regional design

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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A Day with Lila B. Design

by Rebecca Sweet 3 November 2010

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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Celebrating Regional (and Client) Diversity – Part 2

by Rebecca Sweet 27 October 2010

I don’t know what it is, but I just LOVE designing gardens for people who aren’t from California.  Or the United States, for that matter.  I think it’s because I live in Northern California where the majority of the population are from someplace other than Northern California. Earlier this year, I wrote a post with [...]

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Garden Designers Round Table – Underutilized Plants

by Rebecca Sweet 27 July 2010

. This topic for this month’s Garden Designers Round Table discussion is ‘Underutilized Plants’, and is one that’s very important to me as a Garden Designer.   As a designer, I definitely have my list of ‘Faves’ that I like to plant whenever possible.  Why are they my favorites?  It’s usually a combination of reasons [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable: Celebrating Regional Diversity – Silicon Valley style!

by Rebecca Sweet 6 January 2010

This month’s Garden Designers Roundtable topic is “Celebrating Regional Diversity”. I LOVE this topic – embracing that which makes each of our regions unique and how we celebrate it through garden design. My client base is in Northern California’s ‘Silicon Valley’ – an area typically defined as stretching from San Francisco down to San Jose. [...]

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