By: Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of columns from September, October, and November 2015 newsletters about filling in our swimming...

By: Jim Bishop. The last two months I’ve written about the Northern Cape of South Africa and Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden....

By Jim Bishop. Last month I wrote about visiting the bulb fields at of the Western Cape area of South Africa this past September....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

By Jim Bishop. In keeping with the themes of our garden exhibit at this year’s San Diego County Fair and the influence Spanish...

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?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

By Jim Bishop. I first became aware of New Zealand’s unusual plants 35 years ago when visiting Strybing Arboretum (now the San Francisco...

By Jim Bishop. Inspired by Butchart Gardens in British Colombia, in the fall of 1984 I started planning to landscape the backyard of my...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

By Jim Bishop. In the summer of 1979 I was completing graduate work at the University of Texas, going on job interviews, and experiencing...

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...

By Jim Bishop. Austin is situated on the Colorado River in Texas - not to be confused with the Colorado River that provides much of...

By Jim Bishop. After graduating high school and without giving it much thought, I enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at the...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

By Jim Bishop. In previous articles I've reminisced about our 1960's home landscape in Plantation, Florida. Besides the plethora of...

By Jim Bishop. In previous articles I've reminisced about our 1960's home landscape in Plantation, Florida. This month I'll discuss some...

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...

By Jim Bishop. On Halloween night of 1961 our family arrived at our new home in Plantation Florida, a fast growing suburb of Fort...

Jim Bishop. In 1960, my father was transferred from Houston, Texas to Wichita, Kansas. I only have a few plant-related memories of...

By Jim Bishop. In 1959, we were transferred from Monahans, Texas, to Houston. Though both are very flat with spring thunderstorms and...

By Jim Bishop. This is the first in a continuing series of articles that chronicle Jim Bishop’s experiences with plants and the effect...