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James

geometry

I love lots of natural-style plantings that I’ve seen, but I also appreciate a sensitive use of geometry. Click here to see a planting of fifteen Pachypodium geayi (Madagascar palms) that I ran across rummaging through the plant files at… Read More »geometry

the snake path

I just wrote about Robert Irwin’s terrific artwork in the UCSD Stuart collection. The collection has another piece that I like, Alexis Smith’s Snake Path, from 1992. From the collection’s page on the artist: Smith’s work for the Stuart Collection… Read More »the snake path

return of the native

I’ve been watching the seedlings, and now they’re just beginning to bloom: Ranunculus californicus, a.k.a. “California buttercup.” I bought a plant at a native plant sale maybe ten years ago. The species gows 18-24 inches tall, is drought-tolerant, and stays… Read More »return of the native

"garden art"

Set in the fake forest of UCSD’s eucalyptus groves is one my favorite artworks. Robert Irwin’s Two Running Violet V Forms was installed in 1983 as part of the campus’ Stuart Collection of site-specific outdoor art. The piece, like much… Read More »"garden art"

a fake forest

Last time, I wrote about going to the eucalyptus groves at UCSD to look for wildflowers. I’ve always been fascinated with these areas of the campus. Boston ivy growing on brick buildings might define the look of certain East Coast… Read More »a fake forest

into the wild

A couple posts ago I mentioned dichelostemma blooming in the garden and I was thinking that they were probably also blooming wild in the natural spaces around me. I took a lunchtime walk through one of the semi-wild areas on… Read More »into the wild

shading a greenhouse

A few years back I wrote an article for The Growing Edge magazine on a fun greenhouse shading system that I’d devised using plywood sheets cut into interesting shapes. I was trapsing around Google Books and ended up googling myself.… Read More »shading a greenhouse