At this year’s San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, the Sunset staff had put up a sign showing every edition of their famous "green book" going back to 1954. The caption asked, "Do you remember your first?" I remember my first. It was the sixth edition, about 13 years ago. I was shamed into buying […]
Amy Stewart
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Recovering from the Freeze
At the plant sale in Trinidad a couple weeks ago, everyone was talking about what they’d lost during the freeze. Many of us were still having a hard time believing that it had happened at all. "It was just one freeze after another," someone would say, shaking her head. "Night after night. It never let […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Spring books
This winter, I took a break from serious, I-better-read-this-because-it’s-good-for-me nonfiction. Instead, I went down to the library in January and checked out every novel that I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t gotten around to. Two of them stood out; check them out yourself and see if you agree. I don’t know what I was […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Business of Bees
I’ve been away from the garden too long. After a couple of months on the road, the place is a mess. Those hard freezes back in January turned some of my favorite shrubs into popsicles, but somehow spared the weeds, which have taken over. I’ve got some serious garden restoration work to do – and […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Happy at home
Dow’s Prairie artist Susan Fox [with her collie, Niki] has spent just one year in her current garden, but she’s spent most of her life in Humboldt County. (To see her art, check out her show at Miller Farms in April.) Here’s what she has to say about her life as a gardener: What’s the […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Taming the Wildearth
In this ongoing series of Humboldt County gardeners telling it like it is, Eureka gardener and landscape designer Donna Wildearth (right) has stepped up to bat. She owns Garden Visions Landscape Design and she teaches at College of the Redwoods. "Between my business and my teaching," she says, "I feel happily immersed in the world […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Scourge of the gophers
Welcome to the second in a series of interviews with Humboldt County gardeners. Today’s chatty gardener is Janet Sclar. She’s been gardening in Hydesville for six years, and she works as a farmer’s market vendor and does customer service and web design for her husband’s mail-order nursery business, Amity Heritage Roses. What’s the best thing […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Celia Homesley’s Crimson Leaves
Celia Homesley’s first book of poetry, Body of Crimson Leaves, is an absolutely lovely collection of quietly beautiful poems. Most of us don’t buy many books of poetry in a year, but I suggest that you start off 2007 by adding this one to your library. You can also meet Celia at Booklegger this Saturday […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Humboldt Gardeners in Their Own Words, Part 1
This is the first in a series of Q&As with Humboldt County gardeners. Eureka’s Gisela Rohde of Eureka kicks it off. She’s lived in Humboldt County for 27 years and has been at her current garden for five and a half years. When I asked her how she’d like to characterize her occupation or avocation, […]
Posted inNews
Star Gazer
PLEASE NOTE. Algonquin Books, the publisher of Flower Confidential, graciously allowed us to put an exclusive excerpt online until March 1. Find out more about the book and where to buy it at http://www.algonquin.com/catalog/?isbn=1565124383, or visit Amy’s website at amystewart.com. – The Journal Journal columnist Amy Stewart will be appearing at Northtown Books (957 H […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Getting to Know You
Spring is the worst time to leave a garden, but that’s what I’m about to do. My publisher is sending me on a mad dash across the country from February through April, with just a few short stops at home to catch my breath and do my laundry. I’ll be on the road talking about […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Gardening in the Rain
So there I am, sitting at the kitchen table, looking glumly out at the rain. "What am I supposed to write about this week?" I ask my husband. "It’s raining. There’s nothing to do outside." "Write about the rain," he says. That sounds rather Zen, but there’s something to it. If you live in Humboldt […]