The posh, verdant resort town of Santa Barbara, California, (once the country’s first movie-making hub, predating Hollywood) and its even posher celebrity-inhabited (Oprah, Ellen, Harry and Meghan and many more!) kissing cousin Montecito are two exquisite places to both reside and get away. Both, framed by ocean and primordial mountain ranges, are landscaped with a ubiquitous array of every imaginable exotic plant, flower and tree. Evoking a magical blend of the Garden of Eden, Avalon, Gloccamora, dramatic Mediterranean-like, mountainous stairstep hillsides with a dash of rain forest and 100s of spikey desert cacti and succulents, it is hard to imagine any garden which could top these two lavishly planted green cities