Viewpoints in the Garden

...need some more work. This area by the chicken coop could use some paving stones or a deck under the chairs and a better “hide the crap” fence to screen out the compost bins in the background. Overall the main design lesson is in the first photo in this series–the use of foliage or trellis work to not allow the whole space to be viewed at once. This makes a small space seem larger and lends a sense of mystery to what might be behind that avocado tr...

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The Rain Got Real

Our home city of Los Angeles is in the news for a series of heavy hitting winter storms. While we’re on high ground and in no danger of flooding, our under-framed old house made ominous creaking sounds throughout the night. Reliably, the Cosanti wind chimes on the front porch start clanging before the approaching storm. I checked on our rain garden late last night (excuses for the bad photo) and the water level was the highest I’ve ever seen it....

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Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder

Bird feeder in the LA Natural History Museum garden. One of a series of posts inspired by our recent tour of the new gardens at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. The Nature Gardens at the NHM are not large by the usual standards of botanical gardens, and they are only about a year old, but they are already rich with bird and insect life. (A poorwill even visited, which apparently caused quite a bit of excitement in the birding community.) T...

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RIP Susan Rudnicki

...the emails she sent me over the past few years and I think I need to do a series of posts on them such as one that I missed which links the editor of a major bee magazine to pesticide manufacturers. I can hear her bold, uncompromising spirit in those emails. Rob McFarland of HoneyLove says in Facebook, I lost a good friend today who I loved dearly, and the world lost one of the finest beekeepers to ever wear the veil. Susan was the smartest, fier...

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My Marie Kondo Obsession

...the budget you can bet we’d be flying a crew over to Japan to shoot a web series with Takahashi. At least you get to see her DIY, foaming stove cleaner tip. Last night, in our nightly YouTube hole viewing experience that’s part of Kelly’s recovery process (and mine too!), we watched Kondo take on an American family with kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21sWodZgFxM As usual the kids and the man of the house seem to have disappeared while the...

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