I used to hate succulents and cacti when I was a kid. What was I thinking? I was too young and inexperienced in the garden to appreciate the sculptural beauty of these gems. Not anymore!
“Pretty” back then meant “flowers,” but today I’m awed by the form, texture and color of succulents, even when they are not in flower. I use succulents in planters and place them in areas where I can appreciate them close up and show them off to other people as my “living art.”
Take a peek at the beauties I saw at the Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasadena recently. I was there on the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” and have never seen so many people in line to visit a garden!
I called it my “Green Friday” and I was in great company!
No, they were not giving anything away at the Huntington Gardens on Black Friday-only beauty!
Aloe striata “coral aloe” will flower annually. The leaves grow from the center and eventually “fill out” the plant.
Aeonium pseudotabuliforme, lime green and sublime.
Testudinaria elephantipes, (”elephant’s foot”) The silver leaves look like a string of glass beads growing out of a giant wood carving!
Aloe parvibracteata ready to flower!
Aloe suffulta- I love the markings on the strappy leaves
Echinocactus grusonii “golden barrel cacti” hold back the brigade of “wooly torch,” (Cleistocactus strausii). This reminds me of what I saw under the microscope in biology lab.
Optunia with ruby fruit. You can eat the fruit and also the “paddles” make a delicious low calorie “nopalito salad.”
Agave americana “Variegata” is the grand dame of the succulent garden with leaves that grow up to 5 feet long! Once the agave puts out a flower on a 6 to 25 foot stem, the Agave begins to decline. The good news is that it takes about 20 or 30 years for the agave to flower so this plants will be around for a while.
Curious about cacti and succulents? Check out these websites and blogs:
My husband, Larry and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary last weekend in Pasadena, California. (Yes, I was a child bride). We spent three glorious days visiting some of the nation’s most loved botanical destinations including Descanso Gardens, the Los Angeles Arboretum and the Huntington Library and Gardens.
One of the highlights of our trip was dinner at the Parkway Grillin Pasadena, a restaurant that boasts its own organic gourmet garden!
After a full day of frolicking under the oak groves and world-class camellia gardens at Descanso Gardens, Larry and I were ready for our special anniversary dinner. We read about a restaurant in Pasadena called the Parkway Grillthat was highly praised by both professional dining critics and everyday people.
The Parkway Grill restaurant in Pasadena, California
The glowing reviews mentioned lots of key features that made the restaurant inviting to us including:
“linen tables, fine art, brick walls, dramatic floral displays, piano music, notable wine list, excellent food, great service, Zagat’s review- “One of the Top 40 Restaurants in So Cal…”
but there was one special item among the list of favorable features that cinched the deal for me:
“… FRESH HERBS AND VEGETABLES FROM THE RESTAURANT’S CULINARY GARDEN!”
Parkway Grill has their own organic, gourmet garden. How could I resist?
I know some of you garden crazed readers are “feeling me” and would be equally persuaded to visit a restaurant just because it has it’s own organic gourmet garden. Am I right?
Parkway Grill’s Excellent Service and Food!
Before I rhapsodize about their garden, I must sing the praises of the hosts who welcomed Larry and I. The restaurant was about to open and we were the first diners to arrive but we had no reservations and were under dressed. The friendly hosts quickly put us at ease and sat us at one of their best tables near the fireplace.
Our waiter, Ron Brown made the dining experience a pleasure and was especially attentive, asking us our preferences before recommending the delectable, melt-in -your mouth bone-in New York steak. It was the best we have ever had. Ever!
Ron also recommended the “salad of beets” featuring gold and red julienned beets, Humbolt fog goat cheese, candied hazelnuts, watercress and wild berry vinaigrette. I’m a beet fan and appreciated the perfect texture that was neither too soft nor too crisp. I enjoyed the salad so much, I ate one beet strip at a time to extend the pleasure!
Our waiter, Ron Brown and general manager Kornelija Welles presented me with a bouquet of orchids upon learning about our anniversary! Complimentary desert followed.
The Parkway Grill Organic Gourmet Garden!
Organic pineapple mint from the gardens
Kornelija made arrangements for me to see the garden the next day and shared her excitement with me about her “hands on” participation in creating the gardens. Kornelija oversaw the preparation of the garden beds which were recently planted for the fall/winter season and helped select the herbs, vegetables and fruit trees that will soon supply the restaurant.
Committed to maintaining an all-organic garden, Kornelija scoured Los Angeles for edible plants at the local farmers markets and nurseries and had the gardeners sow seeds to round out the supply. Citrus trees, lavenders, rosemary and roses serve as bee magnets to attract the necessary pollinators to the garden.
Greens, chives and an assortment of herbs are sprouting at the Parkway Grill’s gourmet garden!
Chives
Raspberries
Citrus Trees
Strawberries
I look forward to keeping in touch with Kornelija and returning to the Parkway Grill with friends and family for special occasions. I offered my gardening coach services to Kornelija who is newer to gardening but a fast learner. I can’t wait to visit in a few months and see the garden grow and enjoy some of the fresh harvest prepared in my lunch, dinner or desert!
Have you discovered any great restaurants with gardens of their own? I want to hear about them!
I’ve been challenged as a landscape designer by Debra Prinzing’s book,Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways to consider the creative use of sheds within the garden as personal retreats, work spaces and hobby rooms.
Though garden sheds are not new to most people, I bet you haven’t seen sheds like the ones presented in Debra’s book! Photographed by the talented, William Wright, the book is visually stunning and offers inspirational accounts of how these customized retreats have enriched the lives of its keepers.
Caution: Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways may cause uncontrollable desire for a shed of ones own!
Usually, I don’t care to read about the homeowner’s lives in a design book, I just want to see the pictures! Debra’s profiles of the owners complimented my appreciation for the sheds because I understood how a well designed garden structure could meet a variety of needs. One shed was used as a design studio, another as an artist retreat, another one for writing, yet another one for kids to play in.
With descriptive names for each shed like “Planting Paradise, “Mod Pod,” and “Hampton Hut,” I finished the book with the impression that there is a perfect shed out there for everyone and everyone should have one!
Here are a few examples from Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways:
One of the smallest sheds profiled in the book is an 8′ x 8′ foot potting shed in Santa Cruz, California owned by Martha Mendoza that Debra dubbed, the “Newsroom.”
Mendoza, a Pulitzer-prize-winning investigative reporter, finished the interior of an old wood shed and uses it as her office. Mendoza now has a private place to write that is close to home and her family. The “Newsroom” is a good example of a shed that is accessible for many people.
I can just see Martha “digging up some dirt” for a story while enjoying the sweet view of her vegetable and flower garden!
Pictured above is one of my other favorite sheds that Debra named the “Rec Room.”
Lin Su, a young technology professional for Yahoo, felt cramped in her 600 square foot Santa Monica cottage and needed more space for work and entertaining. Su opted for a prefabricated structure designed by Ryan Grey Smith of Modern-Shed and found the 10-by-12-foot studio perfect for her needs and budget.
Set in her modern garden, Su’s shed allows her to enjoy urban living at its finest!
I fell for this romantic shed, named the “Sweet Retreat!” Can you see yourself in this room?
Designers, Rand Babock and Tony Nahr, created this garden retreat and filled it with their favorite antiques and mementos. Debra writes that Babcock and Nahr often use the room for dining, reading and intimate gatherings. (I wouldn’t mind ironing mountains of clothes if I could do it in this room!)
The “Sweet Retreat” measures a mere 10-feet-by-10-feet proving again that great things come in small packages!
Thank you Debra for including a Mediterranean-style shed for us “dry gardeners” who thirst for an oasis to relax in!
William Wright’s camera lens closes in on this open-air pavilion aptly found under the “Extravagant Gestures” section of the book. Located in Fallbrook, California and proudly owned by Les Olson and Patrick Anderson, the golden retreat is a crowning jewel in the 2-acre Eden that is home to plants that spike, whorl, fan and delight!
Debra devoted 8-pages to this jaw-dropping-gorgeous retreat and garden, so you will have to buy the book to see the close ups!
Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways is a well-crafted book and includes highlighted sections specifying information such as material used, design challenges, creative solutions and featured decor. Use it as guidebook and muse for creating your garden hideaway.
All you need is a little yard space, lots of imagination and a small or generous budget.
Want to see video clips of photos in the book? Watch Debra Prinzing and William Wright on the ” Central Texas Gardener” as they present some of their sheds.
The book is a delight to read over and over again and I find new details that inspire me every time I pick up the book.
Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways should be on every one’s coffee table for the beauty it shares and the dreams it provokes in us to “escape to our own backyards.”
I dropped in on my client, Jill’s, ”gourmet garden” today and in the process saved her about $10 dollars on decor for her Thanksgiving table! I found all of the “decor” in her garden and some of it I picked up from the ground.
“Shh, don’t tell Jill!”
Table decor can be as simple and fragrant as this foliage and fruit collection set around a candle lamp
I wasn’t there on a creative call, I was just there to do a little weeding and pruning, but in usual Shirley manner, my creative juices flared when I got a whiff of Jill’s rosemary!
Trim your rosemary, but don’t throw away the cuttings! Cook or decorate with it.
I made a clean cut on some broken limbs and saved the foliage for my creation and picked some lemons for Jill to use in her kitchen.
There were three delicious pomegranates ready for picking, so they had no choice but to be part of the “mad creation!”
The curvaceous leaves on the fig tree caught my eye too.
I gathered my leaves, rosemary and fruit and started on my very simple and fragrant arrangement
The candle was crying out for some company, so I came to it’s rescue!
The impromptu arrangement is pretty, fragrant and best of all, edible! Win, win, win.
Does your garden or yard have interesting fallen leaves, seed pods or fruit that you can use for holiday decor? Don’t be shy, there is no “right” way to decorate. Put something together that makes you smile and makes you feel like an artist.
I need a reality check because I garden in southern California where the sunshine is abundant and the weather is ideal for year round gardening. I know this is not the case for many of my cold climate gardening friends around the country and abroad, so I want to hear from you, especially you obsessive gardeners!
This is a typical “winter garden” in my neighborhood. The trees may be naked, but there is still a lot going on in this Los Angeles garden.
What do you do in the winter when your garden slips into its yearly coma?
I can’t imagine what it must be like waiting for the garden to wake up in the spring. As a professional garden designer,gardening coach and garden television presenter, my interaction with plant life is on a daily basis. Gardening is what I do for a living, I’m an Eden Maker!
So how do you get your “gardening fix” when you can’t garden?
Do you feel down or blue when the weather cools, or do you embrace the change and enjoy the down time with another favorite activity? Do you forget about gardening all together? Do you continue blogging about your garden or find yourself writing about other things during these cold months? Do you visit warm-climate gardening sites and drool at the photos and daydream about spring?
Shirley Bovshow video on “Creating a Garden Vignette For Your Patio” during the cold season
I often appear on national television talk shows during the winter months and it’s not easy being relevant to everyone when I’m soaking in the sun and others are drenched in snow and rain! So during these months, I read lots of gardening blogs, especially those from gardeners who live in harsher winter areas than I do. I can’t afford to be out of touch with “gardening reality!”
A visit to Canadian Nancy Bond’s Soliloquy blog always warms my heart, but I felt a slight draft when I read her recent post, titled, “How Wintery Will Your Winter Be?” Never mind that it was 95 degrees today in Los Angeles. We don’t all live in “la la land,” so does it annoy you to hear about “those sunny gardens” when you are underneath a blanket of snow? Or, does it inspire you for the next gardening season?
The reason why I have failed with some of my container plants is because of improper watering. Sometimes I over-watered my plants and “killed them with kindness” and other times I didn’t give them enough water and they died a slow, thirsty death. Sound familiar?
I was intrigued when I saw an ad in a garden trade magazine for “self-watering” plant containers by Lechuza. I wasn’t paying attention to the self watering feature at first, I just liked the way they looked. Once I noticed that the planters were designed with a sub-irrigation system, I was curious to see them up close.
Take a look at this short video where I interview Anton Van Zevenbergen, of Lechuza. Anton explains how the planter works. When used correctly, the planter can maintain a plant for up to 12 weeks with no human intervention!
The Lechuza self watering containers come in different styles, sizes and shapes and are available at your independent garden centers throughout the country. The planters are lightweight and very convenient to use.
Watch the whole video series of Garden Center TV posts!
Garden Designer Shirley Bovshow shows her sneaky side in the garden.
Now that I’m an adult, it would seem silly for me to go trick or treating on Halloween. Oh, I miss the goodies! My kids better hide the candy because once I find their stash, it will be in jeopardy of disappearing.
Halloween has always been a sweet holiday for my family. When the kids were younger, we would go out with them and with other families and canvass the neighborhood for candy. One of the things that some of the moms and I enjoyed doing on Halloween was going up to the doors and peaking in at the homes we thought were nice looking. Have you done this too?
Besides the Kit Kat chocolate bars, being a nosey neighbor was the highlight of our night! So, I’m all grown up now, but I have a major “child-like” streak in me and sometimes it has to come out and play.
Check out what I did at the park the other day…I couldn’t help myself. I actually experienced a true “trick and treat” when I came upon this lonely grape arbor. Gardens are so much fun!
Recycled tumbled glass mixed with broken tile is used as mulch in this garden vignette
Mulching your garden bed is an art? It is to me! When I have more than 100 different materials that can be used to mulch my garden bed, I select the one that is most suitable for the site and plants, looks the best and is priced within my budget.
I don’t consider my garden work complete if I don’t give my beds a finished look with mulch. With so many options its worth taking a look at the benefits, disadvantages and aesthetic value of different mulch materials.
Watch Shirley’s video on selecting the perfect mulch for your garden.
What is Mulch?
Mulch is any organic or inorganic material that is used to “top dress” or cover the soil in the garden. You can buy mulch at your local nursery or landscape center or you can find “free” organic mulch like pine needles and leaves around your yard that can be shredded and used as mulch. Did you know that even seaweed can be used as mulch?
Inorganic mulches include non-living materials such as stone, shredded rubber, black plastic and tumbled glass.
Recycled peach pits from Pit’s In Pieces makes a gorgeous and aromatic mulch with a uniform look. Pit’s In Pieces peach mulch repels snails, is long lasting and does not use nitrogen to break down. My all time favorite mulch! I use it in my garden.
Why Mulch?
Birth control for the garden! When your garden soil is covered by a two or three inch layer of mulch, the sun can not penetrate the soil and stimulate weed growth. In this case, mulch acts as a physical barrier for germination and photosynthesis of those unwanted and “unplanted” plants. A thicker layer of mulch-up to 4″- inches can be used in cold winter gardens to insulate plants from freezing temperatures.
Recycled rubber tires are colored, shredded and used as a garden mulch and walkway material. This is a practical mulch for commercial or institutional gardens as they are long lasting and come in a variety of color. Great for wind-prone areas because of extra weight and I like it in the garden more than in the land fill.
Does Mulch Work?
Not as well as most birth control methods, but effective enough to keep my weeding to a minimum! If these odds are not to your liking, abstain from gardening ’cause there is no guarantee (Have you seen weeds growing through sidewalk cracks?) That is a serious will to survive.
Another reason to use mulch is to help maintain moisture in your soil by insulating it from the drying heat and to moderate temperatures around the root zone.
Shredded redwood mulch looks best in an informal garden like this one with ornamental grasses and sage where there are large open areas between plant.
Can Mulch Cause Problems?
Yes, when mulch is applied too densely or incorrectly, it goes from being your garden’s friend to it’s foe. Thick layers of mulch do not allow water to percolate into the soil, so your plants die from thirst. Mulch that is mounded up against a plant is an invitation for root rot in plants, fungus and harmful bacteria. Too much trapped moisture can lead to plant death from drowning.
Some mulch materials such as wood chips, shredded newspaper, and shredded bark are great for deterring weeds, but they use up valuable nitrogen from the soil to break down and contribute no valuable nutrients to the soil. Compost, on the other hand, can be used as a mulch material and enriches the soil with beneficial organisms and nutrients. The only drawback is that weeds can find this environment “beneficial” too.
Get the hoe ready!
Redwood soil conditioner enriches the soil and improves texture but does not offer the best protection against weeds unless you apply a THICK layer! Very neat looking when “clean” lines matter.
Cocoa mulch can be deadly to your pets! The ingestion of as little as 2 ounces of cocoa mulch has been implicated in severe stomach upset, and more serious illness and death at higher doses! Dogs and cats may find the chocolate aroma irresistible and can be poisoned by the caffeine and theobromine in it.
Cocoa mulch should only be used in pet-free yards. I found out the hard way when my dog started snacking on my cocoa mulch and threw up. It was a lot of work to take it out of my garden and it the cocoa mulch cost more than a lot of other mulches. The upside for “pet-free” gardens is that cocoa mulch provides great weed suppression and does not rob nitrogen from the soil to breakdown. The downside is that your garden will be “pet-free” if your dog or cat eats the cocoa mulch!
Shredded melaleuca makes an ideal cover under tree groves
Is Mulch Expensive?
If you have a large garden, you may want to consider purchasing a “scoop” or “skip” of shredded redwood or cedar mulch from a landscape center and have it delivered to your house. A bulk order will be less expensive in the long run than buying a lot of 1 or 2 cubic foot bags from the nursery.
Stones and gravel are useful mulches for succulent and other dry gardens. They are long lasting, do not break down but should be installed with a weed barrier cloth underneath to keep the gravel from sinking into the ground.
Designer Shirley Watts uses broken mosaic as mulch. Clever and artsy!
I use seashells as mulch in container gardens. If you have enough to cover a garden bed, it looks beautiful in a seaside garden.
Shredded wood pallets used in construction are a great repurposed mulch. I would use this in an informal garden.
There is a perfect mulch for every garden need, budget and style. Don’t forget to pamper your soil with plenty of organic compost before covering it up with mulch. Refresh your mulch as needed- usually once a year.
