History of the West in an Altadena Garden
Our home sits on a south-facing alluvial fan at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena, California. We designed and installed a semi-formal…
Seasons: Summer
A Perennial Border Reborn
In 1991, the Northwest Perennial Alliance (NPA) undertook a seemingly impossible project: design, plant, and maintain a 17,000- square-foot herbaceous…
Extensive Green Roofs: Horticultural Considerations for Stormwater Management
Erin Schroll, a student at Oregon State University (OSU), undertook a study of extensive green roofs to determine aspects of their design, plant selec…
A Surprising Landscape at Pitzer
Never before had I seen a campus landscaped like Pitzer College, in Claremont, California. Its buildings are surrounded by the most sophisticated and …
Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California
In his 1993 review of the first edition of Golden Gate Gardening, editor George Waters concluded: “if you garden in the San Francisco Bay Area,…
Guerrillas in the Fog
"Guerrilla gardening” often involves a political action or public statement regarding land rights, land reform, or environmentalism. A recent guerr…
The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden
“I just don’t have the time”—perhaps the most common excuse for cutting back on reading, writing, painting, cooking, exercising, museum-going, and, yes, gardening. At least,…
Great Plant Picks: Focus on Foliage
From stately trees to dramatic bulbs, selections from the Great Plant Picks (GPP) that are notable for their superior foliage comprise a rich array of…
The Southern California Native Flower Garden
Landscape architect Susan Van Atta has established a reputation for creating beautiful, sustainable, and award-winning landscapes through her office in Santa Barbara. She has been…