It’s awesome sparse for flowers in the garden right now. But hey, it’s December! this is the hinge between seasons. Things are budding up, others are finishing up. A few long-blooming plants plants make up the glue holding all the… Read More »no floral porn this month
I find that I’m asking myself whether I need the greenhouse anymore. Left over from an obsession with warm-growing orchids a couple decades ago, it sits in the middle of some prime real estate in the every-shrinking back yard. Its… Read More »why a greenhouse?
Do you feel insulted, does it really really bother you if someone calls what you do out in the garden a “hobby?” Do you have a deep sense that what you’re doing is way more important than things that you… Read More »the “gardening as hobby” menace
Compost! Here’s just part of the second load of dark gold this season. I know composting is warm and fuzzy and poetic, all about returning the earth’s bounty back to the soil. But take a look at the mechanics of… Read More »soylent black
Here’s a short roundup of some of the leaf colors going on in the garden. This is Southern California so it was tough coming up with the stereotypical sizzling reds and yellow and oranges of a lot of autumn gardens… Read More »those autumn leaves, so-cal edition
While my last post was dedicated to an easy seed propagation project, this one details a couple that were a little more labor-intensive. Still not hard, just a little bit more work to pull off. I’ve posted about my pitcher… Read More »from seed, the labor-intensive version
Fall: Prime time to sow many seeds in California’s mediterranean climate. Self-sown generations of clarkia, poppies, baby blue eyes, buckwheats and lupines are showing up all around the garden. But this year has pulled me in lots of directions and… Read More »from seed, the easy version
Can you call a patch of dirt of about eight square feet a garden? I’m starting to consider my recent planting of succulent a miniature little dudleya patch. But a garden? I’ve already shown off the new species I picked… Read More »my new dudleya patch
Our weekend Netflix viewing was The Savages, a 2007 film starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman who play a sister and brother who are called in to care for their ailing father. The siblings leave New York City and… Read More »amusing landscape
When my parents retired they moved out of their house of almost twenty-five years in the Los Angeles area. Not wanting to pick favorites between their two children they decided on a modest house in a new development in Oceanside,… Read More »a decade of neglect