Success In The Garden I often ask myself, “What does a successful garden look like?” I also ask, “What is a successful garden and what can I do to have one?” The answers are as varied as the number of gardeners on this stunning planet. For some it might be a rewilding of their spaces […]
Verdant View – August 2024 Read More »
Water, Water Everywhere? I recently was invited to hear Dr. Eduardo Juarez Carrillo, Director of the Institute for Limnologia y Sustentabilidad, of the University of Guadalajara, speak at a gathering hosted by the Friends of Centro Pro-Mexico in San Juan Cosala. The title of the presentation was “Water Crisis of Lake Chapala.” Dr. Juarez Carillo
Verdant View – July 2024 Read More »
Braiding Sweetgrass Every so often, but not too frequently, a book crosses your path that resonates clearly with your own beliefs, which fills in those effective gaps, which astounds and educates you, taking you to greater levels of understanding. Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and The Teachings of Plants by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Verdant View – June 2024 Read More »
The Simple Life I’ve tried to simplify my life since I moved back to Mexico 13 years ago. I still drive a secondhand, 26-year-old family van purchased from my sister Sandra and brought from Santa Monica, CA. I still wear secondhand store-bought clothes that my mother Rebecca used to bring me every July for my
Verdant View – May 2024 Read More »
Pollination Considering that about 80% of our flowering plants need to be pollinated so they can reproduce and that these plants include approximately 75% of the crops people harvest and eat around the world, how would you solve the dilemma of pollination? Some plants are pollinated by animals known as pollinators. Pollination is the act of taking pollen from
Verdant View – April 2024 Read More »
By Theresa Killeen Bonpane I haven’t had many heroines in my life. My mother, Rebeca immediately comes to mind; considerate, brave, intelligent, amazing nurturer of plants and family, a hard worker and at times a risk taker. Rigoberta Menchu, the amazing contemporary Mexican muralist Rina Lazo, Frida Kahlo, my two older sisters Ceci and Sandra
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 »
