It is now gardening time in Southern California. Check out the how to make a native plant garden for background and tips.
how-to
What to do with green waste in the garden
Learn to use your garden green waste sustainably without power machines or sending it to the landfill. And for everyone’s health: NO BLOWERS!
Summer Water
Note: This article was first published in July 2011. Since that time our summers seem to have gotten hotter, with some record-breaking highs. I am writing another article on summer water that addresses the stresses on plants and how to deal with them in these extreme climate events. Are you ready for the 4th […]
How to create your own superbloom
Learn to grow your own wildflower superbloom
How to Prune CA Buckwheat
How to prune CA buckwheat
Planting season for California native gardens
Long time since I checked in with you all. It has been a super, busy fall – wedding, plant sale, autumn foliage trip, another trip to Pacific NW, along with the more mundane activities of playing with grandkids, working at the nature park, and even doing the laundry once in a while. All of this […]
Tips for Native Plant Heat Wave Gardening
Now that last summer’s extreme heat is behind us, it is time to take stock and see what we have learned. Although I have seen numerous articles (here and here – thank you, Jane S. for sharing these) on garden tips for nonnatives, including subtropicals, vegetables, and fruit trees, I have not found much related to […]
Keeping Plants Alive in Extreme Heat
We are currently enjoying a balmy 99+ degree day. After the record breaking heat of 114º F on Friday, this is somewhat of an improvement. In this blog post I will 1) suggest practices to help your plants make it through the extreme heat; 2) share temperature data from my garden; and 3) give an […]
Lawn-less Sustainable Garden Finale
The work on the front yard patios is completed. I planted some grasses and other perennials but am waiting until next winter to plant a few shrubs. As promised in the previous blog post, here is a slideshow containing pictures from late February, when work started, to early April, after it was completed. I’m loving […]
Lawn-less sustainable garden
I got rid of the last bit of lawn in Wild Suburbia. We are lawn-less, lawn-free, turf-be-gone, but definitely not grassless! Deergrass, California fescue, melic grass, purple needlegrass, and even the non-grasses, blue-eyed grass (in the Lily Family), and rush (sometimes called rush-grass, in the Rush Family) have a place in my garden and in […]