Barbara Strona
Barbara Strona is a native Californian who grew up in the Mid-West and Los Angeles. She and her architect husband, Carl, came to San Diego in 1968 and have lived in Mission Hills since early 1971. Barbara received a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College with a major in English, and a minor in Art. She attended UCLA graduate school and received a General Secondary Credential. She taught English in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, and at Point Loma High School. She has been a Realtor specializing in residential sales since 1984. Her passions include her job, reading, writing, foreign languages and foreign countries, animals (feathered or furry), theatre, and her family: husband, two adult children and two grandsons.
Barbara Strona's Latest Posts
Hidden in Plain Sight
(Part 1) By Barb Strona Most people spend much of their leisure escaping into other’s worlds via TV, Internet, newspapers, or books. Meredith French, master gardener and long-time Mission Hills Garden Club supporter in every possible way, showed The Mission Hills Garden Club another source of love and lust, family relationships, and murder and intrigue. […]
The Art of Propagating Plants
By Barb Strona While I am no gardener and don’t have a great deal of success with my garden, I love flowers. In March I attended a workshop on propagation which really caught my fancy. Liz Youngflesh, owner of Vista’s Garden Glories Nursery, propagates the plants she sells. Youngflesh demonstrated various methods of propagating plants. […]
Mission Hills Nursery: Will It Survive?
There may be a day in the near future when our Mission Hills Nursery is no longer a landmark on the corner of Palmetto and Fort Stockton Drive. Old time Mission Hills residents remember Mission Hills Nursery when the Antonicelli family owned and ran it. Giuseppe Antonicelli bought it from Kate Sessions in 1922. In […]
Roses Remembered
Although it may be environmentally questionable to have rose gardens, Anita Clevenger, head of the National Rose Foundation, has a profound respect and love for roses, especially those no longer regularly seen. When she spoke at the February meeting of the San Diego Floral Association, Clevenger gave us a visual history of Sacramento’s Historic […]
Botany and Booze
In January the San Diego Horticultural Society welcomed Amy Stewart who has a new book out, “The Drunken Botanist.” Stewart is always fun to hear (and read), and this book is no exception. Stewart explained that she became inspired to write this book when she attended a convention of garden writers in Portland. As […]
Lakeside’s River Park Conservancy
Another Step in Restoring the Environment In November, Mission Hills Garden Club learned a great deal about Lakeside’s River Park Conservancy. Cindy Collins gave us a bit of its history and described their various projects and how they sustain them. Their mission is “to preserve and restore the biological integrity and beauty of the […]
Invaders in our Midst
“Since 1993 Sustainable Conservation has partnered with the private sector to identify, implement and scale environmental solutions that make economic sense,” explained Greg Richardson, PlantRight project manager of Sustainable Conservation and speaker at the September meeting of the San Diego Horticultural Society. PlantRight, a project run by Sustainable Conservation since 2005, has a goal: “to […]
Decorating With Flowers, Succulents and Miscellaneous Finds
In October several Garden Club members attended the San Diego Floral Association’s meeting which featured Tony Alvarez who gave us ideas for decorating with flowers, succulents, and miscellaneous items found outdoors. Alvarez had myriad half-started arrangements, and before beginning his talk he continued assembling bits and pieces. Probably the best information I garnered from […]
Raptors with Nancy Conney
As I have said many times, the Mission Hills Garden Club continues to broaden my interests. When the San Diego Floral Association informed Garden Club members that Nancy Conney, founder and operator of Sky Hunters, a non-profit organization that rescues harmed raptors, would be speaking about her rescues at the Prado in February, I […]
The Ultimate Space-Saving Garden
Mission Hills Garden Club learned about a clever invention — a Tower Garden. Deris and Sky Jeanette brought and demonstrated it, a modular hydroponics solution for growing healthy, huge delicious plants. The device consists of a sturdy pale green plastic vat which fits in a space less than three feet by three feet and […]
