regional design

New Garden App – Sunset Western Garden Book

by Rebecca Sweet

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I’m a huge fan of the latest edition of the Sunset Western Garden Book (read my review here), and to say I’m over the moon with excitement at the big news of their new garden app is an understatement. A few weeks ago I was honored to be invited to Sunset’s Headquarters where I was [...]

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Wake your Winter Garden – Inspiration from the Washington Park Arboretum

by Rebecca Sweet

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There’s something magical about a winter garden, and I never pass up an opportunity to visit one – especially one that’s known for looking it’s best during the bleakest months of the year. While attending a family wedding in Seattle this past weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the J. Witt Winter Garden in [...]

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Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?

by Rebecca Sweet

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I’m thrilled to introduce one of the best books to hit the stands this year – Why Grow That, When You Can Grow This, by my good friend Andrew Keys (Timberpress, 2012). Now you may be thinking “Oh – she’s clearly biased, no doubt, since she just said they’re good friends.” Fair enough. But if [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable – Memory and Plants

by Rebecca Sweet

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We all tend to collect our memories somewhere – scrapbooks, journals, photo albums, memory quilts, recipes or family movies (just to name a few). But for many of us, our gardens are what carry us through the years, bringing back fond memories through sight, scent, touch and taste. Personally, I can’t help but think of [...]

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A Colorful Garden in Tucson

by Rebecca Sweet

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While visiting Arizona last month I couldn’t wait to tour a few private gardens to see first-hand how these determined and creative gardeners deal with All. That. Heat. Driving through Tucson’s wide suburban streets, where the homes and landscaping tend to blend together, my heart skipped a beat when I noticed this garden’s ‘fence’. Not your [...]

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Top 10 Favorite Orange Plants

by Rebecca Sweet

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It’s that time of year again when our homes and gardens are decked out in orange and black, and mine is no exception. And what better occasion than Halloween to talk about one of my favorite colors in the garden – orange! Last year I wrote about my favorite black plants, so it’s only fitting [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable- Danger is my middle name

by Rebecca Sweet

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There’s something alluring about beautiful plants that have a bite to them. In fact, I just attended a fascinating talk by desert-designer-extraordinaire Scott Calhoun, who believes our fascination with plants that make us bleed is akin to the Stockholm Syndrome – ha! While I don’t go out of my way to design gardens that will intentionally impale [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable: Designing with Natives

by Rebecca Sweet

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The natives are coming, the natives are coming! Each passing year brings more and more native plants to our California nurseries, and I couldn’t be more pleased. In response to this growing demand, even the smallest nursery these days seems to have a section dedicated to native plants. However, there are some clients who are [...]

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Pasadena’s Arlington Garden

by Rebecca Sweet

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While driving around Pasadena early the other morning, I had a few hours to spare before the Huntington Gardens opened. Imagine my surprise when, while looking for a coffee shop, I accidentally stumbled upon this treasure! Tucked away in the middle of a residential neighborhood is one of the most exciting public gardens I think [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable: Our Home Gardens

by Rebecca Sweet

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In this month’s Garden Designers Roundtable, we have the honor of writing about our own personal gardens. While this may seem like an easy post to write, it’s actually been quite difficult for me. How can I possibly share my garden with you in a way that conveys all that it means to me? While [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable – Favorite Gardens

by Rebecca Sweet

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The topic for this month’s Garden Designers Roundtable is Garden Travel/Best Gardens. While I immediately thought of the many beautiful gardens I’ve seen on my travels, there’s one that I’ve recently had the pleasure of visiting, and one that I can’t get out of my mind. It’s a private garden here in Northern California, created [...]

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The New Sunset Western Garden Book – Book Review

by Rebecca Sweet

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I have been dying to get my hands on the 9th edition of the New Western Garden Book: The Ultimate Gardening Guide (Oxmoor House, 2012. List Price $34.95). Well, it’s finally here and I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been given a copy to review. And as if that weren’t enough – Sunset is letting [...]

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Flowers in February? Absolutely!

by Rebecca Sweet

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While visiting the garden of one of my favorite clients yesterday I was really pleased with how it looked in the middle of February. When designing, one of my priorities is to create a garden that looks good throughout the year. Luckily, living in Northern California’s zone 9, this is a very attainable goal. However, [...]

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Lecia Davis’s Laguna Beach Garden

by Rebecca Sweet

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Have you ever toured a garden, when the moment you stepped through the front gate you were instantly transported to another time and place? That was the case with Lecia Davis’s magnificent garden in Laguna Beach, California. I had the opportunity to visit this exquisite garden a few weeks ago and was completely caught off [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable – Designing with Deer

by Rebecca Sweet

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Sure, it’s tempting to title this post Deer-Proof Plants or something of that nature but truth be told, deer will eat just about anything when they’re hungry. And not only that, but they’re some of the craftiest animals around when it comes to sneaking into your garden. The second you leave your gate open, they [...]

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A low-water, high-style garden in San Diego

by Rebecca Sweet

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I don’t think I’ve ever been as rude to another designer as I was when I saw this garden. A few weeks ago I visited my good friend Debra Lee Baldwin who graciously introduced me to a wonderful landscape designer, Frank Mitzel of Aesthetic Design. Frank kindly took us to see a garden that [...]

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Wordless Wednesday – Succulent People

by Rebecca Sweet

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Having spent a delightful morning touring the San Diego Botanical Garden last week, I must admit I was most smitten by these life-size topiaries. Pat Hammer, Director of Operations of the Botanical Garden, created these incredible works of art, going so far as making clay masks of some of the members of the garden and [...]

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My Favorite Winter Plants

by Rebecca Sweet

I’ve just returned from Lake Tahoe, where anything green (besides the pine trees) was buried beneath six to eight feet of snow. Even the poor trees were hunched over, already tired from bearing the heavy load of snow draped across their shoulders. While the snowy landscape is truly stunning, I must admit that now that [...]

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A Day with Lila B. Design

by Rebecca Sweet

This past weekend I had the pleasure of spending a Saturday afternoon in San Francisco with Debra Prinzing, Susan Morrison and Baylor Chapman of Lila B. Design. The purpose? To not only have fun, but to get a behind the scenes tour of Baylor’s unbelievably cool floral design studio. Join me to see what [...]

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