container gardening

Punctuating The Garden

– Posted in: Garden Design

Hah! I bet you thought I’d be posting about exclamation points! Exciting stuff! Focal points! But no, today I shall focus on the lowly, misunderstood, but oh-so invaluable comma. Let’s think for a moment about its role. According to Wikipedia, “the comma is used in many contexts and languages, principally for separating things.” So what exactly [...]

The Flora of Rancho La Puerta

– Posted in: Garden Adventures, Garden Design

Kudos to designer Sara Livia Brightwood for her work at Rancho La Puerta fitness resort and spa in Tecate, Baja California (just across the border from San Diego). The  world-class resort, in a drought-prone region, is a model for low-water landscape-design. For example, fields seeded with poppies and lupines. I was there when the aloes were in bloom. Massing them really makes an impact. [...]

GBDW – Container Plantings Wrap-Up

– Posted in: Garden Design

Pots, planters, windowboxes, and hanging baskets: If it can hold potting soil, we’ll stick a plant in it. Some of us have gotten the knack for creating and maintaining amazing container plantings and use those skills to the utmost. Others of us aren’t quite as successful, but we can admire what our more successful counterparts have [...]

Over The Top Couture Container Gardening

– Posted in: Garden Design

I have always been a huge fan of Chanticleer, what was once a private estate garden in the suburbs of Philadelphia that was turned into a public garden in the early 1990s by its owner, Adolph Rosengarten and led by the extremely talented Chris Woods, and in recent years by the very capable hands of Bill Thomas, [...]