paint colors, cheese…it can sometimes take me a long time to make up my mind. I admit that these aren’t life-or-death decisions I’m… Read More »agonizing over the right pot
Indulge me, if you would, a quick return to last month’s San Diego County Fair. There, in the flower show going on in the botanical building, I ran across this one class they had for “most unusual foliage.” Flowers are… Read More »solana succulents
This is a quick update on the composter I picked up back in early May. Was eight weeks enough time during a cool spring to create a batch of usable compost? I wondered. Yes and no seems to be the… Read More »compost update
It’s been a cool summer so far, following on the heels of a sunny but cool spring. I’ve been watching the temperatures in the paper for Fairbanks, Alaska, and most days the official San Diego report has been cooler. In… Read More »colder than alaska
We had some people over to view the local fireworks yesterday. To mark the occasion I threw together some of the blooming natives from the garden for a pastel rendition of the red, white and blue theme of the day.… Read More »almost red white and blue natives
On my recent trip to the San Diego County Fair the horticultural displays seemed to divide into two big categories: exhibits that featured cool designs (usually entered by a landscape design firm or individual) and those that feature some pretty… Read More »fairly cool plants
Let me share my favorite garden design from this year’s San Diego County Fair. If I tell you that I grew up on Sunset Magazine and that I frequented the Sunset demonstration gardens at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in… Read More »more from the county fair
Are gardeners terrorists? You’d think so looking at the sign posted outside the San Diego County Fair. This gardener took advantage of the “Furlough Friday” deal for state employees (free admission!) and checked out the offerings of the fair for… Read More »at the county fair
I love a good book that surprises you. When I was talking to a botanist a couple months ago and she recommended Oscar F. Clarke’s Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs : with references to world botany, I… Read More »good book, cool trivia