Read Gift guide for useful gardening tools and gifts via Los Angeles Times * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! An interesting link found among my daily reading Read more on this topic: 2012 Gift […]
Here in Southern California, we joke about our four seasons: fire, flood, earthquake, and drought. In the fall, otherwise known as fire season, we have hot, dry weather punctuated by gusty winds reaching up to 70 miles per hour. These are perfect conditions for catastrophic wildfires to establish and spread. If you live in […]
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 […]
You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on these lovely bee houses and waterers, but providing some respite for our native bees is a great idea. You might find some ideas here about houses you can build yourself or order one of these to add to your garden. – Douglas We’re big […]
The pleasure of hanging out with plant people is what you learn from them. Such people, and the plants they grow, are typically full of wonderful surprises. Just the other day, I met Ash Jahanbin, whose mission in life is to grow and to care for exotic fruit trees. To this end, he runs a […]
Gardening with plants native to the Santa Ynez mountains and Carpinteria’s coastal bluffs is a beautiful way to honor the ecosystems in which we live, as well as providing an environmentally sustainable alternative to water-guzzling landscapes such as lawns. Native plants bloom and fruit prolifically throughout the year with almost no water, providing crucial […]
Read Plant of the Day Sunday 18 February 2018 In a courtyard of the Alcázar of Seville, Spain, Cestrum ‘Newellii’ (bastard jasmine) was flowering. This vigorous evergreen shrub can grow to 3m, with clusters of bright crimson, tubular flowers that can be followed by purple berries. This plant comes originally from Mexico and can withstand temperatures down […]
A garden shed should be a sanctuary. Your safe space. At its most modest, a shed is the little building in the backyard, preferably covered with vines, where you can slip off on your own to hang your hat on a hook, re-pot an overgrown scented geranium, and organize all your sharp-edged tools. Read Announcing […]
Coleus: Plectranthus scutellarioides Is coleus a plant you have to learn to love? Garden trends ebb and flow—and bright, dramatically colored foliage can be an acquired taste. I used to dismiss these tropical plants because I thought their brightly tinged leaves screamed gaudiness and were unbelievably hard to mix with other flowers. No longer. Now I […]
Dahlia ‘Contraste’ produces profuse and spectacular dark red flowers adorned with contrasting pure white tips. The fully double flowers, up to 8-9 in. wide (20-22 cm), are borne atop strong stems from summer to frost and provide an amazing focal point in the garden or in a vase. Bred in France as a cut […]
