Santa, baby, are you listening? Bring me some reading material to curl up with. Literary nonfiction would be lovely—such as all those books I’ve enjoyed by Susan Orlean, Scott Calhoun, Amy Stewart, and Diane Ackerman. I’ll take a great garden reference tome, too, like The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee and GGW regular contributor/ace photographer Saxon Holt.  I’d also be thrilled by one[...]

Of all the creative, exuberant gardeners I’ve known, Laurie Connable tops the list. Laurie, who now lives in Hawaii, once had a gorgeous garden near San Diego. After I profiled her for the San Diego Union-Tribune, we became friends. Visiting Laurie’s one-acre garden was a wonderful respite, like entering a magic kingdom. She’d pour me a tall glass[...]

When I run across something visually engaging in a garden, I take a photo of it, even though I’m there to see or shoot other things. Intriguing shadows are among my favorite finds. I love the way a camera preserves something so transitory. Sometimes shadows transform an ordinary object or scene into something magical.

Autumn is a good time to look at the garden in terms of wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in imperfection and transience.  In seeking wabi-sabi, one cultivates an appreciation for the ordinary and becomes aware that age offers its own poignant beauty. Because wabi-sabi evokes a feeling, it sometimes is defined as the ability to see the invisible. For me, it’s savoring what normally[...]