As I wrote back in August, my ideas about gardening and garden design have changed quite a lot over the last few years. When I first moved to this climate, I wanted to grow all the things I wasn't able to grow back in Europe. I loved all flowers all the time. The bigger, the better! No grasses or succulents for me. I thought they were boring ( Read more... )

Salvia canariensis var. candidissima
Sun, 4-6’ tall & wide.

Salvia sclarea 'Piemont'
Sun/Pt. Sun, To 5' high & 1.5' wide.

Phlomis purpurea
Sun/Part Sun, 4-6’ tall & 4’ across

Graptopetalum paraguyense 'Pinky'
Sun/Pt. Sun, 3-10" tall and up to 3' across.

My taste in plants for the garden has changed a lot since I moved to California in 2008. When I first got here, I was all over the plants I couldn't grow back in Europe. In particular I loved the bold and colorful flowering plants: bougainvillea, mandevilla, all the different kinds of fuchsias, gaura and many more. Having flowers year round and ( Read more... )

One of my favorite plants in the garden right now, clary sage.

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The pansies in the shady pot by the bedroom door weren't pretty anymore. They got an aphid infestation and I didn't notice in time. Today I took them out and replaced them with a very traditional bedding scheme: an outer ring of English daisies Bellis perennis and an inner ring of dusty miller Senecio cineraria. The daisies are a deep pink, ( Read more... )

I put new flowers in some of my pots on Saturday and then I photographed them yesterday. The pansies in the first photo are new. The bougainvillea and cyclamen aren't.

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I sat on the balcony for some leisurely deadheading for a while this morning. Most of my plants are doing very well. The mandevilla and pelargoniums are going gangbusters. The vinca are doing very well too. I love the dark pink colour of the vincas ( Read more... )

Hakone is a traditional Japanese garden south of San Jose. It has a pond, waterfalls, fat koi and all the other things you expect in a Japanese garden. And still I didn't come away from the experience feeling that I'd seen anything special. Maybe authentic Japanese gardens aren't all they're cracked up to be. Or it could be that this one just isn't ( Read more... )

I got four large galvanised steel planters at Ikea. Today I drilled holes in the bottom and filled each of them with half a bag of red lava rock and potting soil to just below the rim. I've also watered them ( Read more... )