Gardens

Our Home Garden

I’ve always had an interest in gardening. Mowing lawns and tidying yards was my first paid job. My mother, who grew up on a farm, is a masterful gardener, and my father had an interest in Japanese garden culture. As a result of their influences, my siblings and I are garden enthusiasts. I find the task of weeding, pruning, watering, and planting my garden, somewhat a Zen experience. 

During my photojournalism career, standing in the garden after a stressful day, hose in hand, was a soothing experience. While my children were young, the gardening was concentrated on the front yard where it was meant to present an appealing sight to my neighbors. As my sons stopped playing on our park size play structure, that I’d built 26 years ago, I reimagined a brand new backyard. For over two years the backyard was gutted, hardscape torn out, and slowly replaced. My son Ian, the designer, and I drew up plans for winding paths, curved walls, and three stone or brick patios. We left only a mature lemon tree and re-purposed our used brick and broken concrete. Truckloads of wood chips that used to cushion falls from swings were left to decompose and became the foundations of slopes and raised beds.

During graduate school, in my late 50’s, I was house-bound when not working two jobs and studying at the university. My contact with nature was restricted to my home garden. Often I would be writing a difficult paper or studying for an exam and find the garden calling me away. I would grab my camera, usually fitted with a macro lens, and go in search of God’s complex creation in that small space. After leaving my daily newspaper job, the garden became even more of a retreat and a place to pour my work ethic into.

Despite terrible clay soil and a devastating drought that lasted for many years, the garden has survived, evolved, and flourished. Many beloved plants have only lasted for a season, while others are decades old and likely to outlive me. A beloved 50-year-old oak tree died as a result of California’s drought and its removal created a new environment of open sunlight in the front yard. During the drought I removed all our lawns and increased my already substantial succulent collection. My temptation was to create a landscape of succulents, gravel, and rock, but my wife protested, insisting on multiple spots of color and plants that remind her of her grandfather’s practiced hand at gardening. She prevailed and today we have a very eclectic mix of flora.

Many times visitors, who have seen my Facebook posts of garden images, are shocked at the smallness of my yard, having imagined so much diversity to take up acres. One secret to that diversity is the hundreds of potted plants I have, which became a necessity when the flower beds grew full.

The garden provides an ever changing canvas for me to create images. My personal philosophy of photography is that the journey, the pursuit and hunt for images, is far more important than the destination, the final image. During the process of exposing images in my camera, almost always handheld, I exercise my eye for composition, interpretation of color, and depth of field. I often have spiritual experiences, looking intently at the intricate design of each species. Each year I delight in the newness of spring and the fading away of winter.

Gardens

The Gardens of the Huntington Library

My wife and I visit the Huntington Library and Gardens, in San Marino, California, about 4-5 times a year. I spend most of my time there photographing in the gardens. We have started to bring a grandchild along as well and they love running across the fields and discovering new plants and bugs. I’m posting this gallery during the 2020 period of quarantine, as Covid 19 virus threatens the health of the nation. Hopefully you can imagine wandering through the gardens as you scroll through this gallery. Put on some soothing music and enjoy.

Garden

Backyard Safari

Among the blooming flowers and patterned succulents, I’m often photographing the various animal visitors to my home garden. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve seen in recent years.