Garden Design and Installation

Fine Gardening Magazine: Four Quick Design Fixes (on Newsstands Now)

October 22, 2011 6 comments
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I’m absolutely elated to have my first feature article in this month’s Fine Gardening magazine. It’s about four quick design fixes that homeowners can make in order to have a more beautiful garden with minimal effort. There are five sets of “before and after” photos of gardens that I’ve worked on and designed, so each [...]

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Alpine Strawberries – Nature’s SweetTarts

October 20, 2011 4 comments
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Pictured: a normal strawberry, ‘Rugen Improved’ alpine, ‘Yellow Alpine’, and ‘Golden Alexandria’ berries Alpine strawberries. Seriously, have you guys tried these things? They’re like little red garden crackberries. They’re definitely one of my favorite things to grow at home, not the least because you can’t actually buy them in stores. Mine start going downhill as [...]

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Mediterranean Plants to Rock Your Waterwise Landscape

September 28, 2011 1 comment
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Recently I wrote about how to design a Mediterranean garden, but I left out one major component – which plants to choose! I just did a follow-up article over at the Christian Science Monitor which discusses just that. And yes, there are more photos of that lovely, lovely garden.  Head on over to read more.

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The Envelope Please! The Winner is-

September 22, 2011 1 comment
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Guest post from Stephanie Cohen, plant maven and co-author of the deliciously readable The Nonstop Garden: Every year new perennials tempt us to buy them. Some become instant successes, others never achieve notoriety, and some really bad plants hang around forever. It gets more and more difficult to pick the winners and losers. I am [...]

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Tomatoes! In Humboldt County! Grafted Tomatoes Beat the Competition

September 12, 2011 7 comments
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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the title is accurate. And no, I’m not talkin’ about no stinkin’ cherry tomatoes, either. Real, live tomatoes big enough to slice and put in a sandwich! If you live in Humboldt, you know what an achievement this is. Our foggy, cool summers don’t usually allow much of anything in the [...]

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Mediterranean Garden Design: How to Create a Tuscan Garden

September 4, 2011 10 comments
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Recently, I was lucky enough to visit the Mediterranean garden of Lynda and Jack Pozel in Eureka, CA. Lynda’s a writer and artist, and until five years ago, owned a gorgeous cottage-style garden that was on our local garden tour multiple times. So when they moved and Lynda had a whole new garden to create, [...]

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Drift Roses, the Dwarf Knockout Relative

August 22, 2011 43 comments
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As an organic landscaper, I’ve long been annoyed by those weakling, disease-prone roses that are pesticide junkies from day one. Yet when roses are done right, the colors, fragrance, and luxuriant flowers are hard to resist. They have that old-fashioned, secret garden-type appeal that makes me feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. That’s why [...]

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New Garden Inspiration: Google Image Search by Image

July 6, 2011 18 comments
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I’m guessing most of you are familiar with the simple Google image search. You type in what you want, you get to look at lots of pretty pictures. It’s great for figuring out what might look good next to that sleek orange grass you just bought, or narrowing down which variety of Alstroemeria you have. [...]

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Plants for Damp/ Wet Shade: The Garden Designers Roundtable

June 28, 2011 16 comments
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(Click any photo to view larger.) Gardening in soggy soil can be tough enough without the added challenge of shade. While the usual suspects in such conditions – ferns, iris, astilbe and hosta – are beautiful, if you’re looking for a more interesting or architectural planting, it can be tough to find varieties that will [...]

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Deer-Resistant Plantings You Can’t F*** Up

June 22, 2011 7 comments
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Planting for deer can be hard sometimes. You read all the books, buy “deer-resistant” plants, and the buggers still munch everything to the ground and give you that blank-eyed “what? I’m a deer!” stare when you shake your fist at them. No, it doesn’t always go as smoothly as the books would have you believe. [...]

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