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Things are looking up (Wednesday Vignette)
Last weekend, I took a trip down my back slope to do a little watering and decided that the area I've been wringing my hands over since we moved in 6 years ago wasn't looking too bad at all. Of...
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Our local spring garden show
Our local spring garden show, held in an upscale Orange County mall, was never much to brag about and in recent years the displays have become more about garden-style furnishings than gardens....
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Fabulous April Favorites
I completely zoned out on the fact that yesterday was the last Friday of the month and time for the parade of favorite plants hosted by Loree at danger garden. Even though the weather has turned...
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In a Vase on Monday: Wild or just weird?
Last week I mentioned another plant I wanted to feature in a vase. This is that plant:Salvia lanceolata, a South African native aka Rocky Mountain Sage, recently featured in my April plant favorites...
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Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (and Wednesday Vignette)
A couple of weekends ago, a friend and I took a drive up north. Our first stop was the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, which I last visited in May 2015 when Southern California's drought was near its...
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Battling it out on the edge
I have a tendency to cram too many plants into a space. I dislike bare soil so I try to cover it, often using aggressive plants on the theory that, if they become too crowded, I can always thin them...
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In a Vase on Monday: The floral celebration continues
We got rain this weekend! It doesn't normally rain in May here so this was a locally news-worthy event. The rain wasn't heavy and it wasn't steady but the forecast of afternoon thunderstorms did send...
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In the cusp between seasons (& Wednesday Vignette)
Spring in coastal Southern California is rapidly giving way to summer's advance. While temperatures have temporarily returned to spring-like levels after weeks in the upper 70s and 80s, spring blooms...
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Garden Tour: Dustin Gimbel's Laboratory
Last Saturday, I joined two of my favorite local bloggers, Denise of A Growing Obsession and Hoover Boo of Piece of Eden on the Long Beach leg of the Mary Lou Heard Garden Tour, an annual event that...
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Bloom Day & IaVoM - May 2017
The garden is already switching into summer mode here, although thankfully the toasty temperatures we had in late April and early May have shifted back to spring-like levels in my area of coastal...
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Foliage Follow-up & Wednesday Vignette - May 2015
The blooms in my garden are very distracting at the moment and frankly I find it hard to see the foliage for the flowers but I took a look around and identified a few foliage specimens that I could get...
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Garden Tour: An English Gentleman's Zen Garden
As previously reported, I joined Denise of A Growing Obsession and Hoover Boo of Piece of Eden on the Long Beach leg of the Mary Lou Heard Garden Tour in early May. Our second stop after Dustin...
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In a Vase on Monday: The heat is on!
Our temperatures soared above 90F (32+C) this past weekend and the Santa Ana winds returned, stressing both the garden and the gardener. Unlike our earlier bout with heat a few weeks ago, it didn't...
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The garden that wasn't on the tour (but should have been)
In early May I joined two other SoCal bloggers on a tour of the three gardens included in the Long Beach leg of the Mary Lou Heard Garden Tour. My previous posts can be found here and here. The third...
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May Favorites - 2017
I'm joining Loree of danger garden in recognizing my favorite plants this month. I can't see the foliage for the flowers right now so perhaps it's not surprising that all my current favorites are in...
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In a Vase on Monday: Artichokes on my mind
Thankfully, the weather did turn cooler last week so the foxgloves got a stay of execution; however, the winds have been persistent so, when it came time to select flowers for "In a Vase on Monday,"...
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Wednesday Vignette: The lion roars
For today's Wednesday Vignette, the weekly feature hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum, I took a few photos of the combination of plants I see through the window when sitting on the living room couch....
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Succulent Pot Rehab
When we moved in 6 years ago, I brought a few terracotta pots I'd formerly had positioned on top of a wall that separated our property from that of a next door neighbor. With no idea where to put...
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In a Vase on Monday: Sour Grapes
In last week's "In a Vase on Monday" post, I featured artichokes as a prop. After the fact, it occurred to me that I could have tried using them in the vase as I've seen professional flower arrangers...
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Wednesday Vignette: Seeing the garden through a new lens
This is something of a continuation of last week's Wednesday Vignette, which compared a garden scene shot using my old camera with photos taken using the camera I received for my birthday. In fits and...
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