Spring Photo Contest Winners

The entries are in and we have a winner ! Congratulations to Grace at eTilth for the photo of Erythroniums tucked by this urn in the Dunn Garden in Seattle. As a new feature for our contest,  have put all the entries into a flickr Album and offered critiques of each, showing my before and after suggestions[...]

Barbra Streisand’s Secluded ’70s Retreat

For nearly a decade, I covered homes, gardens, architecture and design for the San Diego Union-Tribune, visiting the city’s (and sometimes Southern CA’s) most gorgeous homes. One of the most memorable was Barbra Streisand’s multi-house compound in Malibu (she has since moved, and no, I didn’t meet her). I own the article’s copyright, so for[...]

Gardening, Joy, and Gratitude

Fran Sorin in grden

“The root of joy is gratefulness…It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”  David Steindl- Rast For a lot of folks, gardening is a pleasurable hobby that relieves stress. It’s an activity where you can be both productive and bring beauty into the world. But I’m curious to know,[...]