In winter we have hot toddies (and Candied Apples!) and in summer we have mint juleps — but what about those brisk yet sweet-smelling days in between? Enter the Early Bloomer. It's a cocktail we came up with, one that's crisp, green and floral, with...
There’s a simple luxury to marking the weeks by what’s newest in bloom: downy jade flowers signal early January, smelly jasmine vines close the curtain on February...
We know we're spoiled out here in coastal Southern California, what with our 50-degree lows and all. And yet, C and her friends are always freeezing. So for when we're watching movies or football or entertaining outside, RB built this snazzy heater. It's especially helpful when...
A bland bedroom patio and an impulse buy were the two things that conspired, 16 years ago, to initiate Barry Levine into the practice of bonsai. This was while he was still a bachelor living in Brentwood. “The patio had nothing on it but a chair...
Not to get all sappy, but we often don’t realize how much luck is all around us, all the time. Today we were planning to go on a shamrock search (say that ten times fast) in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, but ended up finding...
From the hidden vibrations of flowers to empowering heirloom seeds in India (to, hello, that Higgs boson), it’s been a big week for small things. ✚ You know the bit of garden folklore about how tomatoes scream when they’re sliced? Although the ESP aspect has been soundly MythBusted, this...
You might have seen them. The Clivia miniata, or natal lily, squats patiently and monochromatically for most of the year, beneath trees and in dark corners of gardens in Zones 9 and 10. It's also a beloved indoor plant — as it shuns direct sunlight and...
Healer, gourmand and world traveler, our friend Sam Gerson is a key member of our circle of fellow New York exiles, a design-minded group that arrived on these shores in search of sun and cycads. Last fall he moved into a place by the water in...
The traffic islands around here are truly one of the natural wonders of the world. A couple weeks ago, we noticed that one of our regular concrete drive-bys became irradiated overnight with thousands of fuchsia-color flowers. Turns out, it’s a type of athletically spreading succulent,...
When the Spring Home & Garden Show rolled into town last weekend, we made a beeline for the Del Mar Fairgrounds and jumped right into the flower-hungry fray. It was our first time at the exhibition. Initially fearing it would skew more “home” (that is, the...
