East Bay Home and Gardens

Green Neighbors: Trees Show Their Bones and History in Winter

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday February 05, 2008
Most of the public and literary appreciation for bare trees seems to come from wintry places like New England, but bonsai artists and fans and the landscape pruners who think along similar lines make a big deal of the “winter silhouette.” It’s one of the most refined criteria for judging a deciduous tree. -more-

The Rasputin of the Plant World

By Jane Powell
Friday February 01, 2008
Some 10 years ago I was out in my backyard pulling up ivy. My next door neighbor was doing the same. As we both neared the fence he muttered, “Gardening in California—it’s all about killing things.” He was right. -more-

Garden Variety: The Edifice Complex Strikes Again

By Ron Sullivan
Friday February 01, 2008
Speaking truth to power is all very well. Sometimes, though, I just lose my temper and feel the need to speak truth to cockamamie. -more-

About the House: Contracts and Contractors

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 01, 2008
Murphy must be in the contracting business. You know, the one who wrote that famous law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. He (or she, we’ve never met in the flesh, although I’ve fallen victim to his/her epistemology a time or two) was either a contractor or the client of one for enough time to codify the law and its corollaries. -more-