Roof Gardening on a Grand Scale
The roof gardens of the Oakland Museum were planted in 1967 and 1968, and the horticultural successes and failures are now being assessed with an eye …
Regions: Northern California
Nor. Cal
Carman’s Nursery
A few years ago, writing an obituary for plantswoman Nova Leach of Stockton, I used with full feeling the expression “a saint of horticulture.” Th…
Marshall Olbrich, 1920–1991
In 1941 Marshall Olbrich came to California from Wisconsin to do graduate work in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and, after nea…
Gardening with Wildflowers
A wildflower garden of sorts may be made with a handful of seeds tossed onto a patch of untilled soil. On the other hand, such a garden may be the out…
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens
Ernest and Betty Schoefer took a year looking for a garden site. It had to have plenty of water, be accessible to both highway and coast, have pleas…
Through Other Eyes
The West, especially California, very early became known as a flowery region. Plant exploration began in the 1500s, with the period between 1750 and 1…
Marcia’s Garden: a Conversation
From the sidewalk nothing suggests that 3017 Wheeler Street, Berkeley, is the address of a remarkable gardener. There are, it is true, unusual plants …
Olmsted’s Law Refuted
The parks and open spaces of cities provide, as William Hammond Hall said with the piety we expect from nineteenth-century reformers, “great oases i…
Designing a Garden of Native Plants
Being all too susceptible to the beauty of plants, I must, as a designer of gardens, continuously guard against my own inclination to include far too …