plants
Writing about droughts and water shortages in his March 2008 On the Level column, Bruce Zaretsky started by observing, ‘This turn of events has made me determined to design landscapes requiring as little water as possible – one consequence being that I now do all I can to avoid using large expanses of
It's 1889. You're at the World's Fair in Paris, what the locals call l'Exposition Universelle du 1889, and you've joined them in marking the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The world is changing: Paris is at the center of those transitions and you want to see for yourself what's going on. You know that the fair has attracted exhibitors from around the world, but you're drawn to France because
This project began with a client's dropped jaw. I'd been called to the site by one of my usual subcontractors to help resolve a minor problem he was having. While that was being resolved, I noticed that the new steps in the remodeled pool were far more troubling. With the client and a bunch of other people standing there, I asked for a demo hammer - and saw the looks of astonishment as I smacked the top step and
Given the choice, there are few projects I enjoy more than renovations: The process of taking an existing outdoor space that isn't making people happy and coming to their rescue with a personalized dreamscape is about as satisfying as it gets. This sort of shift in vision happens quite often when homes change hands and the new owners bring in a different set of needs and desires. In grand terms, there might be nothing particularly "wrong" with the original setting, but if the new owners either want to
Although fall in southern California is my favorite time of year for its raw beauty, spring is a close runner-up because it is so busy. In fact, some of the heavy lifting is already done by the time March 20 rolls around: Early in that month, for instance, I'll typically take advantage of a warm day to vacuum away our pool's winter accumulation of
'As much as I love cold weather,' wrote Stephanie Rose in opening her Natural Companions column in April 2007, 'I have to concede that we experienced way too much of a good thing this past winter. Long periods of extremely cold weather are the norm in many other parts of the country, and plants survive. Here, however, our local plants may be accustomed to surviving the isolated sub-freezing night, but sustained, frosty temperatures