I wrote last month about my affinity for big leaves. I love the really massive ones, like the butterburr above. Those that create instant focal points, that raise the bar for potentially dramtic foliage groupings and that add the tropical pizzaz I’m after to transform my gardens into the landscape of my imagination. Last time out, I[...]
I loved Fran’s post about seasonal rituals. I celebrate many, one of my favorites being my wife’s family’s tradition of an outdoor Thanksgiving. We-about 50 friends and relatives attend each year–have feasted on turkey and all the fixins’ on warm sunny days, in pouring rain, and with a foot of snow on the ground. Late November[...]
Summer has now slipped into September, and the Madrone bark cracks. Like sinews along the branch, the bark peels back revealing a fresh new skin, vaguely green and ready for winter growth. The old skin exfoliates almost suddenly, brought on by heat in a seasonal pattern nature repeats every summer. A sure sign that, here[...]
In working with a couple this past spring on a design renovation of their backyard pool area and a design for their newly built guest house, they mentioned that they were bothered by some plastic covers on top of the grates in the front of their house. They asked me to do something about it. Because their request was a ‘by the[...]
I wasn’t going to post again so soon – after all, I’m a newbie at it – but I have to share about the impromptu garden parties at my house last weekend. Nighttime is a fairly strange time to gather in most gardens, but my friends and I had a reason: My night-blooming cereus bloomed[...]