A plant’s name can often help give you a sense of place as to where the plant originated. I’ve been noticing recently that a lot of plants in the garden have species names that are either “californica” or “californicus.” I… Read More »live, from california…
Do any of you know how this plant would do in a garden setting? It’s thick-leaved yerba santa (Eriodictyon crassifolium) one of our local native species in the phacelia family. I’ve seen it around in the wild areas of town… Read More »do i dare plant this?
I still haven’t gotten around to doing something about the color of the my little detached studio behind the house. Colors of residential neighborhoods and garden walls usually tend towards pretty neutral shades. Here are a couple combinations of walls… Read More »dramatic wall colors and plants
Maybe you saw the news story last August: Using images from Google Earth, Dr. Sabine Begall and her colleagues found that cows generally align themselves north-to-south, using the earth’s magnetic field as a guide. [ image source ] And you… Read More »grab a compass…or a cow
At first I thought it was a good idea. I never imagined that in some communities it would be prohibited. During some of the recent rains I put some little buckets to catch rainwater that had drained off the roof.… Read More »the rain might not belong to you
I drove all the way up to Los Angeles for an organ recital last night. I knew I was in for trouble when the usher handed me a program and offered me a pair of earplugs. But more on that… Read More »loud music and sage
Saturday I had the opportunity to take a short hike with some of the local native plant society folks through Manzanita Canyon, one of the small neighborhood canyons in San Diego that break up the urban development on the mesa… Read More »a neighborhood native garden
For this Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day I’ve picked some predominantly purple spring-flowering plants that are starting to do their thing in my garden. All but one of these are California (or Baja California) natives, and all would be seriously water-wise… Read More »gbbd: pretty purple
Digging holes for plants always seems to be a big opportunity to find things left by former owners or dropped by visitors to the house. My most recent haul included this little yellow marble, nails, toys from the kids next… Read More »backyard archaeology
You could probably gather together six gardeners and get six different opinions of what would make a plant garden-worthy. But I suspect there might be somewhat more agreement on certain other plants that probably shouldn’t be included in a garden.… Read More »…and some not so garden-worthy