Desert Scenes Cactus

Famed naturalist John Muir said "when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe,” and the Bishop’s desert-garden-in-the-works is a lively embodiment of this: try to characterize the garden on its own and inevitably it is tied to this couple’s love of nature and of plants – in all their dynamic diversity. Their garden is tied inextricably to their environmental, botanical and educational work on behalf of the preservation and study of native plants and their environments for organizations such as the US Forest Service (USFS), the (CNPS) and (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments; www.gloria.ac.at) over the past 20-plus years.

The Bishops have worked in and enjoy plant communities of all types. They enjoy deep, dense woodlands, high wetland fens, and open chaparral as well as the comforts of their own well-loved home garden. But the quiet, spare beauty of the desert, and likewise that found above tree-line in the alpine zones of the western ranges – where, as Catie points out enthusiastically “you can read the history of this land, in the rocks and landforms, the fossils, the specialized vegetation,” – has an enduring pull on the Bishops and informs this new garden the most. Photos - two above : Variations in plant forms, space between each plant, and interesting rocks from the Bishops' years of collecting all add interest to the garden.

Currently aged 60 and 66 respectively, Catie and Jim met while working with Cal Fire in Calaveras County in the 1980s.