One of the great things about garden making is not knowing where my efforts might lead. As a designer, I’m strictly fly-by-wire, so I never really am sure, exactly, how things will turn out. Many of my gardens have evolved in unexpected ways over the years. In the same vein, many of the paths I’ve made[...]

Around here there are all kinds of chichi food stores and Latin and Asian markets. And in some of them, the produce sections bulge with all manner of intriguing looking items:  tropical bulbs, rhizomes and who knows what all. I have no idea what these strangely bulbous things are, other than a part of somebody else’s diet.

For those of you who have visitied Chanticleer in the last few years, you may remember a grand vessel, a Turkish oil jar looming in the courtyards. In a rare display of restraint, I have avoided planting this wonderful piece. For one thing, I couldn’t decide which of the many plants I work with that[...]

You can blame today’s post on Arlo Guthrie. See, I’d planned to write about my foundation planting for this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, and I’d intended to think about that while I was out working in the garden this morning. But somehow, the song “Alice’s Restaurant” popped into my head and wouldn’t leave. Usually, the[...]