Creativity in the Heat

When your garden is located in a climate of 30 days of temperatures at or over 110 degrees, it’s tough to want to do any creative gardening. I wander about with my watering can most mornings when it’s only 89 degrees. Yes, it’s a dry heat, and I mostly appreciate that, but it isn’t pleasant. No monsoon rains in sight, plants covered with shade cloth, we must wait it out....   Continue Reading

Finding a Pathway Through The Plants

Finding your way forward during these times of uncertainty can be challenging. Nonstop news of floods, fires, searing heat, wild winds, and tragic wars magnify our uncertainties. I look to the garden for direction.  I am ready to immerse myself in a green walk among the plants....   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

Trees A Visual Guide

Bookshelf space is precious ground for gardeners so I choose my volumes carefully.  Trees, is a reference book supremely worth the full inch it requires!  Every photograph is worth framing and clearly connected to the interesting and informative text provided alongside.  The book is divided into sections including: Form & Function, Diversity and Design, Communities of Life, Trees and the Human World and the Indispensable Resource of Trees....   Continue Reading

Pottery in the Garden

Water is essential for life; on two different occasions, once in May the other in August,  I’ve found in my garden two perfectly formed tiny mud pots. These were made by a 1/2” long Microdynerus arenicolus, or the Antioch Potter Wasp. A potter’s wasp  will lay its eggs inside. The female wasp gets a MOUTHFUL of water, finds some soil to mix in her mouth and builds the pot from the bottom up one mouthful at a time. Can you imagine the size of a wasp’s mouth? This variety of wasp is found in the southwest,  ...   Continue Reading

Surprise! Splash! Spray! Water Jokes For All!

Hellbrunn Palace is a Renaissance villa in Salzburg, Austria’s outskirts. It was built between 1612 and 1615 by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Today the palace grounds cover approximately 148 acres (60 hectares) with alles of trees, beds of roses, swirling baroque-style flower beds, and small lakes....   Continue Reading

An Island of Flowers

In Bavaria, a land of fairytale castles, there’s a fantasy island of flowers. Mainau Island of Flowers is located on Lake Konstanz, a body of water spanning the borders of southern Germany and Switzerland. This temperate climate provides ideal growing conditions for this garden of floral beauty, fanciful creations, and unique features....   Continue Reading

Garden of Hearts

The Van Buuren Museum and Gardens in Brussels, Belgium was once the private home of David & Alice Van Buuren, two creative spirits sharing a life of art, music, culture, and gardens. They married in 1922; he of Dutch Jewish heritage, and she a native Belgian. Together they built their Dutch-style brick home just as the Art Deco influence blossomed....   Continue Reading