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
Holiday Décor from a Master
Because the Mission Hills Garden Club’s October meeting was a pumpkin carving event, I chose to cross the bridge to Coronado’s Beach and Bay Garden Club to see another René van Rems’ spectacular instead. As usual, he was introduced as an award-winning floral designer, teacher, author, stand-up comic and popular speaker. René studied floral design […]
If you have never been to Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden, it is one of the loveliest areas of the park. In September I heard Mark Halverson speak about Japanese Garden Art. Although I have seen many Japanese gardens in Japan, San Francisco, and in friends’ homes, Mark gave me a new appreciation and way […]
Grafting Fruit Trees
The Mission Hills Garden Club’s August meeting had a substitute speaker. April Bright and Erik Collins were able to pinch hit and answered many questions about grafting fruit trees. Collins and Bright have a property in La Mesa with an 11,000 square foot urban orchard of fruit trees and bushes. They have deciduous trees including […]
Seasonal Organic Local (SOL) Markets
On July 25 Mission Hills Garden Club held a very different meeting. Originally Vince Brown, an attorney who is fervent in his belief that we must eat organically and locally grown foods available in season, was scheduled to speak. He owns SOL Markets which models his beliefs about food. When a last minute emergency made […]
Chicks and the City II
Shelly Stewart returned to the Mission Hills Garden Club for Chicks and the City II. The June meeting took place at the Mission Hills Nursery, home to two chickens, Maggie, a Rhode Island Red (brown eggs!) and Ash, a Barred Plymouth Rock. There was a third chicken, Willow, but Willow turned out to be a […]
The Dirt on Fertilizer
Mission Hills Garden Club has done it again! Once more, I found myself fascinated by an unlikely subject. This time it was fertilizers and dirt. Duane Wheeler who works for E.B. Stone was the May speaker. Wheeler, a self-proclaimed “gardening nut,” gave us a brief history of the EB Stone Company before explaining what each […]
Beautiful Botanica
Even though I have been writing this column for 13 years, I always learn new things at every meeting of the Mission Hills Garden Club. The April meeting was no exception. Scott Northcote was host to 51 Garden Club members at Little Italy’s Botanica. (They used to be on the southeast corner of West Lewis […]
Why Do My Orchids Die?
In March, Mission Hills Garden Club members learned about the cultivation of orchids from Tom Biggart. He has loved orchids most of his life and has a vast variety of them. He has so many plants that he and his wife had to leave their Kensington home for more land in El Cajon. This was […]
Creating a Visual Impression of a Garden
Helen Shafer Garcia captured the Mission Hills Garden Club members’ attention at the February 29 meeting. She is an artist, illustrator, teacher, gardener, and public speaker. Shafer Garcia’s diverse activities have included translating professional landscapers’ rough diagrams into a visual impression of what the garden will be when complete. In addition to helping clients visualize, […]
Creating a Bungalow Garden
John Beaudry spoke about the Craftsman Bungalow and its complementing garden at the January Mission Hills Garden Club meeting. Beaudry began with an explanation of what the Arts and Crafts Movement was before segueing into the bungalow and garden. The Arts and Crafts Movement grew from a rebellion against the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution. […]
