Scenes from Sunset's Celebration Weekend

Sheila Schmitz

Welcome to our house

If you couldn't make it to Sunset's big open house and fair in 2009 (or even if you could), we offer a taste of the weekend in pictures.

Here, visitors check out the vertical garden on the event's demonstration house, the Modern Cottage.

Sheila Schmitz

From the cooking stage

Joanne Weir, host of Joanne Weir's Cooking Class on PBS, asks how many in the audience watch her show. "I LOVE you!" she said to the raised hands.

She then showed how to make Chorizo Hand Pies with ham, onion, peppers, one of her favorite ingredients, tequila.

Sheila Schmitz

Meet our new outdoor kitchen

We finished our outdoor kitchen just in time.

Food editor Margo True is especially happy it includes an outdoor wok station in addition to wide gas and charcoal grills, a rotisserie, and a grand wood-fired pizza oven.

That's a fire pit in the foreground and herbs in the planting areas. And under the awning on the right: wine bar. Stay tuned, Sunset wine clubbers.

See how to tour the kitchen

Sheila Schmitz

Fun find

Echo Goglio of Redwood City, CA., sports a floral apron from Theresa Balzer's RetroFit booth. "I'm an apron freak," said Goglio, a culinary school grad and apron collector, who now designs commercial kitchens.

She was asked how she plans to use her new apron. "Besides live in it?" she replied.

Sheila Schmitz

Secondhand Sunset

Shoppers dove into goodies on sale from our prop closets and editors' offices. Home editors and writers scurried to restock inventory through the day.

Don't you need the lamps from our Summer Retreat Home?

Sheila Schmitz

Ask the garden experts

Sunset Garden editor Kathy Brenzel answered a lot of questions about edibles in the Garden Booth this year.

Garden writer Sharon Cohoon noticed a big interest in citrus and wasn't surprised. "They're handsome, you can grow them in pots, and they're edible!"

Yellow leaves on citrus and tomatoes are a common concern, Sharon said. "But it's early, and it's been cold ― they will probably be fine." Peppers not flowering yet? It's early days.

Watch our garden blog Fresh Dirt for more advice on veggies. Or see our Veggies 101 guide.

Sheila Schmitz

Getting garden ideas

Traunza Adams of Albany, Calif., and her mom scope out the plants in the test garden. Traunza loved the burgundy foliage of a heuchera she found tucked away in this pot, and an unusual purple oxalis she spotted among the test plants.

Sheila Schmitz

Garden buddies

Ryan and Grace Coffee were headed over to the test garden to get ideas for their community garden plot.

When she's not nibbling on her hat, Grace loves to nibble on the family's Swiss chard that's been growing strong through winter, Ryan said. "She loves everything about gardening."

Sheila Schmitz

Hands-on project

Cathy Eitel of San Carlos, Calif., dries her finished painted pot from the Hands-on Home booth. The upcoming Fourth of July inspired her color scheme.

Sheila Schmitz

Learning about bees in the test garden

Kimberley Burch, a Sunset imaging specialist, shows a guest how we're making honey here as part of our One-block Feast project.

(Learn more from Kimberley and the rest of Team Bee in the One-block blog.)

Sheila Schmitz

Checking out the chicken coop

Fans of our One-block Feast project visit our hens.

Team Chicken leader Elizabeth Jardina promised to give 6 fresh eggs to the first person to mention the offer this morning. Doors open at 10; she had a winner at 10:04 a.m. A second family showed up 4 minutes after.

Note: EJ again will give eggs to her first visitors who mention the offer on Sunday, June 7. (No pressure, hens.)

Read more about our chicken project.

Sheila Schmitz

Test garden in bloom

Nasturtiums in the test garden are a favorite treat of our hens, but test garden coordinator Johanna Silver keeps plenty out of beak reach.

Sheila Schmitz

Touch the ideas

The garden pages come to life in this part of the grounds, where we test new ways to grow and display edibles and ornamentals.

This spring, hop vines grow up a wire trellis, and bee- and butterfly-friendly scabiosa and salvia lemonii bloom in compostable raised beds.

Sheila Schmitz

Garden path

Visitors tour the test garden's latest crop of roses and other bloomers, lawn alternatives, and edible plantings.

You can also see Sunset's gardens workdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30. (Groups should call 650-321-3600 for reservations.)

Sheila Schmitz

Walls for all

A young mountaineer scales the climbing wall at the end of the food court.

There's much more to see and do at Celebration Weekend. Get all the details.

Scenes from Celebration Weekend

Welcome to our house

From the cooking stage

Meet our new outdoor kitchen

Fun find

Secondhand Sunset

Ask the garden experts

Getting garden ideas

Garden buddies

Hands-on project

Learning about bees in the test garden

Checking out the chicken coop

Test garden in bloom

Touch the ideas

Garden path

Walls for all