Behind the Scenes

— Nan Sterman   Visit a beautiful waterwise garden and you’ll notice the amazing colors and textures, fabulous structures and gorgeous flowers. Birds and bees and butterflies flit through the garden. Lizards scurry about. Each garden is an oasis all of its own, as you’ll se

— Nan Sterman It’s emerald green. It’s soft underfoot. It smells great when it’s cut. It’s fun to play on. There are many reasons to like grass, but there are also reasons not to have a lawn in your garden. How grass lawns got here Lawns are new to California. They arrived durin

— Nan Sterman How often a gardener sends me a photo, asking me if the bug in the picture is a “good bug” or a “bad bug.” Most people assume  every bug is bad but the truth is, most of the insects in our gardens are “good,” or at least, they aren’t “bad.” In my garden, this is an

— Nan Sterman Take a deep breath in the garden. What do you smell? If you grow citrus, chances are you’re smelling one of the headiest, most intoxicating fragrances imaginable. This is the time of year when backyard citrus erupt in small, fragrant white flowers that will become

Celebrating Balboa Park – Part V: The Exposition and Its Legacy — Nan Sterman On January 1, 1915, 50,000 bright red poinsettias welcomed visitors to the Panama-California Exposition. The choice of plants was a bit prophetic since San Diego County would soon be known as the epice

Celebrating Balboa Park – Part IV: Farms and Gardens — Nan Sterman While Balboa Park’s planners and designers were jockeying for position, the park’s horticulturists were scurrying to propagate plants for the exposition gardens. They had only five years to landscape

Celebrating Balboa Park – Part III: Work Begins — Nan Sterman By 1909, the park’s design began to take shape. The Chamber of Commerce came up with the idea to create a World’s Fair to celebrate the 1915 opening of the Panama Canal. It would help boost the city’s economy, which h

Celebrating Balboa Park – Part II: Planning a Park — Nan Sterman The land we call Balboa Park today, was set aside as “City Park” in 1868. It was 1,400 acres located about a half-mile outside the city of San Diego. It was coastal sage scrub decimated by grazing cattle and

Celebrating Balboa Park Part I: The Garden Faire — Nan Sterman One of my favorite things about putting together new episodes is what I discover along the way. Our first episode of Season Three is about the history of Balboa Park and how it became the iconic destination it is tod