Moments after arriving at the delicious ecosystem that is Christy Wilhelmi’s Los Angeles backyard, we’re startled by the sound of the screen door snapping open. With a deadpan and luxurious air, a small tuxedo cat slinks through the doorway and heads in our direction. “Hi, Pumpkin!”...
Now that the weird clouds of August have cleared and Southern California's newsworthy chill has been replaced by Louisiana levels of humidity and temps in the 90s, summer’s only just getting started here in our beachy little burg. We can’t think of a better emblem...
Amid all the talk about enjoying the "fruits of your labor" this weekend, we gardeners can say we take that old chestnut literally. Our own plans for Labor Day will include: nibbling on the first signs of guava season, working on a new furniture installation under our citrus...
It’s that time of year again! You know, that end-of-summer stretch marked by groaning mailbags, raised eyebrows at the newsstand, and 900+ plus pages of fashion euphoria? That’s right, Vogue magazine’s September issue is out. The famously fat edition is a design-world event not just because of...
Earlier this summer — after our dogwood layover and stalking of rad rhododendron — we explored the famed modern/classical mashup of Snug Harbor Farm in Kennebunk, Maine. The three-acre property was established in 1991. Snug Harbor’s specialty is its world-class topiary, which it sells year-round from its greenhouses: joyous cubes, cones,...
“We’ve all done pots, right? But baskets kind of allow you to use another space,” Kalim Owens (above) said during our recent trip to Weidner’s Gardens. “Many of us now have these small patio gardens, so your square footage on the ground is only so much....
Crow, tree, butterfly, bird of paradise. Yoga pose or part of the landscape? Here at the Yoga Yard, either category could apply. When we visited the studio last weekend for a vinyasa flow class held outdoors on its 1,000-square-foot redwood deck, a whole mob of vegetation coaxed...
Remember our darling, hangover-curing loquat tree? About a month after we picked its last fruit of the season, our tree was attacked by a horde of green apple aphids. It happened almost overnight: One moment the loquat’s foliage was broad and lustrous, and the next its...
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...
“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...