While relishing a bloodless victory against the king of Persia, Greek philosopher Xenophon and 10,000 of his fellow soldiers stumbled into an abandoned village — and onto a smorgasbord of beehives. The hives’ honey was made from the nectar of rhododendrons, which grew wild near...
On Monday we were pretty jazzed about the birth of the future heir to the British throne, the son of Prince William and welly wearer/Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. July 22 was also the birthday of one half of The Horticult: the original royal baby...
Gardeners go to great lengths for good trellis action. Problem is, the feats of ingenuity that support a climbing plant tend to favor frumpy function over smooth, joyous form. California-based TerraTrellis is here to prove that gardeners can have their scarlet runner beans and eat them too —...
“Gold medallion […] blooms well near the ocean, but benefits from reflected heat of nearby pavement,” writes The Sunset Western Garden Book, explaining why the tree with yellow flowers in California — Cassia leptophylla — is doing gangbusters right now in the beachy yet highly developed...
Those psychedelic skulls we associate with Día de los Muertos aren’t just for November 1 and 2. Festooned with painted birds and flowers and ranging from golf-ball-size to the width and height of an actual human cranium, ceramic calaveras represent not only death but also the...
Last week on the Fourth of July, we welcomed a group of friends who drove down from L.A. for the weekend. (We also worked on our vertical herb garden — but more on that later.) After an afternoon of drinking dark-and-stormies on the beach —...
"Setting up your perennial garden may seem intimidating, but don't be afraid...
“We’re trying to catch the 5 o'clock from Orient Point,” RB said to the guy directing our car off the ferry — the first of three we would take that night. “Ha. Yeah,” the guy in the orange vest said. For a second we mistook his...
Hold onto your hankies, dear readers: 2013 is shaping up to be one of the worst years on record for allergy sufferers. Not only that, pollen counts are expected to double by 2040. Last winter’s heavy precipitation in particular and climate change in general are contributing...
If any scent has the power to immediately take us right back to our recent, epic drive through the Northeast — five days, five months, five years from now — it’s the fragrance of Rosa rugosa growing along the dunes of Montauk and Maine. We first...