If you’re lucky enough to travel anywhere in the world, there’s no excuse not to try and visit the local botanical garden or arboretum. My family has become used to this mission of mine and they often accommodate me.

Last weekend, though, I was with my fellow hort geeks, and no one tried to stop me from a garden side trip! I traveled to Phoenix for the Garden Writers Association winter board meeting. After sitting indoors in a board room all day, we rewarded ourselves by racing over to the Desert Botanical Garden, a magnificent place in the heart of Phoenix.

I first visited DBG about five years ago while staying with my parents (they have spent their winters in Mesa, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix for the past five or six years). At the time, I was a Seattle gardener. I was not interested in cactuses or other thorny desert plants. But the visit changed my mindset. The garden dates back to the late 1930s and it is designed beautifully. Who knew then that I would eventually live in Southern California where all these alien plants thrive with little or no water, heat, sun and (practically) neglect!?

Here are a few shots I took on that first visit:

The January 31, 2009 visit had an agenda.

Number one: Tour “Chihuly: The Nature of Glass” show, the Seattle artist’s first installation entirely within a desert garden environment.  Number two: Meet Ken Schutz, the garden’s executive director, who led the GWA board on guided tour of the show (plus, he graciously joined us for dinner following our hour-long walk through the plants-and-glass extravaganza).

We gathered at the DBG entrance and were welcomed with a refreshing drink, straight from the desert: Prickly Pear Margaritas topped with a wedge of lime! You can purchase the Prickly Pear syrup in the garden’s wonderful gift shop.

 

Enjoy my narrated introduction, followed by my favorite images:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_F6-J8AOwo

A virtual tour of the gorgeous glass sculpture display:

“Sun,” the opening sculpture

Agaves in glass: the new entry piece

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A dining pavilion with presence – who wouldn’t want to eat here? Photo by William Wright

Several years ago, Bill Wright and I created an article for Seattle Homes & Lifestyles about dining pavilions. The story centered around one incredible structure, designed by Seattle architect Susan Miller for a client in her neighborhood. What we loved about the design, the materials, the placement and the pure heft of the finished pavilion was its intent. It was designed for a purpose, not just plunked down in the backyard as an afterthought.

The race is on to capture our unfulfilled outdoor spaces for a higher — and better purpose. It’s a crowded field of excellent and inspiring ideas. More than ever we want to define and thoughtfully use the land on which we live (large or small or in between). I note this, not just because I’m living in LA. This phenomenon is all over the west and everywhere summer occurs.

I’ve had the word “Pavilion” in my shed glossary for quite some time and somehow the link was broken. I finally dug into the problem and am reviving the page with new photography. Here is the Pavilion entry.

Here’s an excerpt from my story about dining pavilions, which appeared in May 2002, entitled:

Dining Out: There’s nothing like a backyard pavilion to enhance alfresco entertaining:

Green Lake resident Heidi Hackett wanted to bring her meals into the garden – with more than a picnic table and umbrella. “I wanted something that I could use outside for more days than I would use a deck,” she recalls.

Susan Miller and Amy Gorman of Gardentile Inc. met the challenge, designing Heidi’s garden and its central showpiece: a fanciful dining pavilion that’s a scaled-down version of Heidi’s 1908 farmhouse. The 11-foot-square structure incorporates elements borrowed from the home’s architecture: boxed columns, a shake roof, beveled trim and a cupola.

While she’s designed a fair number of open arbors, Miller says there is an advantage to a covered place in the yard. “This is a great way to extend how you use the garden,” she points out. “The structure is tied to the house, but it stands out in the garden.”

Thoughtful finishes make Heidi’s pavilion an unforgettable destination for entertaining. Dry-set Pennsylvania bluestone pavers cover the patio floor; the ceiling is lined in the same beadboard as the home’s wraparound porch. A copper cap completes the cupola roof.

Borrowing the pattern from the home’s leaded-glass windows, the designers added bands of decorative metalwork between the pavilion’s columns and repeated the detail in an adjacent fence.

As she walks through her kitchen’s French doors, Heidi pauses on the porch to enjoy the view of her charming pavilion. She loves stepping across the whimsical checkerboard pavers that lure her visitors out to the structure.

“I use it all year long,” she says. “I’ll even go out on a rainy afternoon. And last winter, I hung lights there so we could enjoy hot cocoa outside in the evenings.”

The sage and pumpkin-colored entry garden hints at the glories inside the gate!

Patrick donned his “Aloe Orange” linen shirt so he could match his garden!  

I think I’ve established my willingness to drive, fly, walk, hike, take a train or ride a bicycle to get to a garden destination that summons me.

Last Sunday is a good example. I was staring at an invitation from Patrick Anderson and Les Olson, owners of a cactus and succulent garden extraordinaire (not to mention the most majestic dining pavilion in the universe – you can find it on page 126 of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, in my chapter entitled “Extravagant Gestures”).

“Sweets, Savories & Succulents,” read the invite. “Please join us to celebrate the New Year, and the glory of the garden in midwinter.”

This was the third time Patrick and Les extended an invitation to their winter party. And it was the first year I wasn’t traveling out of state. I first met the men in 2005 when they hosted a Pacific Horticulture Open Garden event for donors. I returned with Bill Wright in the fall of 2006 to photograph the dining pavilion and garden for our book. Practically hyperventilating with excitement about shooting such a cool setting, we rose before dawn and tiptoed out to the garden to get the very best early-morning shots (our task was eased, thanks to the offer of lodging in Patrick and Les’s guest bedrooms).

Last weekend, I desperately wanted to visit their exotic botanical wonderland in San Diego County. Not only did I want to say hello to my “Shedista” friends, but I knew the aloe display would be at its ever-lovin’ peak of perfection.

Who cares that going to the party meant a 300-mile round-trip drive on a Sunday afternoon? Husband and sons all fed and settled into their own activities, I hopped in the car after church and hit the freeway, heading south.

Oh what a treat I had! This is the very type of excursion that convinces a California newcomer that all her former Seattle blossoms have serious competition for her affections. It’s tough to yearn for my hydrangeas, peonies and lilacs when the intense, architectural aloe blooms are in my face.

Orange, gold, salmon, yellow, apricot, terracotta pink – saturated hues of the sun – on display like colorful fireworks hovering at the tips of erect stalks. Each bloom is composed of tubular flowers tightly arranged around the stem. And what diversity! Some are shaped like a red-hot poker Kniphofia bloom; others are short and wide, in the shape of a spinning top. Some tilt upwards; others are arranged like rays of the sun. These flowers are winter’s antidote to gloom.

According to Sunset Western Garden Book, aloes are primarily South African native plants:

They range from 6-inch miniatures to trees. “Showy and easy to grow in well-drained soil in reasonably frost-free areas, (aloes) need little water but can take more. . . . Highly valued as ornamentals, in the ground, or in pots.”

That’s not all Patrick and Les have in their 2-acre garden.

They own, of course, the enviable dining pavilion (I still marvel at my luck convincing my editor Doris that we could include this architectural gem.)

It is certainly an “elegant hideaway,” although a very distant relation to a shed.

Not a wimpy latticework gazebo, but a bold, manly garden house that can accommodate a quiet dinner for two or a raucous gathering of a dozen friends.

Here are the opening lines that appear in the Stylish Sheds chapter about their dreamy garden hideaway:

Patrick seized the chance to invent his own plant world here, spending the past fifteen years shaping the landscape with unusual spiked, whorled, spherical, and fan-shaped cactuses, along with succulents representing a color spectrum from maroon to bronze to silvery blue. “Every inch of this property is plantable if I ever get around to it,” he maintains. The garden’s finishing touch: a golden, open-air pavilion where Les and Patrick seek haven from heat and sun.

The neighbors jokingly call it the Taj Mahal, but the opulent pavilion situated at the highest point of Patrick and Les’s property has exactly the right degree of dramatic presence their flamboyant desert garden needs. Together the structure and plant collections embody Patrick’s two loves: theater and horticulture.

Patrick fell in love with aloes and other succulents and cactus forms years ago, as a volunteer at the famed Huntington Botanical Gardens near Pasadena. He learned to grow and propagate many varieties, including aloes. And I suspect his design sensibility (he studied theater and costume design in college) was also honed as he spent time in the Huntington’s desert collection.

When he began to transform the property nearly 20 years ago, Patrick wanted to plant a wide variety of desert-climate plants in a lush style that he describes as a “dry jungle.”

More than 200 varieties of aloes unify the garden. Against the pointed and thorny blue-green leaves, the brilliant aloe blooms remind visitors that there’s nothing dull about the desert floral palette.

Thank you, again, Les and Patrick, for sharing your garden with me and with so many of your admirers!

It was a long drive. But an inspiring day. And I am certain that by next January, when another invitation to “Sweets, Savories, and Succulents” arrives in my mailbox, I will clear my calendar and make the drive again!

P.S., One amusing photograph I just had to add.

For anyone who has been up close and intimate with an aloe, agave, cactus or other thorny plant. . . the “Caution” tape was a reminder of how careful one must be in a desert garden!

Sparkling and serene, this is a tiny garden that oozes romance and mystique (design and photo, Laura Morton)

I believe that the paths we walk lead us to the people we need to know in our lives.

Case in point: A week or so after I insisted that my friend Shirley Bovshow, an LA garden media personality and talented designer, bunk with me for 2 nights at the Portland Garden Writers Association annual symposium, she invited me to join an Association of Professional Landscape Designers’ lunch meeting at her home in Woodland Hills. Since Shirley and I live relatively close to one another (by LA standards), I took her up on the invite. The other guests were fellow members with Shirley in APLD’s LA chapter. Plus, Shirley’s garden is a wonderland of plants and design ideas.

The Association of Professional Landscape Designers is an impressive organization. I have met, interviewed and written about APLD members (and their work) in many venues, including Seattle, Los Angeles and beyond.

The September gathering introduced me to several Southern California garden creators, including Shirley (Edenmaker), Jennifer Gilbert Asher of TerraSculpture (I’ve recently written about her work), and Laura Morton of Laura Morton Garden Design.

When Laura casually mentioned to me that one of her projects won the 2008 APLD “Gold Award” for residential landscape design, I went a little crazy. “Has it been published?” I quizzed her. “No,” she admitted.

No sooner than I heard this – and no sooner had Laura sent me several photographs and a little movie about her design for Mala Vasan’s Hollywood Hills backyard, than I was on the phone to LA Times HOME section editor Craig Nakano. As I suspected, he was very interested in seeing what Laura had to share.

Open air living: Designer Laura Morton changed a plain backyard at Mala Vasan’s home into an Indian-tinged outdoor living room with a reflecting pool, fire pit and garden (Laura Morton photograph)

The story about Mala’s garden, inspired by her own multicultural interests and designed by Laura Morton, appears in today’s LA Times Homes section. Here are the opening lines:

HER PASSAGE TO INDIA: A Hollywood Hills bungalow’s small backyard is transformed into an exotic, cozy retreat and social spot.

If you’re looking for a good excuse to invest in landscaping, Mala Vasan’s is hard to beat. She credits her dreamy mix of Indian and Moroccan inspiration for seducing her sweetheart.

“My garden brings out an inner magic,” says Vasan, a producer of TV commercials who was going out to eat with screenwriter Brian P. Regan when he saw the enchanting outdoor space and said, “Forget it. Let’s stay here and order Chinese food.”

With scented blossoms, dancing flames, the sound of spilling water and chaises large enough for two, the intimate setting is, indeed, full of romance. (“Our first dates were on those couches,” Vasan says.) The garden also is an artful antithesis of what it used to be: a driveway too small for a car and a 560-square-foot backyard dominated by a wobbly brick patio and views of a boxy air-conditioner hanging from the neighbor’s garage.

The transformation of this Hollywood Hills property earned its creator, Laura Morton of Laura Morton Design in West Hollywood, a gold medal last year from the Assn. of Professional Landscape Designers. For Vasan, the thoughtful design was proof that tiny details and a vivid imagination could turn a prosaic space into a pretty and practical retreat.

The Times’ online photo gallery features several before-and-after shots, including a darling photo of designer Laura Morton and client Mala Vasan, seated in the garden. You can see the gallery here.

Here are a few more photographs, courtesy of Laura Morton. Visit her web site to see many more of her projects – inspiring and alluring spaces that will get you thinking about turning your own backyard into an exotic oasis with plants, cushy textiles, the presence of water, candles to illuminate and other sensory pleasures.

A curtain of water spills over the reflecting pool’s tiled edge into a hidden channel behind the fire pit (Laura Morton photograph)

Romantic chaises, piled with textiles and cushions, create a luxurious outdoor living room (Laura Morton photograph)

In my interview with Laura, she described how a feeling of intimacy can be created in a garden:

“Enclosed spaces instill a sense of intimacy, and within that, your own sense of paradise is possible.”

Nothing like getting away from the daily grind – to a distant and beautiful place where nature commands my attention. I have written about Ojai (pronounced Oh-Hi) before. It is a very special historic town, located about 1 hour north of Thousand Oaks, where I live.

How is it possible that a mere seven days after the so-called HOLIDAYS, we are back to normal routines that exhaust us and keep us distracted from our inner thoughts and honest conversations with ourselves? What happened to those resolutions anyway?

The door tag in our hotel room read: “Seeking Serenity” rather than “Do Not Disturb.” It implies a choice, an intentional decision, rather than a command or a warning. I like that notion.

My youngest son and I tagged along on my husband’s school retreat at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. This is the type of 5-star destination one can’t justify paying for out of personal funds [although we did pay for it (indirectly) through his graduate school tuition].

The gardens, setting, and plants made for a serene, visual sort of therapy. Our 7-1/2 mile bike ride on Sunday morning added to the sense of respite and rejuvenation.

Too soon we had to return to the everyday. But the 24-hour getaway was a reminder that whenever we can leave behind the commonplace – and instead seek nature, wilderness, gardens or plants – we are intentionally moving toward serenity in our lives.

This post aspires to nothing more than sharing with you my garden-gal outing two days ago to the Getty Center in LA. I had a lovely “New Year’s” lunch with garden designers Linda McKendry (of Linda McKendry Design) and Laura Morton (of Laura Morton Garden Design).

We toasted the New Year and talked about our goals, our wishes, our dreams, our *resolutions* and a bit of reality. After lunch, the three of us took an afternoon stroll through the Getty’s Robert Irwin-designed garden.

The light was beautiful. The plantings were surreal. Enjoy!

A modern-day dining pavilion, rooted in history [William Wright photograph]

This stately dining pavilion is the setting for the best garden parties. Start with impromptu dinner invitations for a few friends, add a bottle of wine, ripe tomatoes and bunches of basil harvested fresh from the garden. Joan Enticknap’s al fresco destination infuses her events with a carefree spirit. After dinner, guests usually wander off and enjoy her garden.

Bill Wright and I were fortunate enough to discover, write about and photograph Joan’s dining pavilion in 2002. She also owns the charming potting shed that graces the cover of our book, Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, photographed by Bill. 

For Joan, a rare double city lot accommodated the construction of a two-car garage at street level. Above it sits her 12-by-22 foot, freestanding dining pavilion.

Designed by Seattle-based Bader Architecture, the inviting structure is connected to her restored 1914 home by a stone terrace. The architects incorporated accordion-fold glass doors across the pavilion’s width, linking it to an herb- and rose-filled garden beyond.

“The open doors allow Joan’s parties to spill out into the garden,” says principal Gregory Bader. Shutters cover 16 pair of windows, each of which opens via tilting or swinging hinges. The windows reinforce the perspective that overlooks the street-scape below and territorial views to the north. In fact, the building is situated perfectly to shelter Joan’s garden from northern winds.

Project architects Dan Umbach and Andy Salkin drew from local carriage houses and English conservatory influences to create the pavilion. “We loved the orangery at Kensington Palace in England and this really comes from that tradition,” Bader says.

Wanting her garage and pavilion to echo the home’s origins, Joan instigated an extensive search for vintage clinker brick.

“I placed ads in (local) newspapers and eventually found a fellow who had saved clinker brick from a Craftsman bungalow.” Seven thousand bricks, combined with the passion of a talented stonemason, constructed the carriage house-inspired pavilion.

When the weather is warm, Joan slides open the pavilion doors and encourages her guests to enjoy seating on the blue stone patio. A wide staircase descends into the fragrant garden below. And that’s when a wonderful meal and beautiful landscape conspire with the senses to lure the party outdoors, any time of day.

A version of this story originally appeared in Seattle Homes and Lifestyles, with text by me and photographs by Bill.

Read further to learn more about The Orangery or L’Orangerie, a new addition to the Shed Glossary.

Last Friday, I enjoyed a wonderful “field trip” to Church Estates Vineyard in Malibu, owned by Robert Church Haggstrom. This was one of those magical behind-the-gates visits that reminds me how very fortunate I am to be a writer in this town.

I was invited by publicist Dienna D’Olimpio, with whom I’ve been corresponding for a few months. She originally contacted me to share photographs and background info about Church Estates Vineyard, its chateau and garden settings. I haven’t even tasted the wine yet (the winery’s first Chardonnay will be bottled soon and its Pinot will be ready this fall), but the beauty of the setting appealed to me immediately.

A tiny building, situated at the edge of a pond, captured my imagination. I later learned that Bob calls it his “boathouse,” and to me, it is the most beautiful, romantic boathouse I’d ever seen. Truly an elegant hideaway. (see interior, right).

Once I saw photographs of the gardens (not to mention the boathouse), all of which share the nine acres with 3,000 grapevines, I knew I wanted to visit and develop a story.

The estate is available for weddings, corporate events, and other private parties. Robert Church Haggstrom’s personable daughter, Maja, is the go-to gal for brides, corporate event planners, and anyone else who wants to rent the lovely haven for an unforgettable day.

As impressive as are the vineyards and well-appointed chateau, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Bob’s little getaway by a pond. The boathouse photos – seen above – are courtesy of Church Estate Vineyards.

Dienna arranged for me to visit and I managed to persuade my husband, Bruce, to come along for the tour. He’s not really into gardens, but he is into real estate. We drove to Malibu, about 30 minutes from home, and arrived at Church Estates in time to meet Maja just inside the entrance. Thank goodness she was driving a golf cart because the elevation change from the parking area (near a sunken clay tennis court and horse stables) to the upper gardens and chateau would have required sturdy shoes and perhaps a walking stick to navigate on foot.

We hopped onto her golf cart and made our way up the winding drive, through the garden, to the grand French-style chateau. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the pond and boathouse. The table on the dock was set for lunch! Oh, goodie, we were going to end up there at the water’s edge for our meal.

Maja narrated our tour: She grew up in Malibu and knows the ins and outs of every square inch of Church Estate Vineyards. To listen to Maja describe the gardens here, you can tell she still has that childlike wonder and curiosity about nature’s beauty. It is infectious.

The story of Church Estate Vineyards is one that I will tell in a future article, after I spend a proper amount of time with “Malibu Bob,” as Mr. Haggstrom is affectionately called around here.

But in the meantime, I will touch on highlights of his boathouse.

• It was the first thing he built here after purchasing the property five years ago
• Bob wisely situated the structure at the bottom of the hill, nestled under a stand of mature sycamore trees – facing the man-made pond, which he has since landscaped and stocked with swans.
• The boathouse measures about 20-by-20 feet in size; the exterior is finished in weathered wood and the standing-seam metal roof is aging nicely.
• The interior features a lovely fireplace and comfy furniture (but not a bed, darn it! Bob said he figured if there was a bed, all of his guests would argue over who would get to sleep here)
• The floor is made from antique boards, and when one of Bob’s friends accidentally knocked over a container of oil (after a fondue party), Bob decided to have the entire floor rubbed with oil – which adds a soft, aged patina to the space. 

Thank you Bob, Maja, Marie and Dienna – we had a wonderful visit, enjoyable conversation, delicious food — and were thoroughly enchanted with the magical setting you’ve created at Church Estate Vineyards. I can’t wait to return!

[photo above, from left: me, Maja, my husband Bruce Brooks, and Robert Church Haggstrom].

About a month ago, while reading Alex Johnson’s wonderful blog, Shedworking, I saw his post about an artist named Sarah Lynch. She has spent 2008 posting an original painting EVERY DAY on her blog.

Alex had discovered one of Sarah’s posts from July, featuring a charming garden shed entitled “Shed with Hollyhocks.” It was enchanting and I immediately went to her blog and subscribed to receive her daily artwork. Sarah is an English-Canadian woman living in Southern Ontario. You can find her work for sale via her blog (where there are links to some online galleries also selling her art).

I don’t know her at all, but Sarah has brought me a small dose of happiness every morning. Opening the link to see her next piece is one of the very first things I do after making my cup of tea and sitting down to read email at the start of the day.

I think Sarah may love sheds as much as I do, because today she offers a charming piece entitled: The Lonely Shed (7″X5″ WC pencil on paper):

The year is almost over and I’m worried that Sarah may stop posting her artwork. I like reading her brief, personal artist statements that accompany each drawing, illustration or painting. She has alluded to her readiness for a slower pace, perhaps creating three paintings a week instead of seven. Get in on the last few weeks of the year and subscribe to this little piece of joy that will arrive in your in-box each morning. I, for one, am hoping for MORE SHEDS!

IN OTHER NEWS. . .

On Sunday (12/7) we received a mention in Irene Virag’s column in Newsday. She included Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways in her “Gift List,” featured at the end of her longer piece on Ken Druse. 

Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson Potter, $30): Author Debra Prinzing and photographer William Wright showcase 28 sheds from Southampton to Seattle. From clematis-covered potting sheds to writers’ retreats, these structures enhance lifestyles and landscapes.

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