Category: Articles

Native Plants for Your Garden: Silk Tassel One of the most dramatic winter flowering shrubs in West Marin is coast silk tassel (Garrya eliptica). It is native to the coastal counties of California from Ventura County to southwestern Oregon. Locally, they can be found along Highway 1 near Marshall and along the beaches of Tomales…

Pruning to Restore the Secret Garden Fifteen years ago my husband and I purchased a little cottage on the mesa in Inverness. It came with a jungle of overgrown shrubs and trees. There were probably flowers once too, but ivy had smothered anything low-growing. Neighbors told us the garden had once been a showpiece with…

Reinventing My Garden “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.”  Anonymous This is what I said to myself when we finally made Inverness our permanent home in 2003. We loved our escape to the country over the years and enjoyed the recreation this beautiful…

The Common Calla In my search for low maintenance, hardy, showy, deer-proof plants for my garden, I was pleased to discover calla lilies. They are almost too common, and are unlikely to appeal to gardeners who prefer exotic, unusual shrubs and flowers. But they are totally reliable, and in early spring, beginning in January, put…

The Garden as Metaphor Few institutions are as deeply embedded in the human conscience as the garden. The home, the family, the church and school all hold their central place, of course, but none exceeds the garden in its multiplicity of allusions. Here is a sampling: The garden as paradise: First the big bang, then…

The Pivotal Role of Bees as Pollinators Have you ever thought about the fact that one out of every 3-4 mouthfuls of food you eat and beverages you drink is made possible by pollinators??? According to Serge Labesque, an active member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association and an esteemed teacher on beekeeping at Santa…