Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior writer, covers gardens in Southern California, the California central coast, and the Southwest from her home office in Huntington Beach.  During her years with Sunset, her own garden has evolved through many stages — potager, cottage, subtropical, and a best forgotten burgundy-and-lime phase when there was hardly a true-green leaf in it.  Today Sharon's front yard is all California natives, and her backyard is a mixture of agaves and other Mediterraneans.  It's the handsomest version to date and the easiest and most sustainable, too. Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles, is Sharon's constant companion whether in her office or digging in her yard.

Jim McCausland, Sunset contributing editor, covers gardens and travel in the Pacific Northwest from his home office in western Washington. His garden comprises a constantly changing collection of trial plants, including everything from lilies and annuals to brugmansias, spring flower bulbs, and tomatoes. Expect regular coverage of hand tools in this blog—Jim’s a Luddite—and comments on climate, native plants, sustainable gardening, and the odd piece on insects, birds, or poison plants. An editor of the Western Garden Book, he welcomes suggestions about its content; he’ll even help you zero in on your Sunset climate zone. Jim is pictured here with Carmel, mistress of all she surveys.