Dormancy in the southern California garden
garden photos
Spring is coming
Visit the South Pasadena Nature Park to enjoy the CA native wildflowers.
After the flowers
Wildflower season is “past peak” and I’d like to remind you that the glorious, youthful, bright flowers now enter the very important stage of making and dispersing seed. Though my […]
Lawn-less Sustainable Garden (continued)
We are making big changes to our yard. As you may remember from earlier posts, I was not happy with the burned out lawn in the front yard. Years of […]
Pacific Northwest Nature Garden
Spending time in the Pacific Northwest provides an important contrast to my Southern California Wild Suburbia. Wild Suburbia is sunny, hot, and dry. It is aromatic, gray and tan. The […]
Pacific Northwest Cottage Garden
It has been foggy here on Orcas Island in the San Juans. I woke to thick mist, the sound of fog dripping from conifer trees, and the low, melancholy song […]
What should I plant?
This is the perfect time to prepare your plant for upcoming native plant sales and fall planting! This slideshow presents garden-worthy plants from woodland, scrubland, chaparral and desert plant communities. […]
Orcas Island Garden Tour
Garden tour of five special gardens featured by Orcas Island Garden Club
Brown is a color
Summer in my garden is mostly brown, with beige highlights. The fallen leaves are cool, crunchy, and comforting. Soft gray spider webs are sprinkled around in grass, on trees and […]
Wildflower headshots
It is almost the summer solstice but there are still lots of flowers blooming in the nature park. There is a mighty fine display of California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) […]