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Camping, Serengeti Safari Style
True confession: I camp. I found "roughing it" charming when I was dating my husband, and terrifying after we were married. I had not realized that camping on a beach in Baja with no one around was...
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The English Gardener: His and Hers, Harold and Vita
He does the hedges; she does the flowers. He might do the vegetables and she might mow the lawn, but only if there is no other option. What is it about gardening that brings out gender stereotypes? On...
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11 Ways to Make Your Garden Dog Friendly
You can tell a lot about a dog's personality by the way he digs in your garden. Take my dogs, for instance. Larry is like Peter Rabbit, with little white paws uprooting a clump of pansies as he shoots...
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An Edible Garden on Wheels
I love a garden I can push around. Thank you, Santa Monica-based FoodMap Design, for a planter on wheels—easy to move indoors if the weather is bad or just to the far end of the patio, to get a few...
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Would Spring Still Smell Like Spring Without Lily of the Valley?
Lily of the Valley surrounded the base of a tree that my sisters and I called our fort in our yard when we were growing up. Well-suited to shady spots under trees, Lily of the Valley is surprisingly...
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Space-Saving Stepladder Plant Stands
Why should you be deprived of having a garden just because you don't have a garden? For apartment dwellers who live on top of their neighbors, a clever idea is to suggest that houseplants do the same....
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An English Gardener's Diary: Spring at Last
This is only my second installment from England, and I had reckoned on writing to you all sooner, but something extraordinary happened. Spring didn’t, well, spring for a long time. England remained...
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Ikea Ingenuity: A Two-in-One Kitchen and Mini Herb Garden
Spotted, via Italian designers Teste di Legno, an ingenious way to combine off-the-shelf Ikea components to make a custom compact kitchen, complete with a built-in herb garden: Above: The Unacucina...
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10 Easy Pieces: Springlike Canvas Totes
Farmers' market? Check. Baguette pickup? Check. On-the-go diaper bag? Check. This season it's easy to find stylish canvas tote bags fully capable of doing double (or triple) duty. Here is a roundup of...
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DIY: Lavender Soda
Lavender is a perfect plant. It's fragrant, it's beautiful, bees and hummingbirds love it, it's drought tolerant, and best of all, it's edible. Or, in this case, drinkable. Every summer I harvest a...
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Heirloom Seeds: Grow the Same Food Your Grandparents Ate
"Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" is one of author Michael Pollan's rules. He means stay away from processed junk, of course, but it's also possible to follow his...
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A Chef's Secret Fifth Floor Garden
The windows of the Fifth Floor Restaurant at the Hotel Palomar in San Francisco look onto a gravel “Zen” garden where planters with an array of flowers are cultivated for culinary uses. Chef de cuisine...
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DIY: Grow Lily of the Valley on a Windowsill
When I'm talking about getting plants to flower indoors, I prefer the word "coax" over "force." It sounds kinder, doesn't it? Well, coaxing Lily of the Valley to bloom indoors is a very good thing to...
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High/Low: Which Chippendale Would You Choose?
There's nothing like neoclassical romance in the garden; an artfully placed bench under a tree or against a wall is an irresistible invitation. Given a choice, which Chippendale-inspired outdoor garden...
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DIY: Create a Fantasy Flower Garden
Let's take a minute to envision your fantasy flower garden. Tall, breeze-blown blossoms sway like synchronized swimmers. The clouds of color remind you (again) that you've always wanted to visit...
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A Refrigerator-Free Kitchen?
A design student shows us how to ditch the fridge; read on to discover her secrets. I would do anything to install a pantry in my house with plenty of room for vegetables. Due to lack of space,...
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DIY: Pickled Cherry Blossoms
When our forager friend Louesa Roebuck (see her flower shop here) mentioned she might be pickling cherry blossoms, we asked her to report in detail. Here's what she had to say: "My friend Sylvan...
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10 Easy Pieces: Kitchen Compost Pails
The average American family throws away 20 pounds of food a month. And by "average," I mean me. This is the equivalent of stumbling upon a buried pirate's chest full of jewels and gold doubloons—and...
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The Only Two Secret Ingredients You Need to Make a Refrigerator Smell Fresh
When I was 20, I lived for five months with a woman named Fabienne and her two young daughters in the southern French city of Toulouse. Beyond my utter delight at speaking French all day and indulging...
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The Ultimate Kitchen Garden, Courtesy of a California Master
The steps to creating a kitchen garden sound deceptively easy: build some raised beds, plant vegetables, harvest. Recently when we featured LA garden designer Art Luna's work, he revealed his secrets...
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