Labeling fruit trees

I don’t know if you’re like me, but if I don’t immediately label my plants I can forget the specific varieties of what I’ve planted. This is definitely true with my fruit trees. Years ago I diligently created a list of the fruit trees I planted, but over time, I’ve swapped them out when they […]

Happy May Day

The May Day holiday has its origins in pagan Europe. At least 2000 years ago, Romans worshipped Flora, the goddess of flowers. They celebrated with feasts, parades, plays and sporting contests. In 1886, the May Day celebration evolved into a holiday for the working class as a result of the struggle for an eight-hour work […]

Bee Update

Some time in January, all my bees disappeared. Gone! I don’t know why. I emailed a newfound great resource, Bee Keepers of the Napa Valley and asked them for help. Jon returned my email with some thoughts on perhaps what had happened. He said, “It is hard to second guess Mother Nature. They could have been […]

Before and After

We’ve always had this ugly passageway between one part of our garden and the vegetable garden. It was unattractive for many reasons: 1) there is mechanical equipment located there, 2) there’s a tall wall of a building that dominates the space and 3) there was unattractive leggy shrubbery planted there. I always viewed it as […]

Favorite roses this spring

We’re in the middle of the first bloom of the year and it is spectacular this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, we’re about two weeks early this year. Even though my roses will bloom all year long through December, the first blooms are always special as they are more vibrant in color and […]

Viburnum

What a difference two weeks makes! Two weekends ago our viburnum – Eastern snowball, Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’ (pictured above) and Viburnum plicatumvar tomentosum ‘Mariesii’ (pictured below) were nearly at their peak. (Yes – I took these pictures two weekends ago!). These beautiful shrubs mark the arrival of spring with their bold presence in our borders. This afternoon I arrived and was shocked […]

2016 Vegetable Garden

My favorite garden moment of the year is when I plant my vegetable boxes for the spring, summer and fall. It requires a review of what I planted last year and what I wish to plant this year. It means a visit to Forni-Brown to get my starts and seeds, and Van Winden to get my […]

Lady Banks makes an appearance

We have a lovely Lady Banks rose (Rosa banksiae) blooming this month, as it grows up a column adjacent to our back porch. It is a beauty this year! This rose was named after Lady Banks, the wife of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks. Prior to its introduction to Europe, it is thought to have been grown in gardens for […]

Peony arrival

My second round of tree peonies – Alhambra yellow peonies – are in full bloom and they are stunning this year. These particular peonies are my favorite as they large and more showy than any of my other peonies. I only wish that they lasted longer than they do. I’ll be lucky if they’re still fresh this […]

Forni-Brown is open!

It’s the beginning of April which means Forni-Brown in Calistoga is open to the public for a cherished 6 weeks before being exclusively available to local restaurants. What is Forni-Brown? It’s an small adorable nursery with fantastic organic vegetable starts and seeds. Visit the tomato section and discover – easily – 60 different varieties of tomatoes. […]

Early sign of roses

I woke up in Oakville this morning, amazed that my roses are starting to bloom! It’s about two – three weeks early, although sometimes my Henry Fondas show up a little earlier. This year nearly all of my roses are either blooming or about to bloom. I discovered my Ore Gold, Valencia, Tamora, Pope John […]

Sound in a tropical garden

As I relax in St. Barth’s over this Easter week, I am present to how lovely ‘sound’ is, in a garden. Palm trees surround our room and the grounds at the beautiful Eden Roc hotel on St. Jean Bay. They ebb and flow in the breeze, in rhythm with the waves of the ocean. There is something very […]

Happy Easter

No matter how you celebrate and recognize Easter, this holiday is a time for family and connection. One of the ways we mark this special holiday is with beautiful spring flowers, which are my favorite flowers of the year. Thankfully, my birthday falls in spring (within days of Easter) and I get to enjoy all […]

Living Desert

I was visiting friends in Palm Springs, California last week and had the opportunity to visit The Living Desert.  The Living Desert was established in 1970 by several trustees of the Palm Springs Desert Museum who foresaw the impact that resort development would have on their local desert ecosystem. The gardens feature diversity of forms adopted […]

Planting my new garden

This winter we changed out a tired flagstone entrance to my vegetable garden for a beautiful stone terrace using Fossil Creek stone. It turned out to be a terrific upgrade. I hadn’t realized how tired the flagstone was. I had always been challenged with maintaining a green plant material between the stones so it’s never […]