| Hi and welcome. For many years I wrote about gardens for Sunset Magazine and then the Los Angeles Times as their garden editor. Click here to see some gardens reported on in recent years. I've also worked for public television's The Victory Garden, as their west coast host. I'm retired from both and now live in Washington. This little web site lets me show off our smallish former garden and some of its choicest plants, and eventually the new garden. I'm slowly updating it to reflect these changes. To order a copy of "52 Weeks in the California Garden" or "Answers for California Gardeners" go to Angel City Press. Sadly, the Times bowed out of the book (and calendar) business. |
| All photos © 2008 Robert Smaus |
| Our new place (above) --made of cedar, in the cedars -- on 10 acres with rock outcroppings, granite benches and other fun stuff. The house was owned by a master mason and has a view of distant mountains. We will really miss our other slice of Southern California, a wild 40 acres we were lucky enough to find in the Tehachapi mountains, just 2 hours from LA (below). It even came with an old train car that suffices as a temporary cabin. The property is covered with pines and oaks and lots of wildflowers. We didn’t garden there because the natural beauty could not be improved upon. The place inspired a whole series of articles for the Times (which can be found on latimes.com), but if you want to see more photos, click here. |
| We regretably must sell our 40 Fabulous Mountain & Canyon Acres In Tehachapi $149,500 Click here for more information. |
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| The upper meadow and the old car in winter with a toasty fire going. I'll really miss this! |
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