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Plant Natives in the Side Yard
If you’ve been wanting to incorporate more native plants into your garden, either for the wildlife benefit or simply for that touchpoint with your natural surroundings, it can feel like a challenge when you already have an existing garden. But the side yard, an often neglected area with tough conditions, can be an ideal place…
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How To Gopher-Proof an Existing Raised Bed (Photo Tutorial)
Ah, gophers. So cute, with their cheeks stuffed with grass and their little burrowing ways. Yet so destructive to our vegetable beds. A client finally got tired of having her beets, lettuces, and other delicious veggies cruelly snatched away by Mr Gopher juuust when they were looking ready to harvest. So we were called in…
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Gardening Under Redwoods: Dealing With Dry Shade, Acidic Soil, and Root Competition
Humboldt County’s known for its majestic redwoods, and many of the gardens that I design and care for have a few towering specimens setting the scene. But lovely though they are, gardening under redwoods presents some serious challenges. Shade For one, redwood trees cast some fairly dense shade. This isn’t such an issue if you…
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Top Landscape Plants (Excerpts from Experts)
When the Garden Designers Roundtable chose Top Landscape Plants as this month’s topic, I thought to myself, “Hey, no problem, I can write that in my sleep.” I mean, enthusing about plants is kind of my thing, you know? But given that this is book excerpt week here at North Coast Gardening, I thought it’d…
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Edible Landscaping Ideas at the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show
I was inspired by the copious use of edibles at the San Francisco Garden Show this year. In true garden show style, displays ranged from practical to completely outlandish. The highlights for me were Johanna Silver’s gorgeous alternatives to raised beds in the Star Apple Edible Garden, and the combining of vertical gardening ideas with…
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Rockin’ It: Innovative Use of Stone at the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show
Running through the back of my mind when I visit a garden show is the knowledge that most of what I see isn’t really workable at home. The displays are pure fantasy – a chance for designers to show off what they could do if practical matters like watering and maintenance weren’t an issue. I’m…
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Contained: Planter Ideas for Balcony Gardens from the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show
The San Francisco Garden Show had a ton of container plantings accenting the display landscapes, and standing on their own. The nice thing about displays of containers is that you can generally recreate them at home with little fuss. Here are some of the highlights from the show:
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Highlights and Lowlights from the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show
Just got back from the San Francisco Garden Show, and man has it ever expanded since the last time I went (in the old Fort Mason days). I scored some cool swag, met so many amazing movers and shakers in the garden world (and everyone was so SWEET!), and got to make both horrified and…
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Amy and Gen Tropicanna the Garden: a Giveaway!
***Giveaway below*** Outside of the garden, I’m attracted to cool, subdued colors, like purples, blues, blacks and greys. But lately, in the garden? Give me some color! Wild, exuberant color, that shocks the eyes and cheers the soul. So when the kind folks out at Tesselaar Plants offered to send Amy Stewart and I some…
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Golden Conifers Brighten Up Winter
With the winter doldrums in full force, I went to my local rhododendron nursery the other day to pick up spring color for a few jobs. Usually, I’m blown away by the blooming rhodies or the summer-flowering heathers. But this visit, what really struck me was the conifers. Specifically, the golden conifers. They just looked…
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Color Echoes: Variegated Dwarf Weigela and Clifford Moor Red Catchfly
These two plants are easy to grow and take little care to look their best. Variegated Dwarf Weigela, Weigela florida ‘Variegata Nana’, is a sturdy shrub to about 4′ tall and wide. It loses its leaves in winter, but comes back with fresh growth and masses of flowers each spring. Clifford Moor Red Catchfly, Silene…