Garden Tour: San Francisco's Dogpatch Neighborhood

Time for another garden tour!  This time, we're visiting the Dogpatch district of San Francisco - a little known, up-and-coming artistic neighborhood. Its a blend of historic industry and artsy start ups, where green space is a luxury and gardens are humble and resourceful.

Simple tips for a bee-friendly garden

Bees bees bees, I love them!  When I was a little girl, on my way home from school I'd stop every day in front of our giant almond tree.  The branches were filled with hundreds of honey bees hard at work - buzzing from blossom to blossom.  The neighbor kids were all afraid to get close, but I loved the excitement!  Each little bee had its job to do, and as long as I moved slowly and quietly, they were perfectly happy to have me by their side.

Rooted in Design - Decorating with Plants

With the excitement around my Vertically Gardened board on Pinterest, the cover of Rooted in Design had me intrigued.  What a gorgeous vertical garden installed over a rustic brick wall!

Water Patio Plants Less Often with this Surprising Tip!

This spring while planting the garden, I wanted to try out new ways to help keep my container flowers blooming throughout the heat of the summer.  That is, without me standing over them and watering them every day!

A high school chemistry teacher waaay back in the day had beakers of gel around the classroom with flowers growing out of them.  She explained to us that it was the same water-retaining material found in diapers...and period pads.  That little bit of trivia stayed with me and this spring it's found its way into my coir-lined hanging planters.  Here's more on this unexpected repurposing...feminine pads in the garden!

Garden Tour: Studio City, California

What a gorgeous spring day, perfect for a walk around Studio City, California!

This LA suburb is home to a cute cafe street, charming neighborhoods, CBS Studios, and if rumors are correct...the Big Brother House the exterior of the Brady Bunch house, Miley Cirus, Zac Effron, Bruno Mars, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Trebec, Sophia Vergara, William Shatner, Seth McFarlane and Ryan Gosling all call it home.

10 FRESH Springtime Garden Tips

There is nothing better this time of year than digging your fingers into the soil and watching as life sprouts out of it!

Here a collection of fresh gardening tips to help ring in the season:

How to grow beets in containers

Beets, with their juicy red roots and edible leafy greens, are the best.  And they're super easy to grow in containers, so perfect for "farming" on a balcony or porch.

Growing Beets from Kitchen Scraps

I used to be notorious for buying beets, with grand intentions of beet and goat cheese salads...and forgetting about them in the veggie drawer.  Yep, my husband loves it.  Ahem.

DIY: Make a Terrarium

This is a great project for a quick gift, made entirely from materials you already have at home.  Its a perfect DIY activity for the kids to help with, too.

Grow fresh green onions in the kitchen

I used to buy so many packs of green onions at the store.  Granted, they are inexpensive, but I would inevitably find a bag of soggy, wilted greens in the refrigerator after a week.  Yuck.  

The beauty of green onions is that they grow extremely easily.  And they grow directly from the grocery store's stems!  

SoCo Succulents, Part III

I'm officially obsessed.  I love these succulents!  More shots from the natives gardens at SoCo...

Farm to Table ...make that GARDEN to Table

I love the concept of Farm to Table.  Beautiful fresh produce, grown organically just steps from the kitchen, straight out of a pastoral utopia.