Sin Maiz No Hay Pais – Without Corn There Is No Nation On any given Sunday around noon you will find my husband and I having breakfast at our favorite plaza restaurant, Fonda Chapala. We love sitting outdoors, watching the townspeople scurry by on their way to the Mercado to buy masa for their dinner […]
Verdant View – March 2024 Read More »
This year has proven to be the coldest in 10 years in our Lakeside area. I see my garden responding to the cold. Now that the sun’s intensity has returned the plants are trying to start themselves again after an extended cold spell. The plants are troopers, trying to adapt, knowing that they should now
Verdant View – February 2024 Read More »
When I started studying for my third career in architectural design, the word sustainability was just starting to be thrown around. I was fascinated with the concept of combining architecture with environmental responsibility. My basic architectural studies were always tinted with the concept of sustainable construction and materials selection. The more I learned, the more
Verdant View – January 2024 Read More »
Festival del Rabano – Radish Festival Last year in December my husband, Brad, and I decided to take a weeklong trip to Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, to visit our Zapotec friend Doña Antonietta. We met Doña Antonietta and her husband Lucio in Ajijic, where they visited and sold their wonderful tapetes, or rugs. Together we
Verdant View – December 2023 Read More »
Starting Again November is the month that symbolizes change. Our summer is at an end, the winds blow a bit cooler, the skies are more overcast and we start the month with Dia y Noche de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of my favorite Mexican holidays. The Mayans celebrate the Day of the
Verdant View – November 2023 Read More »
Cempasúchil Cempasúchil or Marigolds are a versatile, radiant flower with deep roots in practice in ancient religions: Aztec, Christianity and Hinduism. Marigolds are known as the “Herb of the Sun.” The Welsh believed that if marigolds were not open early in the morning, then a storm was on the way. Marigolds were used in pre-Hispanic
Verdant View – October 2023 Read More »
Rewilding Your Garden What Is Rewilding? Rewilding is the act of restoring an area of land to its natural uncultivated state with the reintroduction of native plants, trees, wild animal species that have been driven out or exterminated, then letting nature take over helping natural processes to occur freely. The intention is one of repairing damaged
Verdant View – September 2023 Read More »
Can Photosynthesis Save The World? If you are looking for the smartest energy source on the planet, then look to plants. They have a cheap, clean and abundant way of creating energy: photosynthesis, which is perhaps the most efficient power supply we know. Plants have perfected the conversion of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into
Verdant View – August 2023 Read More »
Intuitive Gardening Now that the rains have started and our garden watering chores are lessening, perhaps we could all relax a bit by spending more time watching, listening to, and enjoying our gardens. Let’s start at the ground level with the soil. Soil has been around for hundreds of millions of years. It has figured
Verdant View – July 2023 Read More »
June Is Bustin’Out All Over—Rogers & Hammerstein, Carousel, 1956 Like the title of the song, June is bustin’out all over. We eagerly anticipate our annual rains to start mid-June. We celebrate the Summer Solstice on June 21, 2023. Our gardens are all abuzz with new pollinators busily working, and the plants all seem to have
Verdant View – June 2023 Read More »
