There’s a certain satisfaction in autumn chores. When the weather’s right, cleaning gutters, touching up paint, or splitting some firewood can feel less like manual labor and more like a rite of the season. But if you want to make your backyard a welcoming winter haven for birds, some fall tasks call for a laissez-faire approach. “Messy […]
The next time you venture into the great outdoors, keep an eye out for Ginkgo biloba trees, which can be easily identified by their distinctive fan-shaped leaves. If you find one—and you likely will, as the native Chinese plant is now ubiquitious in the United States—take a moment to pluck a few leaves, snap some photographs […]
Valley Carpenter Bee (female) (Xylocopa varipuncta) A female Valley Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa varipuncta) feeds on Mexican sage in my garden a few days ago. I was out working to clear up a mass of grass and weeds caused by the rainy year we have had when I spotted her nearly in my face. I took […]
See all the 2017 Gift Guide Entries 19 The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello I was doing some research for my wife’s next book today and came across this book as a source. While I had only planned on mining it for the information I needed, I found myself reading entire sections. It is […]
I have added Starbucks grounds (and pounds and pounds of my own coffee grounds) to the garden and compost bins over the last several years, so this is good to know. — Douglas Read The Starbucks coffee compost test via Sunset: Garden An interesting link found among my daily reading Read more on this […]
It was possible to hear the low level hum and buzz of the thousands of bees swarming over my locust tree this morning. They were feeding on the clusters of tiny flowers covering every branch.I have never seen this many bees on the tree in the past. Perhaps there is some combination of large bloom, […]
I came across this interesting project via a neigh or’s post on NextDoor.com and wanted to share it here. I have signed up and already marked a few trees in my own garden to test it out. What is TreeMapLA? TreeMapLA is an ambitious collaboration of nonprofits, local governments, businesses—and you—to map every tree in […]
Part of the Dog Days of Podcasting… A quick view of liquidambar styraciflua seed pods opening and releasing their seeds over the course of 4 days. I plan on doing an actual timelpase of this process in the near future, too. Check out my collection of gardening essays, “From A Gardener’s Notebook” now available as a Kindle […]
Electronic microscope photo of mint via Emma the Gardener This isn’t a fantasy alien landscape, its an image of a mint leaf, taken with a scanning electron microscope by Annie Cavanagh. This low-res version is available from Wellcome Images with a Creative Commons license, which allows me to show you how awesome plants are. The […]
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses Daniel Chamovitz This is certainly on the geekier side of my reading list, but when I am came across this book it intrigued me immediately. The combination of plants, science and, by extension, gardening seemed like an interesting combination. I have not been disappointed […]
