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Salvia (officinalis?) from De Materia Medica by Pedanius Dioscorides 
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A little bit about me . . .
I currently live in Berkeley, California, just inside and across the Bay from San Francisco's 'Golden Gate'. My wife and I have been married for 30 years (as of 2007), and our two grown children (20 & 25) are close at hand. We enjoy busy and creative lives in an exciting urban center. The Bay Area continues to be a very desirable place to live with new residents arriving almost daily!
I was born (1954) and raised in California's Santa Clara Valley
I am fortunate to have experienced at least the 'tail end' of the rural phase of the Valley before it was quickly lost to advancing urbanization (my youngest brother and sister grew up in a world changed from mine). I still have tangible memories of viewing fruit trees
Much of my formal training has been in the Arts (some of my drawings
, long before it was known as Silicon Valley, but the name "Valley of the Heart's Delight" (alluding the the fertile soil and benign weather) was already fading from collective memory.
in spring bloom from Blossom Hill Road between Los Gatos and Saratoga.
), but an increasing interest in botany and horticulture drew my creative energies in those directions as well.
Along with the long-established horticultural traditions of the Greater Bay Area, the local flora was also available to me for exploration. Through hiking, drawing, and researching, I increased not only my understanding but also developed a fondness for our local natural wealth.
One aspect of this education I found especially of interest is where plants found the best conditions for their growth, and why one plant thrived in this spot over another a short distance away. Associating a particular plant with a particular locale came to be an important aspect of botanical understanding.
Seeing others struggle to understand plant placement, to understand their given piece of land and what planting opporunties it held, I found myself casually discussing these topics with gardeners that I met. Find this experience enjoyable for me and useful to others, I eventually came to take on more formal consultation work with homeowners.
Having never lived or gardened in another climate, the Bay Area's local mediterranean climate was always my point of reference. Eventually realizing that others who had lived/gardened elsewhere had not shed those assumptions upon mving here, I became interested in how to educate gardeners about the unique opportunities (and challenges) present in this area.
This climate appropriate perspective led to the creation of an e-mail forum on the topic of gardening in mediterranean climates as well as a web site of the same focus .
