Walk with me in Vancouver, BC, Canada

The last week of July, it was 116 degrees (47 Celcius) in my Arizona garden. Luckily, I escaped to Vancouver, Canada, for a few days to enjoy pleasant summer days and temperatures in the low 80s (26 )....   Continue Reading

Flowers in the Tetons, Wyoming

The majestic mountains are so big, the sky so wide and the view in every direction is spectacular.  Exploring the Grand Tetons is an experience of grand proportions.  It is easy to miss the wildflowers  surviving in this dry climate under a bright summer sun. Yet the flowers are there, in yellow, purple, red and white....   Continue Reading

Let’s Celebrate! Fredrick Olmstead made everything better

Let’s Celebrate!

Here’s something worth celebrating, and it’s not National Walk to Work Day (April 1) or Lima Bean Respect Day (April 20). Instead, it’s a yearlong celebration of the first American Landscape Architect, Frederick Law Olmstead....   Continue Reading

Celebrating Flowers

“When it is Spring, it is best to believe in something,”* and I believe in celebrating flowers.

Fortunately, I am not alone in this belief. All around the world, flower festivals, home garden tours, and flower shows offer an immersive experience in color, fragrance, form, and design, all in celebration of flowers. I’ve been seeking out these experiences for years, I encourage you to set out on travel adventures to experience these extraordinary events celebrating flowers....   Continue Reading

Guardians of the Gardens

Heading into a new year the last thing any of us wanted was another round of virus vexation. Most of us have done everything we can to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. We’ve stayed home in our gardens (if we are lucky enough to have one), we’ve worn our masks, gotten our shots, and yet here we are still on the bumpy road of uncertainty, restrictions, and canceled plans. ...   Continue Reading

This World

As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.”
                                                               Mary Oliver...   Continue Reading

A Walk Along Spokane River

Recently I went to Spokane, WA to speak to the Inland Empire Gardeners*, a phenomenal garden club with hundreds of members and unaffiliated with any national club organization. This club operates under a board of directors, and a three-sister management team that keeps its members educated about growing trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables in Spokane Valley. ...   Continue Reading

Hortense had a garden

Hortense Miller Garden, Laguna Beach, CA

On a steep hillside of Boat Canyon overlooking artistic town of Laguna Beach and the Pacific Ocean is the two and a half-acre garden of Hortense Miller.  I’ve never met a person named Hortense, but if you are given such a name, the derivative of which is Hortus as in garden, it seems likely you would love a garden.  Hortense experienced a magical moment when she was five years old and her kindergarten teacher took the class on a walk “to look over a picket fence into the neglected front yard of an empty house. Thousands of dandelions had opened in the sunshine, standing knee-high in long grass”* and the glory of that moment influenced her for the rest of her life. By age 12 she declared she would: Never eat animals, never marry, and never have children. ...   Continue Reading

Splendor on the Side

A creative gardener transforms a strip of land into a magical garden

Gardeners today have less space, less water and seem less able to lavish time on their patch of ground. Yet ask nearly any gardener and they have no less desire for a beautiful garden outside their door. Inspired, creative thinking coupled with a fascination of the world of succulents enabled Lisa, a member of the Laguna Beach Garden Club in CA to transform a 15’ wide side yard strip of ground into a magical mix of low water use plants and artful touches, creating two thematic gardens....   Continue Reading