A quick trip to South Coast Botanic Garden with Chewy — good planting, great wandering, and a completely unexpected encounter with Thomas Dambo’s giant wooden trolls.
Gardens
Desert Botanical Garden – November 2025
Rain, rain, more rain – it’s rained a LOT the past few weeks, so it’s time to check out DBG and see what the desert thinks of all this water.
Ruth Bancroft Garden – Walnut Creek CA – May 2025
I have such a crush on this place, I absolutely adore it. I’m taking all my Bay area friends there now.
Orchid Mania at DBG – Spring 2025
I can’t grow orchids, just doesn’t work. But wow, these were amazing to look at and dream about growing.
Ruth Bancroft Garden – Walnut Creek – April 2025
Huge gallery, may take a bit to load. I’ve heard about this garden, and I even own the book about it – The Bold Dry Garden – but I hadn’t ever been to visit.
Gardens by the Bay – Singapore – April 2025
Yah, I realize it’s one of the most touristy things to do in Singapore, but it’s so Crazy Rich Asians movie style up there, you just gotta go. Lots of images, maybe loads slowly.
CACSS Show & Sale at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix
Every year the CACSS holds a show and sale to benefit the society. It’s usually at DBG, which is one of my happy places.
Desert Botanical Garden – Feb 2025
More DBG. I really can’t get enough of the place.
LightBloom by HYBYCOZO – DBG – Nov/Dec 2024
Combination of two different dumps from the Lightbloom exhibit at Desert Botanical Garden. Artist(s) are HYBYCOZO, and it’s some really cool engineering as well as art!
Conservation Garden Park – West Jordan
One of the best examples of why we do NOT NEED lawns in our landscaping.
Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point – Lehi
Normally I would have skipped this place since it’s like super tourist attraction of the worst sort, IMO. But the dahlias…
Red Butte Garden & Arboretum
Red Butte Garden is part of the University of Utah. It’s a great garden to visit – lots of xeriscaping, bike trails nearby, all that kind of stuff.
Santa Fe Botanical Garden – May 2024
Museum Hill is packed full of places to visit, you should plan on two days if you can squeeze in the time. Santa Fe Botanical Garden isn’t huge but it’s full of cool plants.