Hashimoto's + Santa Monica = Paradise Partout

So over the weekend, it was a little about relaxing, a little about chores.  I decided I needed some potting soil and that Mr. Paradis needed to get out in the world a bit too.  He is working all hours while I get to scoot around L.A. poking into corners, basking in the sunshine with friends and turning the car radio up real high.  So to remedy this a bit, I suggested we go to the West Side to Hashimoto's and promised him that on the way home we could grab dinner at our favorite pubby kind of joint on Melrose.  So we did.  And it was a nice afternoon.

So why do I like this place so much?

Maybe because the seaside Santa Monica sunshine makes it seem more luminous than almost any other plant center you might visit.  Maybe because there's a relaxed orderliness to it.

That is both restrained and exuberant.  Maybe because they carry enough of any variety to make a real statement with each plant or type of plant. 

There is a mosaic-ey quality to the groupings above which hovers a  blue haze. The haze seems to be a byproduct of the color harmonies in the plants.

There is a real environment here, you feel you could be in a real, proper garden

or woodland full of wildflowers.

They carry everything, for every kind of garden you would want to plant in L.A.

and they do expect you to buy in quantity.  Which is odd, considering they only have about six parking spaces.  It's a very confident, Mom and Pop very Japanese place.  They have many assistants to help you with your plants, and to your car.  They get you in and out with ease.  Oddly, you don't remember any of these practical details once you've left, or whether the prices or selection are better, or worse than the competition.  

You just know that you have been somewhere very beautiful.  And that you must return soon.

Tomorrow:  The Village Idiot