— Nan Sterman After our group of enthusiastic garden travelers left Cordoba, Spain we went on to Seville. We toured Seville’s historic old city on foot, then headed to the Alcazar, one of my favorite gardens in the world. These gardens also hugely influenced San Diego arch

— Nan Sterman   Thirty-six people, nine days, five cities, more than 35 gardens, and nearly 3,000 photos. Those are the numbers for the tour I co-led last month to visit the romantic gardens of Spain. We toured by private coach, starting in Malaga, a beautiful seaside town

— Nan Sterman If I asked you to name the world’s largest plants, you’d probably guess the California’s coast redwoods or giant Sequoias. If I asked you to name the world’s smallest plants, what would come to mind? The smallest plants, really the smallest plant-like organisms, are a ki

— 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

— by Nan Sterman Week before last, Southern Californians had our first taste of El Niño rains; four inches in three days – nearly half the rainfall we normally see in a year. Fortunately, we prepared ahead of time at our house. We had the plumber out to clear in-ground dra

— by Nan Sterman You might wonder if the drought means the end of home grown fruits. Thankfully, it doesn’t. There are many kinds of fruiting trees, shrubs and even succulents that produce lots of fruits with little, if any, irrigation once the plants are established. Here are t