The other day, I was driving home from a landscape consult and as usual - I was on the lookout for examples of good and bad landscaping. This particular day, I saw some great examples that  I would love to share with you.   First…

This past weekend, I had a special helper accompany me on one of my landscape consults.... My son, Kai. He has never expressed any interest in going with me before - but I think he was bored and his best friend (who lives across the street)…

The 'Torch Glow' Bougainvillea Dilemma In my last post, I showed you a photo of a "landscape no-no" and challenged you to guess what the problem was. Were you able to guess what is wrong with this planting? I gave a hint that the…

Are you the type of person that notices what is wrong more then what is right? Although I would describe myself as having an outlook as a "glass half-full" and tend to observe the positive - it doesn't carry over when I look at landscapes. I…

Rain shaft heading straight for us.  Torrential rain began to fall just a 1/2 hour after I took this picture. You would think that living in the desert - that we don't get much rain. While it's true that we don't get as much…

Some of you may recall me telling you about a young tree that had suffered terrible frost damage during the winter of 2011. The tree was located at Double S Farms, which is where my mother, my sister and her family live. This Sissoo…

cool-season vegetable Oh, I have been imagining the bounty of vegetables that will come from my cool-season vegetable garden. I have visions of of harvesting lettuce, garlic, carrots, green onions, cauliflower, spinach and radishes…

Every year, I hope to avoid a certain malady that always pops its head up in mid-August. I was pretty sure I had skipped it this year, but early this week - it hit me. What is this malady? "I don't want to venture out into my garden."…

A beautiful and successful garden, attracts pollinators.  My three favorite pollinators begin with the letter 'B' - bees, butterflies and birds. First, the bees... Icelandic Poppy Begonia Rabbitbrush Now,…