Have you noticed? Fingers are sometimes too short, fat and clumsy for picking bits of dirt, dried leaves and pebbles from plants with narrow leaf axils, rosette succulents and spiny cacti. Which is why I wouldn’t be without my long-handled tweezers. Not only is debris unsightly, it holds moisture that can rot the crown. I like to groom fleshy or [...]
Here in the far southwestern corner of the US, we have our own ways of interpreting the autumn garden—cactus, succulents, dry gardens, fruit and pumpkins all come into play.
Several years ago, I met artist Diane Palley McDonald while doing an article about her studio’s makeover for the San Diego Union-Tribune. (The news angle was that it was on HGTV’s “Designer’s Challenge.”) When I saw Diane’s paintings, I wistfully told her how much I loved watercolors. She asked, “Well, then, why not paint your own?” [...]
Leave it to LA. Designers in that city are using crushed glass to snazz potted plants. The glass, tumbled so the edges are smooth (it’s often from recycled bottles) lends a splash of glamor.Landscape designer Laura Morton married a pink-edged phormium with an Italian terracotta pot, using a topdressing of peachy-pink glass that also draws [...]
Of the dozen or so botanical gardens I’ve visited, San Diego’s singularly lacks conservatories. It doesn’t need them. Its coastal location has an ideal temperature range for plants as well as people, seldom going below 40 or above 90 F. I live half an hour’s drive from the San Diego Botanic Garden, so I [...]