Succulents and More™

My day began with a visit to the University of British Columbia (UBC) Botanical Garden . I got there right at 9:30am when the garden opens and for a few minutes I had fairly even lighting. It didn’t take long for the clouds to dissipate, though. Before I knew it, I had to contend with the harsh light that makes photography challenging. UBC Botanical Garden The UBC Botanical Garden is quite large—78 acres (32 hectares) in total. It is divided into two sections (north and south), separated by a tunnel under Marine Drive. The south section, where the entrance and parking lot are, is occupied by the David C. Lam Asian Garden. The north section consists of a number of smaller gardens, including the Alpine Garden, Food Garden, Physic Garden, Arbor, etc. One of the biggest attraction, the Greenheart Canopy Walk in the Asian Garden, is a series of suspension bridges 50 feet above the forest floor. We’ll do that tomorrow morning so look for photos in my next posts.

We’ve been in Vancouver, British Columbia for two days now, and it hasn’t been love at first sight. True, its location is stunning, as you can see below. But the city is very large, very crowded, and very noisy. In addition, everybody seems to always be doing something: running, bicycling, speed-walking. It’s as if life is happening at a faster pace here than elsewhere. More than once I was reminded of an old documentary called Koyaanisqatsi . Its time-lapse and fast-motion sequences of modern life left quite an impression on me when I first saw in in the mid-80s. I will say that on the morning of day 3, I’m getting acclimated to Vancouver, and that we’ve progressed from frenemies to acquaintances. Who knows, by the time we leave tomorrow, we may have struck up a friendship.

Day 4 of our summer trip was spent in Seattle. Even before we left our hotel by the airport we heard about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ruling in favor of marriage equality . The rainbow flag was flying over the headquarters of Starbuck’s as we drove (or rather crept) by on the freeway. It was a great day for America, and a great day for us, filled with dazzling visuals and indelible impressions. EMP Museum in Seattle Center I’d been to Seattle before, but only very briefly, so I consider this my first real visit. The weather was perfect, albeit a bit on the warm side for Seattle, and the Seattle Center where we spent most of the day, was thronged with people. 

Day 3 of our 2015 Pacific Northwest road trip took us to Tacoma , Washington’s third largest city (after Seattle and Spokane). My personal highlight of our half-day visit was the garden of Peter Herpst, the Outlaw Gardener . Peter was gracious enough to show me around even though I hadn’t given him much advance notice. Peter’s picture-perfect Victorian, complete with the most densely planted hellstrip I’ve ever seen

If from yesterday’s post you guessed that we’re headed to the Canadian province of British Columbia, you would be correct. But we’re not there quite yet. Day 1 (really just a half a day) and day 2 were spent in Portland, Oregon, one of my favorite cities in the U.S. You may remember that I attended the 2014 Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland just about a year ago. I have very fond memories of the many gardens we visited. I haven’t even blogged about all them yet but am slowly catching up. We spent Tuesday evening with Loree Bohl of Danger Garden fame and her husband Andrew. Loree made the best margarita I’ve had in a long time, and we had dinner at an Iraqi restaurant in NE Portland I can highly recommend: Dar Salam . Hanging out in the backyard of Loree’s ever-fabulous Danger Garden

Do you know what poutine and Nanaimo bars are? If so, you know where we are headed on our 2015 summer vacation. Here’s a photo of poutine : Poutine. Photo by Yuri Long from Arlington, VA, USA (road_trip-9349.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)] , via Wikimedia Commons It’s basically French fries topped with brown gravy and cheese curds. If you think that’s a weird combination, welcome to the club. But I’m willing to try it.

Here are all the posts from our summer 2015 road trip through the Pacific Northwest. Miles driven: 2,699 (4,343 km) States/provinces visited: 4 (California, Oregon, Washington; British Columbia) Favorite town : Victoria, BC Favorite attraction : Space Needle, Seattle, WA Favorite public garden : VanDusen Botanical Garden , Vancouver, BC Favorite meal : Fish and chips, Barb’s Place , Fisherman’s Wharf, Victoria, BC Best sunset : Bandon, OR Downtown Seattle and Mount Rainier from the observation deck of the Space Needle

Last Friday I showed you a fenced entry courtyard designed by Chris Corbett . After we were done photographing that project, we drove to the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael to see another front yard redesign. This one has a larger scope. In addition to the hardscape and planting scheme, Chris also gave the front of the house a Craftsman-inspired makeover to tie everything together. There had been another Lavandula × intermedia ‘Grosso’ on the left but it died, leaving a noticeable gap The two elements that jumped out at me were the quartzite flagstone path to the front door as well as the amazing lavenders ( Lavandula × intermedia ‘Grosso’). It was starting to drizzle soon after we arrived, and the rain gave the flagstone a metallic sheen. (No rain in Davis that day, though.)

A couple of months ago, as I was stepping out of the house to get the mail, I saw a Google Street View car drive down our street. Little did I know that I would feature quite prominently in the photos of our house. Really, what are the odds? The photos of our neighborhood are now up on Google Maps. Here are some screen captures. In the first photo, I’m just a small blob. I’m a little bigger in the second photo.

Recently Chris Corbett , a Davis-based architect and landscape designer, asked me if I would photograph some of his projects for his portfolio on Houzz . Even though I’m not a professional photographer and have no experience photographing landscape design projects other than what I’ve done for this blog, I said yes. The first project I photographed was an entry courtyard in Village Homes , an ecologically sustainable community in Davis developed by Chris’ father Mike Corbett in the 1970s. It was one of the first projects of its kind in the world and attracted a great deal of international attention. Properties in Village Homes are typically small, with a focus on shared community spaces rather than insular backyards. I can’t speak for the homeowners, but maybe their desire to have a private front yard is in direct response to the communal living philosophy underlying Village Homes. Even if you like your neighbors and people passing by, it’s nice to have a private space where nobody ...