When you peel off a layer of turf grass, the soil beneath is often compacted, depleted of nutrients and life, and polluted with salts and other chemicals. These chemicals may have accumulated from ongoing applications of fertilizers and pesticides. Or possibly, poor irrigation practices – short, frequent watering periods – that leave behind salts found […]
Learn to grow your own wildflower superbloom
On Wednesday I went with Colleen Wheeler, RSABG grounds staff, to collect wildflowers for the annual Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Wildflower Show. Equipped with collecting permits, ziplock bags, coolers, ice and clippers, we made our way to Gorman and beyond. The best displays were seen early in the day on Bear Mountain Blvd, east […]
When I was a girl, on bright sunny spring days, my mother used to say, “Skip school. It’s too nice a day to be inside.” And with that we would head to the beach. In fairness, she did not say it often, and to be truthful, all too often I would say, “Oh, but I […]
Tips on growing native wildflowers in the garden.
From DeathValley Select True, the wildflowers were not spectacular, but the desert never disappoints. It was truly beautiful! This picture was taken at Red Rock Canyon last weekend. From a distance the scalebud (Anisocoma acaulis) gave the hillside an almost chartreuse color – kind of neon yellow. From DeathValley Select Sunrise at Whitney Portal Road […]
It is February 27th and I am having the hardest time pulling myself away from Michael Cohen’s testimony to Congress. But this is not a political blog – oh no! And so with all of the willpower that I can muster, I opened my Lightroom file to last week’s wildflower trip to Anza Borrego. Here […]
Superbloom? Well, maybe, but the desert is magnificent with or without all of the hype. In fact, I enjoy the more secluded spots on enticing dirt roads in the desert. We took this trip on March 1 – 3, 2016, driving to Lone Pine and then spending the next day in Death Valley. Badwater Road […]
Recently I gave two talks on converting your yard into a native plant paradise. During these talks I showed a slide with links to websites containing information and pictures of California native plants. There is even more information on the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden website. For these who attended my talks, and others, here’s […]
What’s Happening In My Garden There are slideshows with pictures of seasonal garden tasks in Wild Suburbia below the following list. Check out my book, Wild Suburbia – Learning to Garden with Native Plants, for more gardening information. Gardening Tasks by Season PLANTING SEASON (November through February) Weed out petty and garden spurge, oxalis, nasturtium, other […]