Harvest. Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants by Stefani Bittner & Alethea Harampolis is a fun, beautiful, inspiring, and informative gardening cookbook I recently bought.
I pre-ordered this book and I never pre-order a book. I like to read the reviews and have the book be out for a while to see what people think of it before I get it. But the name of this book got me hooked – Harvest! What a lovely name for a gardening book. Harvest speaks volumes just by the meaning of the word – the feel good images it conjures of fields and farms, of flowers and nature.
I ordered the book not knowing if I would like it, but that’s the beauty of Amazon. I figured if the book didn’t live up to my expectations I could easily return it. I finally got a copy of Harvest in the mail about a month ago, and with an open mind started perusing this book. Let me give you just a few of the many reasons why this is a wonderful book to add to your gardening and cookbook collection. Continue reading Harvest. Unexpected Projects Using Extraordinary Garden Plants by Stefani Bittner & Alethea Harampolis→
My sister Banu who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a lovely home and a beautiful garden. Banu is an avid gardener just like my Mom and me. But she is crazier than me when it comes to gardening. She enjoys it so much that just like my Mom she will spend hours in her backyard and lose track of time.
Our friends Swati and Tarak have a beautiful home with an amazing Italian inspired hillside garden right here in the South Bay. This graceful terraced back yard is a wonderful representation of how you can transform a steep hill into a lovely lush green landscape filled with flowers, greenery, trees, and a fruit orchard.
When was the last time you stopped by a plant nursery with soft classical music playing in the background? A nursery where during the holidays there is hot apple cider waiting to be sipped by their customers. A nursery that is more of an experience than a functional errand to purchase some plants. Half Moon Bay Nursery in Half Moon Bay, California is one of those places which is a destination rather than just a plant nursery where one goes to, to just buy a few garden plants.
Sometimes you just want a pretty book you can get lost in. A book that is not heavy on writing but gives us just enough information to make us want to read more about the topic, maybe in another in-depth book or article.
Growing herbs at home is one of the most satisfying gardening tasks there is, and it’s extremely easy too. As beneficial as herbs are for all of us, what is many times overlooked is the joy that herb gardening brings even before we harvest these herbs for all their healthful uses. Within the large realm of gardening, herb gardening has its own therapeutic effects.
When you are outdoors working in the dirt taking care of herbs, planting, weeding and watching all the bugs, butterflies, and hummingbirds – any stress you have will seep away, even if it’s just for a few minutes you are one with nature.
Aaah succulents… For years I never gave them a second look. I was too spellbound by flowering plants to bother with succulents. They were just green looking plants, what’s so special about these? I thought.
And then a serious drought hit California a few years ago. Drought resistant plants and all types of low-water requiring plants were available at the nurseries, and guess what? I kept seeing more and more succulents as an option for drought tolerant plants for our gardens. Gardening magazines were enticing gardeners with succulent gardens.
I started seeing succulents in beautiful floral arrangements and in gorgeous potted plant ensembles. Succulents were getting their just dues, they were being spotlighted everywhere. I had to pay attention now. They were looking pretty darn good, now that they were being used in lovely creative ways. I got intrigued. I started giving them a second glance. Continue reading Succulents→
Looking for flowers that come in gorgeous shades of the sunset? Flowers that look like beautiful rays of sunshine? Try planting nasturtiums in your garden. Nasturtiums are the most cheerful looking flowers imaginable. With their vibrant bright yellow, orange, red, pink, and pale coral colored flowers, they brighten up any garden.
Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden is a historic home and garden located in old Palo Alto, California. The story of how this lovely home became a historic home and garden can be credited to Ms. Elizabeth Gamble who lived in Palo Alto with her family.
Elizabeth’s family – the Gamble family moved to Palo Alto back in 1902 and had four children: James, George, Elizabeth Frances, and Launcelot. Palo Alto at that time was a little town with a population of a mere 3000. One of the kids Elizabeth, decided after college to spend the remainder of her life in the Gamble family home on Waverley Street in Palo Alto.
I love flowers. Love, love, love them. If I could, I would eat flowers for dessert and live in a greenhouse surrounded by them. Sometimes I actually crave flowers. A craving for their lovely colors, textures, fragrance, and myriad flowerfull beauty. I especially crave flowers in the winter and early spring when my garden is still half-dormant. When I get a flower craving what I turn to are my books on flowers and gardening. Continue reading A Craving for Flowers. Fun Few Books on Flowers→
