Plant Talk

Rancho La Puerta Sun and Bloom

It was in the high 80's and not a cloud to be seen at Rancho La Puerta last week. I was a guest instructor with the pleasurable task of teaching about the gardens, which were in full and wild bloom after a rainy winter followed by a blast of heat. Roses, honeysuckle, hollyhocks and sweet peas were flowering like mad; the jasmine was just opening its intensely fragrant flowers.

RLP is the oldest health spa in North America, located in Tecate an hour and a half south and east of San Diego. It was founded in 1940 at the base of sacred Mt. Kuchumaa, guests are fed from the bounteous and beautiful organic kitchen garden, and the grounds are designed so each guest walks many miles a day to classes, treatments, swim pools and dining hall. It's a special, magical place and I couldn't recommend it more highly for anyone interested in gardens, health, or just a lovely week of rest, exercise, and sunshine. I just wish I could have brought some sun and heat home with me....

The paths at the Ranch are beckoning and sometimes a little mysterious:

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The grounds are full of art and incidents to slow you down and catch your attention, like St. Francis among the iris, or a little reflexology path tucked in amongst rose beds...

And for a taste of summer - sweet peas and brugmansia in full flower. It was a shock to come home and find narcissus still blooming in my garden.....

 

 

Rancho La Puerta Bound - More Soon from this Mexican Landscape and Kitchen Garden

I'm in Rancho La Puerta this week, teaching about the glorious organic gardens here at the oldest health spa in North America. While I'm offering tours, workshops and an evening illustrated lecture, there's still plenty of time to hike up the mountain every morning and spend hours in yoga practice every day. 

I'll be taking photos of the organic kitchen garden that nurtures all of us here with fresh fruits and vegetables, the landscape which is drought tolerant, rustling with birds and little lizards, exuberant and enchantingly fragrant - did I mention studded with art and shady spots for rest and contemplation?

 Here's a preview of paradise, with much more to follow:

Letter from Paradise

If the sun finally came out in Seattle, it's because I'm down in Mexico this week. Greetings from Rancho La Puerta, the oldest health spa in North America. The gardens are gorgeous, the air scented with honeysuckle and roses, and we're eating fabulous, healthy food mostly grown right here at the Ranch. 

I'm here to lecture about low-maintenance gardens and give a couple of gardening workshops, but mostly my daughter and I are hiking, swimming, taking yoga and enjoying the sun and all the interesting people from around the world who are guests and presenters at Rancho La Puerta this week.

Here's the natural landscape, with a wild, dry beauty of its own. The day starts (early) with a brisk hike up sacred Mt. Kuchuma before breakfast.

That's the dining hall in the background, behind undulating rivers of cacti and other drought-tolerant groundcovers.

One of the great joys of Rancho La Puerta is strolling the paths that wind through the gardens past masses of ice plant and evening primrose....birds are everywhere in this all-organic landscape

Mature trees offer welcome shade along the paths - the grounds are cleverly designed so we all walk miles through the gardens to classes, treatments, the dining hall and swim pools...

A bronze nudes meditates in the courtyard leading to the yoga studio

The gardens are casual, Baja-cottage style, but there's great artistry in the foliage colors, massing effects, and use of vertical elements, all placed so the guests feel nurtured, sheltered and enveloped in the fragrant, plantings....

Baja Beauty

Why don't we all grow an abundance of jasmine in our gardens?  I just got back from Rancho La Puerta, the oldest health spa in North America.....south of San Diego, just across the border in Tecate, Baja. Located at the foot of a mountain sacred to the native peoples, the Ranch gardens have been developed over 60 years as one of the great joys of the place. Right now jasmine is blooming on every arbor, draped over walls, climbing pergolas and the whole place is steeped in that warm, glorious perfume. The gardens are genius - drought-tolerant foliage plants mixed with hollyhocks and self-seeding annuals in a cottage garden tumble, with plenty of structures overhead, sculpture, stone walls for a hard edge, and destinations like hammocks and benches and gazebos. The effect is casual, fragrant, charming and because all is organic,it's intensely alive with the rustlings of birds, hummers, lizards......here are a few photos, taken by Debbie Loudon and me....

The top image is the organic vegetable garden that helps to feed the Ranch's guests, the second photo is Skull Rock, a hiking destination high on sacred Mt. Kuchumaa, and the rest are the Ranch grounds.....