A Report form the Design Capital — I left Milan right on the edge of fashion week, avoiding the log jams but not the excitement. Previously the design capital of the West, it’s now the design capital of the world. I can’t think of anyplace more stimulating–in more ways–for the curious and creative. The reach of this…

Caveats to the Native Plants Trend — The native plants upset “We want to use native plants.” This is a familiar client request. Promotion for natives has been trending in the news and other media for quite some time. But the advantages–and limitations–of native plants in the landscape are not often understood. The most important characteristic of native plants is that…

Good Enough to be True — If there are two camps, one gravitating toward New York and one toward L.A., I would say that until recently I belonged to the former. We like to believe that living in a climate whose winter weather (and sometimes fall and spring) is challenging makes for greater productivity. This may…

How Perennial Gardens Are Designed — Perennial gardens have been trending for a while now, both by fanatical gardeners and sustainability mavens. They fill gardens with life and color, although that doesn’t happen by accident. I’d like to explain the current approach to perennial garden design as an example of using layers as a compositional tool. About Layers …

Brand Identification, Self-Esteem, and Getting Through the Pandemic — The Free People catalog is full of California girls dressed in athleisure as they wander along urban streets, get into daring yoga poses on the beach, or slouch seductively with no man in sight. I was thinking, back in 2020, that maybe I should up my game since I was…

We Take These Trees for Granted — We ax them, we wrap them, we load them on our cars, bring them into our homes and pile them up with lights and decorations. Evergreens are the symbol of the non-religious Christmas that lives side-by-side with the sacred holiday or, completely independent of it. Fake Christmas trees are produced…

Save your Saturdays, Save Yourself — Noise, chemicals, wasted water, meaningless space. That’s what lawns make me think of. Four years ago, I published a story here called, Death to The Lawn because I hoped that readers would be inspired to create something more meaningful than a high-maintenance green carpet that not only ruins your Saturdays…

I’m Writing for Myself — I started writing in earnest about six years ago. I’ve written fiction and nonfiction, essays and letters. I do it because I needed another channel of expression. I do creative work professionally, but writing was a new venture. I made a pact with myself to write five books in five…

Every Day It’s Something New — It is said that ‘man’ can’t live on bread alone, but pasta is another story. I’m not even sure why some think it’s so hard to make a good dish of pasta. Maybe it’s because when you order it at a restaurant they put everything on it but the kitchen…