As a professional designer you have to visit your clients and job sites. You cannot put together a credible working document without physically walking the site.

That said, when my clients (landscape designers, architects and builders) are surprised to see me get out of the truck when their orders arrive on their job sites, I’m always just as surprised by their surprise. There’s no better way to understand what they have created and how Eye of the Day was included in that process than to be there walking their design. Without the in-person visit, there’s a disconnect.

By the time the containers and other decor elements are placed, the rest of the garden is close to completion. That means Eye of the Day’s delivery puts the finishing touch on the garden. I call it the jewelry.

When the Tommy Bahama store designer for their new flagship location on 5th Avenue in Manhattan specified our Greek Terracotta done in a custom whitewash, I decided to fly to New York to meet the shipment. Because delivery is the trickiest part of my business, I wanted to be there to answer questions in person and sort out any problems if there was breakage en route, for example. In the more likely event that there were no shipping problems at all, I just wanted to show my face and make sure my clients knew I stood by my products in the most literal sense.

The man who held the door open for me at Tommy Bahama turned out to be the company’s CEO. When he found out that I was the owner of Eye of the Day and had made the special effort to come all the way from California, well, to say the least, he was impressed. It’s rare for vendors of custom, authentic products in niche industries to be so present, and it must have been a welcome change because we got the job for their Chicago store, too.

I won’t lie: travel isn’t only a sacrifice. I enjoy the perks, too. It didn’t hurt that I got to have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Gramercy Tavern. I just wish Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame was closer, but such is a traveling man’s plight.

Who doesn’t dream about living to a hundred? With all of the wonder in this world, the multitude of invention, the quality of our existence and the amazing number of fabulous cook books available, who wouldn’t want to live forever, especially in the garden?

I have friends who live to play golf, crash mountains on boards, get dragged behind a boat going a hundred mph and torture themselves in a myriad of ways they call pleasure. Not me. I dream of being in my garden. Gardening increases your lifespan, according to Dr. Mao Shing Ni, a 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine. In his book Secrets of Longevity Cookbook, he says: “Centenarians around the world come from many different backgrounds and professions, but one of the most common hobbies among them is gardening. As exercise, gardening strengthens the muscles, as a discipline it requires patience and cultivates fortitude; and in the end it brings rewards and joy to its practitioners. Studies show that gardeners have a lower incidence of heart disease and osteoporosis than non-gardeners.”

I doubt I’ll make it to a hundred but I’m not too worried nor is it the point, I only want more time in my garden to relax, get dirty and breath. I’m waiting for the chives to bloom so I can sprinkle them on salads and eggs. I’m looking forward to warmer weather so the basil will grow (I love fresh pesto!). I may live to one hundred but I’m looking forward to “this” spring, to my garden, to the prospect of vine-ripened tomatoes in just a couple of more months, to the trees blooming. One day at a time in spring is what I’m dreaming of right now.

Many of us have a particular place we think best and where we feel whole. I have always been most comfortable in my garden. I can remember all of my past gardens. When I was five years old, I lived across the street from Mr. Mitchell. His entire backyard was a lathe house where he grew topical plants and had water gardens. Moss and ferns flourished. I can see it in my mind’s eye now 5o years later. I often wonder if that is what turned me into a life long gardener and lover of landscapes.

Everywhere I have lived I have been hyper aware of my garden and the light in my house through windows looking out into my garden. 541 and 554 Gower Street, my balcony in Newport Beach, my apartment on Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades, my first home on Granville Avenue and now my garden in the Santa Ynez Valley. The living, growing buffer zones protecting my house and my psychological space are important to my life and wellbeing. These are not the only places I have lived but they are the ones that provided gardens for my dreams and memory.  A residence without a garden, no matter how small, wouldn’t be a place for me to live for long.

I need to plant my environment to a standard allowing me to sit and feel my soul mellow and calm and echo those feelings and dreams that matter most, the ones that put warmth in my heart and soul. When my daughter Daisy lived in Brooklyn, I helped her to create an environment rekindling the warmth of the gardens she grew up with, giving her advice about her potted plants, walking together through Central Park and Prospect Park, all to share and extend my garden dreaming.

Daisy and her new husband Greg are now living in Los Angeles in a home with a little scrap of a garden. I often make deliveries to Southern California with its requisite concrete driveways and parking areas.  First thing I did was take them some pots planted with huge bamboo and some espaliered citrus and created a private and comfortable patio, instantly.  When I spend the night with them, I rise early to return to Eye of the Day, but not before I water their garden, picking weeds, harvesting lettuce, or just tending to the orange and lemon trees.

Photo courtesy of Wendy Harper

Brent Freitas, President of Eye of the Day, was recently sought out by for his expertise on garden containers. Interviewed for a story that is now live on the NHS website, Brent provided helpful information on the subject of extending the season by adding heat elements in the garden.

In an effort to make their gardens more distinct and more beautiful, many homeowners incorporate garden containers for use as fire pits–but this can prove both costly and dangerous if the wrong techniques are used.

As Brent says: “Customers often ask for pots or containers to use in their backyards for fire pits. They want something attractive and different from the average offering. They want to know if our concrete or terra cotta will stand up to the heat, and this is what I tell them: if you want to burn wood, no. But if you are going to install gas and use a flame delivery system that is properly install so the flame is diffused upwards through the rock or tumbled glass, well then, yes.”

Design experts Heather Lenkin, Debra Prinzing and Phil Maddux also contributed to the story on heat in the garden. Want to learn more? Click HERE to read the whole story.

is a high-volume consumer website that is funded and endorsed by a group of the nation’s largest homebuilders. The site includes new home listings as well as a resource center called the New Home Guide, which is full of articles to help with the home-buying process, designing your new home and settling in.