Dutchman’s Pipevine

by Rebecca Sweet 7 July 2011

While visiting my friends in Connecticut last week I couldn’t help but fall in love with the massive Dutchman’s Pipevine that seductively draped over their arbor. It’s giant heart-shaped leaves seemed to glow from within when backlit by the setting sun. The tendrils gently coiled downwards, adding an almost ethereal appearance to this cozy space. [...]

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The Chairs of Innisfree Garden

by Rebecca Sweet 2 July 2011

While in Connecticut last week, visiting great gardens and great friends, I fell in love with the different chairs artfully arranged at Innisfree Garden.  Innisfree is a 150-acre public garden inspired by ancient Chinese design, and one of the most peaceful public spaces I’ve ever seen. If you’re like us here in California, sweltering away this [...]

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A Fireplace Mantle gets a new home

by Rebecca Sweet 21 June 2011

While driving around in the rain a few months ago, I spotted this old fireplace mantle leaning behind a dumpster with a bunch of junk piled on top of it.  The dumpster was behind a furniture staging company – you know, the kind that stages homes when they go on the market?  But this had [...]

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D.L. Bliss State Park

by Rebecca Sweet 12 June 2011

We kicked off the first week of summer by spending a few days at my favorite place in the whole world – Lake Tahoe.  Due to our unusually cool spring and summer, it was waaay too cold to spend any time on the beach, so one day we took a hike at D.L. Bliss state [...]

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A Phormium flowers

by Rebecca Sweet 7 June 2011

This year my ‘Sea Jade’ phormium surprised me by sending up a few tall stalks of flowers for me to enjoy.  Phormiums (aka: Flax) don’t always bloom around here, but I think due to our very wet spring they’ve  decided to reward our patience by showing us what they’re really capable of! Phormiums are one [...]

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Inspiring Fences…

by Rebecca Sweet 4 June 2011

I try and visit Sonoma’s Cornerstone Gardens as often as I can, as their gardens are constantly changing and I always see something new that I swear I’ve never seen before!   I’ve written about them in the past, but this time I was really captivated by a few of the fences surrounding some of [...]

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Old tools, old memories and a little bird

by Rebecca Sweet 31 May 2011

On the side of my office hangs a collection of old tools that I’ve gathered over the years.  Most were given to me by my grandparents or parents, some were found at garage sales and others given as gifts.  All, however, are precious to me as each one represents a piece of my life. In [...]

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So you want to create a no-lawn front garden?

by Rebecca Sweet 22 May 2011

As a garden designer, I’ve noticed a growing trend over the past few years: more and more people are wanting to replace their unused, water chugging, labor intensive front lawn with a beautiful low-water, low-maintenance garden. These days it seems no-lawn gardens make up about 75% of my business.  The remaining 25% are people who’d [...]

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Garden art revisited

by Rebecca Sweet 15 May 2011

We all try our best to recycle and repurpose whenever we can, right?  When this robin’s nest blew down last year my mother couldn’t stand to throw it away so she gave it to me to keep it in a protected spot and re-use it in my garden. Imagine my joy when I discovered this treasured [...]

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