A busy year! And we’ve barely begun begun our busiest season, which is autumn, the best time of the year to plant almost everything here in the Southern Sierra and southern Central Valley of California. Challenges: I need to hire another landscaper! Quick!* Joys: I have great clients, customers, colleagues …
One of the reasons I love to travel is to visit public lands and botanic gardens, both to admire and discover plants that I am unfamiliar with, and to bring ideas back that might work in our Southern Sierra and southern central valley areas. I’m always interested and delighted when …
Our newer, water-saving landscapes are helping us break free of plain old green in the garden. With many plants, the traits that make them water-thrifty, also give them interesting foliage color and form. We can use this to our advantage by creating a “wow!” garden based on the monochromatic style. …
Late-winter is one of my favorite seasons in the garden. Plants that were dormant in summer and fall look refreshed and green now. One of the showiest is silver bush lupin (Lupinus albifrons), with great stalks of purple or pink flowers that you can see from a distance. Bush lupin …
This article first appeared in the April 4 edition of the Porterville Recorder newspaper. You’ve probably heard that on April 1, the state Water Quality Control Resource Board announced new state-wide water restrictions. This was no April Fool’s joke, however. Stricter restrictions were expected, so there was nothing surprising …
Nov. 17 & Nov. 18 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. both days — River Ridge Ranch, Springville, CA Wow! Our first day of the Festival was fantastic. Warm, fall beauty, no rain (cloudy and breezy, but just right). We listened to poetry and prose sitting around the fire pit, …
Howdy & Happy Friday! Springville Ranch Marketplace “First Saturdays” tomorrow, 6/2. I’ll be there in person with CA native plants for sale (and some other great summer-blooming plants like “Dark Knight” Butterfly Bush and “Lipstick” Sage), and Fresh Springville-Grown Greens from Auntie’s Home Grown Farm: Kale, Chard, Broccoli, Collards and …
Howdy, Full newsletter next week, but in the meantime hope to see you Saturday: Springville Ranch Market Place “First Saturdays’ Saturday, March 3 9 a.m. – noon CA Native Plants for sale – including some spectacular CA Lilac and Manzanitas from Theodore Payne Foundation, plus Sages,std Coffeeberry and more. Opportunities …
Here in the Southern Sierra signs of imminent Spring are everywhere. Ceanothus are budding, and a few of them, like the ones at the Springville Native Plant park, are beginning to bloom. Heuchera and Hummingbird Sage also are sending out or opening flowers. Manzanita have been blooming for almost a …
