MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Plants start to go in!
By: Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of columns from September, October, and November 2015 newsletters about filling in our swimming...
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November 2024
My Life with Plants
Feb 1, 2016
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: South Africa – The Garden Route
By: Jim Bishop. The last two months I’ve written about the Northern Cape of South Africa and Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden....
Jan 1, 2016
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Kirstenbosch, South Africa – This is the place!
By Jim Bishop. Last month I wrote about visiting the bulb fields at of the Western Cape area of South Africa this past September....
Dec 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Nieuwoudtville, South Africa
By Jim Bishop. As some of you may know, I turned 60 this year. As part of the celebration, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling to places...
Nov 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Pool Be Gone – Part 3
By Jim Bishop. The last 2 months, I discussed how we came up with a design to replace our pool with a casita, stair tower and several...
Oct 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Pool Be Gone – Part 2
By Jim Bishop. Last month, I discussed how we came up with a design to replace our pool with a casita, stair tower and several garden...
Sep 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Pool Be Gone - Part 1
By Jim Bishop. By 2000, we had completed most of the remodel of the rooms inside the house. When we had started to do the remodel one of...
Aug 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Gopher Madness
By Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of last May’s article about challenges creating a garden in our new home in Mission Hills. This is...
Jul 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Downward March
By Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of last May’s article about challenges creating a garden in our new home in Mission Hills. In May’s...
Jun 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Romance of the Real Alcázar in Seville
By Jim Bishop. In keeping with the themes of our garden exhibit at this year’s San Diego County Fair and the influence Spanish...
May 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Lots of Blocks
By Jim Bishop. One of the frequent questions we get about our garden is where did all the retaining walls come from and who built them?...
Mar 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Steep Challenge
By Jim Bishop. While we were working on remodeling the house, I was desperate to create a garden. However, there were a few challenges to...
Mar 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Make a Home
By Jim Bishop. Last month I wrote about finding and buying our current home in Mission Hills. However before we could move, we had to...
Feb 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: On the Move
By Jim Bishop. I met Scott Borden in September of 1994. November of that year we visited Maui. In June of 1995 we spent my 40th birthday...
Jan 1, 2015
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Raising the Roof
By Jim Bishop. In October of 1983, when I bought my house in Encinitas, I assumed I’d be living there only a few years. Encinitas was...
Dec 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Uncle Harry
By Jim Bishop. A watercolor painting hangs in our T.V. room that everyone has always referred to as “The Sheik”. It was painted by my...
Nov 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Holy Basil
By Jim Bishop. While I’ve mostly been written in this column about the ornamental landscaping of my home in Encinitas, I also had a...
Oct 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: We're Legal Now
By Jim Bishop. As this month's column marks the start of our 21st year and my 4th year as president, I thought now would be a good time...
Sep 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: 1994 - Part 2
By Jim Bishop. In the fall of 1994, I had learned about the first meeting of the new San Diego Horticultural Society at Quail Gardens...
Aug 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: 1994 - Part 1
By Jim Bishop. 1994 was a year of big changes and surprises for me. I was starting to be aware that there were other people in San Diego...
Jul 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Perennial Pursuit
By Jim Bishop. By the late 80's, the heavy use of annuals and bulbs in my garden meant that it needed almost continual attention to...
Jun 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Everything is Connected
By Jim Bishop. On October 17, 1983, after a long and exhausting day of lifting and unpacking, I finally went to bed. Near sunrise, I was...
May 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Early Mentors
By Jim Bishop. By the late 1980's, I wasn't really looking for garden mentors, just trying to learn more about local gardens and plants. ...
Mar 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Annual Adventure
By Jim Bishop. In previous articles I talked about creating the “bones” - the hardscape, trees and large plants- of my mid-80's garden in...
Jan 1, 2014
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Middle-Earth, Land of Ferns
By Jim Bishop. I first became aware of New Zealand’s unusual plants 35 years ago when visiting Strybing Arboretum (now the San Francisco...
Dec 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Nothing but Dirt
By Jim Bishop. Inspired by Butchart Gardens in British Colombia, in the fall of 1984 I started planning to landscape the backyard of my...
Nov 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Welcome to Coastal Southern California, a Gardening Paradise
By Jim Bishop. Having moved from the Bay Area to Encinitas, I soon learned that owning a house was a lot more work than I had...
Oct 2, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Head South Young Man
30 years ago, October 17 1983 to be precise, I moved to San Diego. I’d been in the Bay Area four years and it seemed so idyllic, I...
Sep 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Scottish Herbaceous Border
By Jim Bishop. This month we'll take a brief detour away from my life chronology told through plants. In July, 2012, I was fortunate to...
Aug 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Hub of the Bay
By Jim Bishop. In the late 70's the city of San Jose had something of an inferiority complex with its neighbors San Francisco and the...
Jul 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Starting Small
By Jim Bishop. After just one year in the Bay Area, I was anxious for a place with real soil to garden. About the same time, I realized...
Jun 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Valley of Heart's Delight
By Jim Bishop. The Santa Clara Valley stretches about 30 miles from the San Francisco peninsula in the north to the town of Hollister in...
May 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Apartment
By Jim BIshop. The first order of business after my arrival in the San Jose area was to find a place to live. The landscaping and view at...
Mar 30, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Do you know the way to San Jose?
By Jim Bishop. In August of 1979, I loaded up my lime green Ford Galaxy 500 with my few worldly possessions and potted jade plant and set...
Feb 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Rear View Mirror
By Jim Bishop. In the summer of 1979 I was completing graduate work at the University of Texas, going on job interviews, and experiencing...
Jan 1, 2013
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Tomatoes and Marigolds
By jim Bishop. The last 2 years I lived in Austin were in a mobile home in the south part of town. I still have occasional nightmares...
Dec 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Town Lake
By Jim Bishop. Austin is situated on the Colorado River in Texas - not to be confused with the Colorado River that provides much of...
Oct 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Ostentatious Austin
By Jim Bishop. After graduating high school and without giving it much thought, I enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at the...
Aug 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: My First Landscape
By Jim Bishop. At the end of my freshman year of college, my parents moved from the Spring Shadows subdivision in Spring Branch, home of...
Jun 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Going Back to Houston
By Jim Bishop. After 3 years living in Missouri, my father accepted a new job in Houston and we moved to Texas in February of 1970. We...
May 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Kansas City Here I Come
By Jim Bishop. Kansas City, Missouri, is the only place I’ve lived that has 4 very distinct seasons. The winters were cold with snow,...
Apr 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Return to Kansas
By Jim Bishop. On a white-hot day in July of 1965, our family returned to Wichita. The thermometer at a roadside bank sign said it was...
Mar 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Florida's First Commercial Tourist Theme Park
By Jim Bishop. In previous articles I've reminisced about our 1960's home landscape in Plantation, Florida. Besides the plethora of...
Feb 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: River of Grass
By Jim Bishop. In previous articles I've reminisced about our 1960's home landscape in Plantation, Florida. This month I'll discuss some...
Jan 1, 2012
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Florida Paradise - Part 2
By Jim Bishop. Last month I discussed how in the early 1960’s my parents had the front part of our house in Plantation Florida...
Dec 1, 2011
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Florida Paradise - Part 1
By Jim Bishop. On Halloween night of 1961 our family arrived at our new home in Plantation Florida, a fast growing suburb of Fort...
Nov 1, 2011
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: The Late 1950's
Jim Bishop. In 1960, my father was transferred from Houston, Texas to Wichita, Kansas. I only have a few plant-related memories of...
Oct 1, 2011
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: Collecting Seeds
By Jim Bishop. In 1959, we were transferred from Monahans, Texas, to Houston. Though both are very flat with spring thunderstorms and...
Sep 1, 2011
MY LIFE WITH PLANTS: My First Plant Memories
By Jim Bishop. This is the first in a continuing series of articles that chronicle Jim Bishop’s experiences with plants and the effect...
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