When publisher Timber Press proposed a celebratory 10th anniversary, second edition of Designing with Succulents, I figured all I’d have to do is change a word here and there and add a few photos. So I agreed to what seemed like a reasonable deadline—six months. But as soon as I dove into the project, I realized so much[...]
AND THE WINNER IS: BECKY KIRTS! Becky was chosen at random and has been notified. (If I don’t hear from Becky in 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.) Thank you all for participating. I have more giveaways in mind, so stay tuned! “Gardening with Foliage First” by Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz is a book I[...]
I was not planning a photo session when I went out to prune my Magnolia soulangeana. It seems to have been raining all winter in here in California, and I never found the time to get my winter pruning done. By the time I got around to pruning, the magnolia was just beginning to flower. It[...]
We’re not used to so much rain here in Southern CA. One series of storms has followed another. I’ve been gleefully gathering buckets of fresh rainwater for my potted plants. Could the drought finally be over? Well, no. It’ll take hundreds of years for underground aquifers to refill. The snowpack isn’t adequate for our future water supply.[...]
Several years ago, I posted the first version of my “Twelve Days of Cactus” on GGW. This is an updated (and I hope improved) version that has a corresponding YouTube video complete with music. The “first day” of both is the same—that dove in a prickly pear tree is just too good not to use again. Now, see if[...]