After many years, lots of writing and rewriting, and tons of rejections, it is finally out! In August, Heyday Books released my book, Wild Suburbia – Learning to Garden with Native Plants. And now a new chapter begins – promotion. Not my favorite thing to do, although the first book talk and signing, held on […]
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Tomatoes and gripes
I am 60 years old. I don’t usually start blog posts this way but as you will see, it is relevant. Let me back up a little. I decided that I was going to blog about my cherry tomatoes. I planted them late this year because we returned from India at the end of May. […]
Warning: For plant geeks only
Way back in 1993 a large, imposing and impressive book was published by UC Press. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California, edited by James Hickman, was a revision of Jepson’s 1925 Manual of the Flowering Plants of California. It became the go-to reference for all serious California native plant geeks. When there were disputes about the […]
How to water established trees
I have been doing some online research on watering established trees. It is amazing how much contradictory information is out there! Some say water once or twice a week for twenty minutes, others suggest monthly for several hours at a time. As always, the reason for the spread is partly due to the fact that […]
Bear with me
Change is in the air! Although I am still in India, Wild Suburbia is not being ignored. The Weeding Wild Suburbia website is undergoing massive changes, and I must ask your forbearance as we work to get the links and content updated. It is coming. As a consequence of these changes some of the links […]
Pulling it together
As you can see I am working hard to pull together the many articles I have written on gardening with California native plants. Realizing that it is sometimes difficult even for me to find some older posts – without scrolling and scrolling and scrolling – I put together a table of blog posts and am […]
Updated Parks and Gardens
Just a quick note to say that the Parks and Gardens Featuring California Native Plants has been updated. The pdf in Weeding Wild Suburbia has also been updated. If I missed any park – and I know that I have – please let me know and I will try to get them on the list at […]
Native Gardens Sprouting Up All Over LA
The Parks and Gardens Featuring Native Plants list in the last blog post has been updated. I will continue to update that list and rather than reposting new lists I will include the date of the changes in the original post. I have not yet updated the pdf list on the website but I will, […]
Parks and Gardens Featuring California Native Plants
Where to see native plants While visiting my daughter in New York City last week I wanted to see habitat or native plant gardens. Though I was not able to find a list of such gardens in the city, I spent time in the native plant garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and on a […]
Save Our Trees
It is a sad thing when a mature tree dies and a good time to review gardening practices that will help keep our trees healthy. I did not see the Engelmann oak that fell last week in South Pasadena and cannot comment on the cause. I do know that while I was employed at Rancho […]