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 Robert Irwin still marvels at Getty gardens 10 years later
-LA Times, July 24, 2008
ARTIST Robert Irwin, designer of the Central Garden at the Getty Center, sits on a small curved bench in the dappled shade of London plane trees he chose. In the 10 years since the garden opened, the trees haven't quite created the canopy Irwin envisioned, but they will -- just without him around.
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 Beating the drought: An Orange County garden blooms with beauty, sans sprinklers
-LA Times, July 10, 2008
If gardens are autobiography, Sarah Sarkissian has spent 13 years writing hers on Modjeska Canyon land in Orange County. High school teacher, water harvester and amateur botanist, she lives with husband Geoff on a Santiago Creek-hugging acre that includes a front garden that is 75% irrigation-free. The backyard is also carefully designed not to waste a drop of water, with plenty of California natives and other dry-habitat plants that bring beauty and tranquility with minimal use of hose and not one sprinkler.
“The whole canyon is my garden,” she says.
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 Orphan
Plants Get New Life
at L.A. Artists Colony
- LA Times, April 3, 2008"The theme of the Brewery is finding
industrial things, making then pretty -- and making them your own," she says,
surveying her pocket-sized garden with its painted cobalt-blue bathtub
(inherited) planted with hot-pink and creamy-white bougainvillea. To the right
of her lipstick-red front door is a rusting sculpture (rescued) that she and her
husband, David, think of as the headless garden goddess.
This artists village practices a gift economy: Currency (read: rubbish) is
deposited in public places and awaits withdrawal. It's an intriguing formula:
One-part community-making, one part art-making.
Plant rescue, though, seems to be the source of the fiercest pride among the
artist-gardeners. Zalkind credits her husband with "moving the garden forward,"
but when it comes to plants, she says, "David goes to garden stores, but I go to
the Dumpster."
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(Photo courtesy of
the Huntington Library )
The Artistry of a Chinese Garden Shines -
LA Times
Although the garden speaks to the visitor through the senses -- echoes of
rushing water, fragrances of blossoming trees, views of mountains -- it also
addresses the mind. One thing stands for another; it's the idea of seeing the
concentrated essence of things.
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Manzanita -
An Article in Pacific Horticulture Magaziine
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Break Out, Gardening Writers and Writing Gardeners
I’ve been thinking for a long time now - I would say for at
least five years - about how writing about gardens and plants has been placed
firmly into a cultural category, at least in this country, of something that
smells faintly of genteel ladies' cologne and has the feel of flower-trimmed
hats worn to luncheon. In newspapers, garden writing has been squeezed into its
own slightly embarrassed ghetto in weekly home sections between recipes for
butternut squash rice paper rolls and 20 million dollar houses of the rich and
famous.
Eyeing the demise of one gardening magazine after another,
and the fast deflating if not flat market for gardening books, what's a writing
gardener or gardening writer to do?
Download the article to find out (Word Doc).
More Essays
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On Paula Panich's Book,
Cultivating Words: The Guide to Writing about the Plants and Gardens You Love
"The preface to Cultivating Words includes the statement: "Gardeners are
among the most generous people on earth." Paula is referring, of course, to the
way gardeners share their plants and expertise with each other. It's true. And
this little book tells
how to take that natural generosity and spread it even further. Her
directions are absolutely friendly and to the point. At first I thought she
wasn't very well organized, but then I realized that that was part of the charm.
" Read Full
Review
- Jane Cole for The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries,
Inc. Newsletter
"Identifying the constructs and mechanics of good writing is much like learning
another language to, at last, understand your primary. Cultivating Words is a superb
read and reference for those who write as well as those who read. Together, it
is Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Zinsser's On Writing Well, watered, fertilized
and put on the windowsill. "
- Dan Hinkley, plant explorer, writer, co-founder
Heronswood
Nursery
"If there ever was a text that might encourage a botanical artist to try his
or her hand at writing, Cultivating Words is it. Advice
on sentence structure and paragraph format are well told, but the strength
of the book lies in her encouragement of finding and expressing one's voice.
Whether one has been asked to submit a plant description for an exhibit
catalog, seeks to publish an illustrated travel journal, or dreams of
publishing a tome showcasing ones botanical portraits, there is guidance
here. "- Bobbi Angell, for the newsletter of the
American Society of Botanical Artists, December, 2005
"Cultivating Words, by Paula Panich supplies marvelous guidance to anyone
who wants to write about plants and gardens, showing how to bring life,
clarity and a distinctive tone to any article, as well as the mechanics of
good writing and getting published -- very detailed and useful to
professional authors as well as to the novice."
- Thomas Powell, Avant Gardener, November 2005
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