edible landscape, redlands, CA

kat and geoff

saturday i returned home from my 

"summer 2011 unitarian universalist tour"

the way i fondly refer to my travel-heavy summer work schedule. 

at our UU family camp, 7000 feet in the san bernardino mountains, 

i connected with kat, keith, and geoff. 

we bonded over our edible landscapes. 

they live on my way home, and generously offered to give me a tour of their place. 

i fell in love! 

they have lots of raised beds in the front and back yards, 

growing herbs, flowers, vegetables, fruits. 

the pathways are a recycled tire mulch. 

it's springy to the touch, 

and kat says it's no problem to be on your knees while weeding. 

they'd been out of town for a week, 

but thanks to their drip irrigation system, 

everything looked lush. 

check out this happy, healthy row of raspberries. 

love that they went vertical. 

more raised beds. 

tomatoes exploding out of their cage. 

their paradise has been in the making for the past 8 years. 

it was so inspirational and

helps me look with new eyes on my own garden. 

now that i'm back home, 

i can't wait to catch up on all my blog reading! 

peace. 

root simple book signing!

kelly and erik, creators of root simple blog
and authors of two books!

i had a great time tonight at kelly and erik's 

book-signing at vroman's bookstore in pasadena. 

they are do-it-yourselfers, and their blog 

chronicles their journey toward self-sustainability, 

in their very urban neighborhood of 

Los Feliz, or is it Silverlake, or it is HaFoSaFo? 

(apparently they are right on the boundary). 

i've been stalking, i mean reading, their blog 

for many months now. 

i keep thinking "i can't believe they can do that, or that"

so it was extra cool to be at the book-signing, 

and see they are real people, who are funny and nice. 

and who are confident enough to show real pictures of a real working garden

(meaning: real gardens don't always look perfect). 

i wish i would have taken a pic of them tonight. 

but i was too busy mentally getting on board with kelly's 

assertion that you really can make your own face cream, 

and it's easy, cheap, and eco-friendly. 

this is their new book. 

makes me wish i had taken home ec in high school, 

instead of the agri class. 

can't wait to dive into it. 

and i'm hoping they will open up their space for a tour. 

it is so helpful to see other people's working gardens and get good ideas. 

kelly and erik, you rock! 

farmers' market flowers

fell for these at the south pasadena 

farmers' market yesterday. 

they are exuberant. 

and fill the living room with color 

and summer-time grace. 

summer office

it's not totally finished yet, 

but here's my summer office. 

under the pomegranate tree. 

my office mates are the 

neighborhood kitties, 

squirrels, 

and lots of birds. 

the occasional bee buzzes by. 

you can't tell here, 

but the pomegranate branches

droop toward the ground, 

so this is a little hideaway space. 

love it! 

purples

purple is one of my favorite colors 

(ok, i like them all)

and we have lots of purple

happening right now. 

above, a lily of the nile. 

one of the artichokes 

we didn't eat, 

so we're enjoying the flowers instead. 

lavender. love these always.

happy flowers by the front door. 

and finally ... 

dutch door in the kitchen, 

painted it over memorial day weekend. 

we're almost ready to 

have the exterior painted. hooray! 

i think this purple will be 

an accent color, used sparingly. 

my son, adrian, had a 

heart attack when he learned 

purple had a role

in the paint scheme. oh well! 

new fave blog - green girl next door

this is my week of new favorites. 

and my new favorite blog is 

green girl next door, 

and that fabulous green girl

is vanessa meier. 

vanessa's just starting out, 

but she already wrote an honest, compelling post 

about the 180 degree turn 

she took with her shopping habits. 

if you're still buying all your clothes brand-new, 

and all your furniture brand-new, 

read it now! 

 fabulous photos +

delicious vegan recipes +

 thoughtful posts +

cute videos =

my new fave blog. 

vanessa, look forward to reading/seeing more! 

new fave magazine

lucky me, i got to spend almost 

the whole three-day weekend out in my garden. 

while i was picking up some seedlings

i ran across urban farm magazine

for the first time. 

i flipped through it and fell in love! 

lots of great articles on growing food in the city, 

keeping bees, 

container gardening, 

crop mobs, 

pretty photos.