Note: a version of this story appeared in the print edition of last Saturday’s LA Times HOME section and in today’s LA Times @ Home blog.

Instead of a spindly, mass-produced support for your rose or bougainvillea, why not give that over-achiever a sturdy structure on which to climb? And why not train those vines and tendrils on a framework that’s both artful and functional?

Los Angeles landscape designer and artist Jennifer Gilbert Asher has reinterpreted classic garden ornamentation into modern, colorful – and durable forms.  Her TerraTrellis collection of steel tuteurs, arbors and wall trellises offers a stylish alternative to the type of generic (and often impermanent) metal and wood pieces you might find online or at big-box stores.

“Playful architectural forms and compelling colors in the garden are what’s behind this collection,” says Asher, who also creates more expensive works of modern outdoor sculpture through TerraSculpture, a studio co-owned by Karen Neill. Pieces in the TerraTrellis collection range from $279 to $579.

Like the studio’s larger sculpture pieces, TerraTrellis’s pieces are fabricated by Mario Lopez, who runs a metal studio in south Los Angeles. The steel pieces are hand-welded and use stainless-steel hardware and cables. They are oxide-finished or cloaked in a joyous array of powder-coated colors like kumquat, berry and leaf.

Familiar forms from public gardens and even the agricultural landscape inspire the designs.

For example, the lines of TerraTrellis’s “Gracie Modern Arbor,” which looks like a 76-inch diameter double-circle emerging from a pathway, echo the shape of hoop houses that dot Southern California’s plant nurseries. The 58-inch high “Lazio Vase Trellis” is a scaled-down homage to the giant rebar artifices that contain riotous bougainvillea at the Getty Center’s Central Garden.

“These pieces are designed not only to support a plant, but to integrate with it,” Asher says. “This union ultimately forms a work of freestanding, living art in the landscape. We want people to tap into their inner landscape designer and have fun exploring interesting combinations of plant with trellis.”

Pot-ted (www.pottedstore.com) in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood will carry the TerraTrellis collection. You can also order the pieces online at www.terratrellis.com

Here are some other designs in the collection – perfect for your stylish potager or rose border!

I’ve been after celebrity garden designer Jamie Durie for more than a year to let me come and do a story about his personal Los Angeles backyard. I sensed he was stalling because, like many of us who make gardens (or write about them) for a living, our own outdoor environment is the LAST thing to receive our attention!

Turns out, Jamie and his producers of “The Outdoor Room” on HGTV  were cooking up big plans for his hillside property in Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon.

Jamie reimagined the long-neglected yard, dominated by a vintage 1950s swimming pool, into a gorgeous series of outdoor living spaces. The magical transformation occurred over a three week time, and became the debut episode of The Outdoor Room’s season three, which aired earlier this year (you can see a schedule of re-runs of this episode by following this link).

In late February, I received an out-of-the-blue phone call from Jamie, saying: “The garden is finished – you’re invited to come see it!” Wow – this guy is good to his word.

We had a narrow window of a couple week’s time in which I could get down to LA for a photo shoot and interview, since Jamie was about to fly back to Australia for several weeks to shoot another show there. Whew. That guy lives a marathon life and makes it all look effortless. But we made it work. Here is my profile of Jamie’s project, which appears in today’s print and online editions of The Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times sent one of its very best photographers, Irfan Khan, to document the beautiful landscape. You can check out his web gallery of gorgeous shots here. I also took lots of reference photos to use while writing the story, and thought I’d post some of my favorites below.

Jamie asked me to include the many great resources he used to pull together this extreme garden makeover. So in case you’re curious, here is that list:

Resources & Materials

Bath: “The Outdoor Room” craftsman Steve Zimpel created the bath using recycled cedar from Durie’s original design.

Decking: Fiberon composite decking

Doors: LaCantina bi-fold doors

Fire: Escea outdoor gas fireplace; Durie Design Fire Pit

Furniture: Walter Lamb for Brown and Jordan reproduction chairs and chaises from Design Within Reach; all-weather wicker sectional, Durie Design.

Kitchen: Fuego modular kitchen.

Plants: Monrovia

Vertical garden system: Woolly Pockets

Pool Makeover: Jamie worked with Aric Entwistle of Los Angeles-based H2o Development Inc. to replace a conventional chlorine system with Spectralight, which uses ultraviolet light to kill pathogens and waterborne bacteria. The renovated pool is solar heated with a system from Suntopia Solar. A new infinity edge was fabricated over the original coping using carbon fiberglass, resin, high-tensile adhesives and several coats of waterproofing. It’s finished with Bisazza glass mosaic tiles.  

Well, this field trip was LAST Friday, but you’ll enjoy my photos all the same. If you don’t know about the July 22-25th Garden Bloggers Seattle Fling, then check it out here.

My pals Lorene, Marty and Mary Ann  and I were persuaded to “host” this horticultural free-for-all that can be best decribed as a weekend of garden touring and networking for bloggers around the globe.

Lorene and I headed out last Friday to scout a couple amazing residential gardens that we want to include on the tour, as well as the Bellevue Botanical Garden. It’s truly still spring here in Seattle; I’ve been away for four years, living and gardening in Zone 10-+, but I don’t remember this persistent rain, wet, gray, chilliness as late as mid-May. So when you see the photos I took on May 6th, you might be surprised! They look very April-ish, don’t they?

Even still, it was exhilarating to have a glimpse of the soon-to-arrive “season” of blooming and unfurling. Please enjoy along with me:

As you’re tidying up the spring garden with pruning, trimming and other projects, inevitably you will end up with a pile of twigs. Yes, they can go into the chipper or the compost bin, but these pliable, young branches can also be pressed into service in the garden.

I wrote about “saving twigs” for my Debra’s Garden column in the upcoming May issue of Better Homes & Gardens (you can already find it on newsstands). All you need is a clean, sharp pair of secateurs (pruners) or loppers and a pair of gloves to protect your hands while working.

Spring pruning projects usually produce armloads of branches and twigs. Give those cuttings a new purpose and build simple, natural-looking plant supports. Use twigs to stake young seedlings — just poke sticks into the soil a few inches to anchor them. Lash three or more branches together at the top to form a tee-pee trellis for sweet peas or edible peas. I also curve thin branches into a half-circle shape — stick both ends into the soil and overlap several of them to create scalloped edging for veggie and herb beds.

Here are some photos to inspire your next pruning project:

P.S., someone asked about my reference to “lashing together” on my Facebook page. I do not know exactly how the teepee was lashed together, but having made similar structures in the past, I can say that I’ve used anything handy – twine, garden twistie ties, wire and even rubber bands. Use your ingenuity!

A few weeks ago I had a phone date with Stephen Orr, the guy who has held all the jobs I’d love to have: Garden Editor for House & Garden magazine; Garden Editor for Domino magazine . . . and now, garden editorial director for Martha Stewart Living magazine.

He is one of the friendliest and most genuine individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet in the magazine world. It was a treat for me to interview Stephen about the publication of Tomorrow’s Garden, his first book. I’ve met Stephen in person a few times, both in Los Angeles at a Garden Conservancy symposium, and in San Francisco when I spoke at Flora Grubb Nursery after Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, my own book, was published. We garden writers really do live in a small world!

Thanks to Craig Nakano, my editor at the Los Angeles Times HOME section, for agreeing to feature my Q&A with Stephen.

You can click here for the full story. And click here for a web gallery of Stephen’s photography that accompanies his book. Here is an excerpt of my interview with Stephen:

“People don’t think much about where gravel comes from as a resource,” Orr said, yet gravel gardens are becoming increasingly popular. His book features gravel landscapes from Venice and Ojai to Austin, Texas, to Nantucket, Mass. We asked him to discuss gravel as a sustainable design material:

What appeals to you about the use of gravel?

It is such a great base for many styles, from traditional to modern. There are plenty of people in Los Angeles and San Francisco who have jumped on the bandwagon wanting to make low-water gardens, but I’m happy to see it catching on in other parts of the country. The California lifestyle is so amazing, with outdoor rooms, and they can be “floored” differently. One room could be floored with grass, another with stone pavers or gravel.

Designers praise gravel gardens as permeable and an alternative to lawns. How has your view of the material changed?

I was visiting nursery owner Flora Grubb in San Francisco, and she told me she often recommends gravel to customers. And then the question “Where does it come from?” came up. Our conversation opened my eyes to begin viewing gravel as a finite resource.

Where does it come from?

As with so many environmental choices, the decisions we make trying to do the right thing are complex and often somewhat overwhelming. In many cases, gravel does indeed come from local quarries. The Austin gardens in my book used local gravel. Those gardeners like how it matches the colors of the natural geology around them. But in other areas, its origin is a big question mark. Even after a lot of research, I found I still have a lot of questions about how responsibly gravel is mined. The EPA monitors gravel production, which is a huge industry mainly for construction and highway building. In comparison, gravel for gardening use is minor, but it’s still something to be conscious of.

What questions should homeowners be asking about the gravel they buy?

I suggest you approach it like having a local consciousness of food. Don’t buy bags of gravel if you don’t know where it comes from. It may be shipped longer distances than is environmentally responsible. Try instead to source the material close to home.

What type of gravel do you recommend?

There is a difference between “crushed stone,” which has sharper edges, and “pea gravel,” which is rounded. Some people prefer walking on the rounded pea gravel, but consider the environmental impact it takes to extract it from ancient stream-beds formed by alluvial processes over millennia. Pea gravel isn’t a manufactured product. It’s not even a renewable resource. Many forward-thinking designers are switching to more jagged, crushed limestone or granite instead.

Any tips on how gravel should be installed?

One major thing I learned is that the depth of gravel is important. If it’s laid too deep, it’s like trudging through deep snow. Most of the designers I interviewed recommend you first put down a layer of “road base,” bigger pieces of crushed stone — an inch or two in length. Lay it very flat with a compactor and then place just a few inches of crushed gravel or pea gravel on top. This approach makes a very stable surface.

What are some of the interesting ways people use gravel?

I love the modern look of some of the gardens in my book. But I also really love gravel gardens with a more traditional influence where plants are encouraged to self-sow. I’m a plant nut. I come at gardening because I love plants. So to me, the space that contains the plant — the garden — is a frame to show them off. I love seeing volunteers like verbena or a spire of silver verbascum in the gravel. Or, I like to see gravel as the flooring for a spare space containing just a water feature.

Do you see gravel as the anti-lawn?

I like to see gravel and lawn used in combination. Just as a lot of us live without wall-to-wall carpet and instead have rugs with wood floors, I encourage people to think of their lawn as an area rug. Think about using it with an element of crushed rock, such as a flat area under a tree or where you need better drainage.

I spent about 48 hours in New York City last week, staying at my favorite bed and breakfast at West 81st Street and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West side.

I mistakenly scheduled the visit to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day, one of the many days when people in Manhattan go crazy, whether they are Irish or not.

Yet, the weather was “pure spring” – certainly milder than we have had in Seattle lately – and my spirits were lifted just getting off the subway from JFK to the city.

My objective for stopping through NYC on my way to speak in Toronto was to meet some editors face-to-face and to spend time with some very dear friends. I had a half-day “free” and unscheduled, so last Thursday morning I hopped the downtown C Train across the street from Central Park and rode it to West 23rd Street. My destination: the nearly two-year-old public park called The High Line.

You’ve probably read about this amazing public-private endeavor – an elevated park that runs along 10 to 12 blocks on a former 1930s freight track high above Tenth Avenue between Chelsea and the Meat Packing District. I’ve read lots about it, too. But for a landscape design and horticulture observer like me, nothing compares to the first-person tour.

When I had dinner the night before with my talented NYC go-to-gals, Ellen Spector-Platt and Ellen Zachos, co-creators of the popular NYC gardening blog Gardenbytes, they gave me some tips on where to disembark from the subway (23rd Street Stop) and warned me that not much would be in bloom.

Blooms were not essential, yet I did enjoy spotting crocuses, witch hazel and a couple beautiful flowering ‘Pink Dawn’ viburnum shrubs showing off in the warm, spring sun.

The edgy, industrial setting was just as delightful to my eyes. The rails of this RR-in-the-sky last carried a train of frozen turkeys in 1980.

Over the ensuing decades nature has had her way with the long-abandoned site. According to the High Line web site, its designers selected plants to “echo the wild, self-seeded landscape that grew up on the structure after the trains stopped running.” The landscape was designed by James Corner Field Operations in partnership with Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The origins of this reimagined public space can be traced to 1999, when community residents founded Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit public conservancy that today operates under a license agreement with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.

The forward-thinking citizen group fought for preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line now provides approximately 70 percent of its annual operating budget and is responsible for both stewardship of the park and its public programs.

Beginning my tour at the northernmost entrance on West 20th Street, I climbed the steps and arrived to see a new view of the Hudson River and surrounding buildings. Light and airy, the park’s design has retained original crisscrossing steel tracks where groves of trees, shrubs and grasses are planted. The main walkway, which is wheelchair and stroller-friendly, appears to be formed by staggered bands of granite that emulate railroad tracks and also accommodate soft vegetation.

Plenty of seating encourages people to rest, admire the scenery or eat a sandwich.

I happened upon a group of schoolchildren on a class tour near the bleacher-style amphitheatre where public performances often take place. A docent held a sign that read QUIET, and I smiled as I overheard her telling the children that the designers wanted to create a place where the noise of the city streets wasn’t so powerful. You know, quiet is one of the strongest sensations I experienced on my visit.

The juxtaposition of a park-in-the-sky with a city’s hustle-and-bustle down below seemed to amplify the silence. And I envy those folks in Manhattan who can visit The High Line whenever they want.

This just in: the tally of the Los Angeles Times’ HOME section’s most highly viewed stories and galleries of the year. And – wow – 4 of the top 12 are stories that I was fortunate to discover and write for the newspaper.

Here they are – enjoy the inspiration:

1. In Beverly Hills, a Hollywood Regency re-do created by TV personality Lara Spencer and her husband David Haffenreffer.

2. The historic midcentury Daily House in Glendale, lovingly revived by attorney Chris Burusco.

3. The growing green Venice house owned by Paul and Cicek Bricault, complete with succulent walls on the exterior of their master bedroom addition. PS, this story also logged in as one of the paper’s most-read Home & Garden pieces of 2010.

4. The charming, modern Chartreuse House, also in Venice, designed by Lisa Little of LayerLA and Victoria Yust/Ian McIlvaine of Tierra Sol y Mar. Gardens by Stephanie Bartron of SB Garden Design.

Even though I have relocated to Seattle, I continue to report on home design, interiors and architecture for the Los Angeles Times. I’m looking forward to 2011 – can’t wait to discover the great design the New Year brings.

On Friday, I enjoyed a rare luxury – a return to a favorite garden I’ve written about twice in the past decade: 

I hopped in the car and drove to Snohomish, Wash., where I lunched with two long-time friends from my days working for The Herald, the daily newspaper in Everett, Wash. (it’s a mid-sized city located about 30 miles north of Seattle). 

In the process, I learned something new about how to save drab, lifeless cast-stone (concrete) containers and garden ornamentation.

Read on for the simple steps: 

Marco Henry, a gifted artist, garden and interior designer and Venetian expert, hosted a little luncheon at his amazing home. We were joined by our mutual friend Darlene Huntington, one of my very first “sources” when I joined The Herald’s Home & Garden section in 2000.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of writing about both of these incredibly talented gardeners and their verdant, plant-filled environments. The two introduced me to other Snohomish County plant fanatics, owners of vintage homes, collectors of antiques and garden-makers. I have been so enriched as a writer and gardener from that 4-1/2-year episode of my life. 

After lunch we, of course, ventured out to Marco’s garden. Yes, it’s winter here in the Pacific Northwest, but when you have structural plants (such as Italian cypresses and ball-shaped boxwood shrubs), there’s lots to appreciate. When you see these elements, you understand what people mean when they say to design the “bones” of the garden for year-round interest.

I first wrote about Marco and his garden when it was included on the Northwest Perennial Alliance’s “Open Garden” tour  in 2000. Darlene marched me over to Mark’s home for an introduction. When I entered the Gothic-inspired wood gate, mounted into a niche in the beautifully-groomed hedgerow, I gasped and gazed in awe at what I saw inside: plant collections, art collections, vintage furniture, water features, sculpture and more – all surrounding a circa 1912 farmhouse and yard, complete with chicken coop and green house. 

This garden has the power to transport its viewer to a horticultural world we all yearn to possess. Is it a formal Italian garden? Or a cottage-style English estate? Maybe it’s a a landscape in the South of France. Each of these influences has a voice in Marco’s garden.

A teacher early in his career, Marco can be credited with giving a generation of fortunate kindergardeners an appreciation for art, color and beauty. Now, the grown-ups in his world can learn from his garden design techniques and his unique aesthetic.

My June 2000 article was called “Secret Garden.” I just unearthed that article and re-read it, savoring some of Marco’s choice quotes: 

“I’m a plant collector, a collector period. Some people put all of their collection together in one place. I don’t. I like to make something artistic out of it. 

“If I buy one of something I like, it’s the beginning of a collection. I could be Chinese porcelain or it could be coleus.” 

In 2006, I was asked by Cottage Living magazine to again write about Marco’s garden. We had fun with that story, which was photographed by Richard Warren. I loved sharing Marco’s gardening style with a national readership, especially his tips on growing and designing with hydrangeas. 

Marco is passionate about Venice, a city he first visited in 1968 as a young man.  In a post-card written to his parents that year, he said he could imagine living in Venice. Now that dream is practically true, since Marco travels to Venice at least twice annually. He has guided many tours there for fans of Venetian architecture, art and gardens, and he lectures on the lessons we can learn from the gardens of Venice. 

Today’s lesson was all about Terra Cotta and the way it can warm up a garden, especially ones here in the Pacific Northwest that exist under a grayish cloud cover all winter long. Marco showed me several ornamental pieces that began their lives as uninteresting blobs of concrete. Concrete, he says, often recedes and is visually obscured by the greenery around it. Now he’s infused these pieces with the sun-drenched character of Italy. It’s a simple process and one I’m eager to try myself:

1. Find a piece of broken Terra Cotta pottery or a flowerpot with the perfect red-pink shade you love.

2. Take it to the paint store and ask the guys to mix up a can of paint that matches your sample. Be sure to order exterior Latex (water base) paint.

3. Fill a plastic bucket with some of the paint and drizzle in a bit of water to dilute it to a consistency that’s easy to work with. It can be more like a glaze or a stain in thickness.

4. Start painting any old piece of ordinary garden concrete. You may wish to coat the concrete with one, two, or three coats. The water-base pigment will “take” to the concrete differently, depending on how porous it is. Marco says the Terra Cotta-colored paint definitely “soaks” into the pores of the concrete.

5. Finally, you will enjoy what looks like perfectly-cast Terra Cotta. It weathers nicely and may soon take on a patina of age, moss, or lichen.

You’ll be pleased with the resulting appearance of your efforts. Old concrete gets a Mediterranean-style upgrade – to classic Terra Cotta. How easy is that? Thank you, Marco – great tip!

POST-Script: Thanks to Jim Bishop of San Diego-based Bishop Garden Design, who originally saw this post on my Facebook page, I want to share his cool ideas for painting concrete:

If you want to give (terra cotta) an immediate aged look, get a second can of (paint) in a darker version of the first color.

Water this down too or add a glazing agent and paint lightly over the object especially in the recesses. Rub off the excess until you get the aged look you want. Oil based gel stains work well too for creating an aged look and give you a longer working time.

Get out that paint, people! Have some fun!

Trend-spotters are reading the horticultural tea leaves these days.

It’s an annual practice that I remember so well from my newsroom career when, without fail, we reporters were asked to compile the obligatory “forecast” story. I covered retail, and you could imagine how loathe Seattle’s major retail CEOs were to tell me anything about the coming year when it was just days after Christmas and they hadn’t tallied up the current year’s performance.

But, alas, we all want a glimpse into the future. And that’s what going to industry trade shows can help reveal. A peek into the products, plants, tools and design items you may be seeing in 2011’s backyards.

This post continues with even more interesting offerings. Or the ones that caught my interest anyway. I welcome your reaction. Are these items you can see yourself purchasing for your garden? Do you even NEED more products? (That’s a long conversation, isn’t it?).

I really enjoyed meeting Jill Plumb, a school teacher who came up with a brilliantly simple method of building raised beds.

Her product is called M Brace. It is a decorative steel corner bracket that holds lumber at a 45-degree angle WITHOUT HARDWARE (note: this is a big selling point for anyone who has dragged the electric drill and 100-foot-long orange extension cord out to the backyard to try and wrestle together a box for the tomatoes).

Jill told me that she got this “big idea” one day while re-loading paper napkins into a “slot” style napkin holder.

Something clicked and she saw in her mind’s eye how easy it would be to have a bracket that emulated that napkin holder. Just larger, more durable and also pretty. Several prototypes later, including the support of her students who she involved in the design process, packaging development and marketing, Jill’s M Brace is looking very professional and has already hit garden center shelves in some markets.

Made from recycled steel (natural or powder-coated), with decorative cut-outs including a squiggle, sun, carrot or bamboo fronds, the set of 4 brackets has a $165/set recommended retail price. Jill continues to offer new product ideas such as “edging” made from the leftover swirl pieces or plant stakes from the leftover carrot cutouts. Brilliant!

I spotted another clever system to corral plants – especially in this case, vines – in the Feeney Architectural Products booth.

We see so much over-designed crap in the marketplace, which is one reason why I appreciated Feeney’s simple use of stainless steel cables to create a trellis for climbing plants. Feeney’s 3-in-1 Trellisis an easy-to-assemble wall-mount trellis kit with 1/8-inch diameter rods and special mounting components that can be configured into a Fan, Grid or Diamond design. This is a lightweight solution that does require measuring and drilling skills to install, but can turn a blah wall or fence into something quite beautiful. Just add a vine of your choice and voila! Something quite pretty. Suggested retail: $199.

Feeney also uses stainless steel cables in its inexpensive “It’s a Cinch” plant hanger and in a freestanding trellis panel kit. The Greenway Trellis has a frame of aluminum tubing and a square-grid pattern for the vines. The frame legs can be set in compacted gravel or concrete footings, or they can be base-mounted on a deck or patio. That square-grid pattern also shows up in the Somerset II Trellis, which has top and bottom powder-coated aluminum brackets. It is also a wall-mount system but a little larger than the 3-in-1.

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