garden in motion

My balcony garden has been continually evolving. When I arrived in LA, I was fascinated by succulents and cacti and also wanted to grow herbs and vegetables. Vegetables didn't thrive (probably not enough sun on my east-facing balcony, with an overhang), so I wanted more flowers. Then I started to get to know the Southern California native plants and wanted to be surrounded by them. In trying to learn what it meant to grow "drought-tolerant' plants, I seem to have under-watered them, and sadly only a few of them survived in my garden.

Right now, I love the silver foliage of both native and non-native plants, and the contrast it creates with greens and dark burgandy-purples.


Cosmos, centaurea, and sage


fuzzy-leaved kalanchoe, from a cutting, dudleya, and aeonium, also from a cutting


This native, silvery-white dudleya may be my favorite plant right now




When I planted a cutting of Blue Chalk Sticks (right) one year ago, it was only about 5" tall. It is about 4 times as big now! These beautiful aeonium also grew from cuttings.

a day at the Getty Villa

The highlight of our short stay in Malibu was a visit to the Getty Villa, which rises high above the coast. The home, and now museum, is modeled after an ancient villa in Herculaneum, outside of Pompeii. The landscape draws links to ancient Mediterranean garden traditions, through terracing, an herb garden, and plants (like Acanthus) that played an important role in ancient art and architecture (the Acanthus leaf, a symbol of everlasting life, adorns the Corinthian column).

Terraces along the entry walk, planted in olive and Italian Cypress:

Gorgeous plantings of prostrate rosemary trailing over concrete walls:

This fountain is designed so that the water falling over wet stones creates a striking pattern:

I love these planters of lavender at the edge of the amphitheater:

The herb garden was not fussy-- simple rectangles were filled with large areas or lines of one plant, creating large brushes of color and texture:

Finally, the sun peaked out-- what an amazing view of the Pacific!

swim, eat, repeat

I had the amazing fortune of spending the weekend with a wonderful group of women in a lovely house in Palm Springs over the weekend. I kept wanting to say I was at the beach, but of course it was the desert, but it was LIKE the beach in that all we had to do was relax-- in the sun, in the shade, in the pool, or eating delicious food that we all chipped in to prepare. With high temperatures above 100, it was about 20 degrees or so hotter than LA, hot enough (and indulgent enough) for an afternoon siesta. Good thing the pool was always there, and so were we...

Mount San Jacinto to the west

The pool was all we needed to get cool, to relax, to meditate, to get exercise, and to socialize.

A beautiful in-ground planting of bougainvillea:

Robust olive trees in a nearby park

a gray day at the beach

A few weekends ago Taylor and I camped at Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu. Since I was hoping for a sunny day of swimming, this was the first time I was disappointed by June Gloom. Usually it seems like a cozy, calming break from the relentlessly perfect, sunny weather here, but not when you are at the beach! Had we known, we may have committed to having a campfire and a warm dinner to ward off the misty chill in the air. The beach was beautiful despite the gray skies, and I enjoyed watching surfers wait patiently out by the rocks, and then catch a few gentle waves.

Hollywood Sign Hike

The hike to the Hollywood sign is a pretty good morning workout, and it's not a secluded walk in the woods. I actually like that there are so many Angelenos enjoying exercise in the hills close to home. It is still cool enough (and cloudy, the day we were there) that a hike like this in open, mostly tree-less canyons is comfortable. We had just watched an animated movie that showed people parking at an overlook behind the Hollywood sign-- as you can see here, it's only for walkers up that high!

Olive Hill tour

Last weekend Maryam and I led a tour of Olive Hill, the site of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House and Barnsdall Park, as well as Barnsdall Square Shopping Center, centenarian olive trees, a pine grove, Kaiser Permanente hospitals, and several mid-century apartment buildings. By looking closely at this one place over several months, we've discovered traces of the past, little-known history, and a multitude of ways that this place is tied to larger stories of Los Angeles. We enjoyed sharing these stories with a wonderful tour group as we walked all around and up the Hill.

Women's Dinner in the Desert

Dessert? Desert? Yes!

There were over 35 women at this long dinner table in the middle of the desert outside Pioneertown. We watched the sun go down, and the moon and stars come out, and met each other across the table.

The next day some of us went on the fantastic 49 Palms Oasis hike in Joshua Tree. It seems like another planet, one peopled by hot pink barrel cacti.

little presents to take with us: scarves and desert tinctures


setting the long table


hiking the Oasis trail

eucalyptus walk

Katherine and I an a beautiful walk in Will Rogers Park

Monrovia Canyon hike

Two weeks ago I took a hike in Monrovia Canyon park in the San Gabriel Mountains. The landscape here was wetter (near a stream) and lusher than the other places I've hike in the Los Angeles region. We saw huge oaks and many blooms, including currant, California bay laurel, and hoaryleaf ceanothus. This hike, the Ben Overturff Trail, was pretty strenuous-- up, and up, and up some more. This is an old trail that was built alongside a pipe that brought water from the mountains to Monrovia (no wonder it's so steep!), the trail was restored in the 1990s.




Throughout the hike we saw this stunning pairing of white sage and yucca:





currant



California bay laurel


hoaryleaf ceanothus was blooming profusely so that some parts of the hillside were covered in white flowers

Winter garden

Flowers are blooming here in Los Angeles even in mid-January. I took some garden advice and planted linaria and sweet peas back in October, and they are blooming now. My rosemary is also blooming, and I've even seen hummingbirds come to it. Around town, I see lots of bougainvillea in bloom, and callistemon, and angel's trumpet too.

linaria

This hummingbird sage has grown very quickly and sent up these huge, beautiful flower stalks. I love how the flower head is made up of many pointy buds and then tube-shaped flowers. The leaves smell incredible, and true to its name, the flowers attract hummingbirds. I placed the plant next to the hummingbird feeder in case there was any question!