regional design

Garden Designers Roundtable: Our Home Gardens

by Rebecca Sweet 21 May 2012

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 23 April 2012

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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Review & Giveaway – The New Sunset Western Garden Book

by Rebecca Sweet 5 March 2012

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 15 February 2012

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 1 January 2012

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 12 December 2011

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 7 November 2011

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 2 November 2011

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 2 January 2011

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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