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Perhaps you have noticed the days are getting shorter? A sure sign that summer is winding down and fall is around the corner. I think of the garden year not from January-December, but from autumn to autumn, since so much of our garden creation and re-creation happens in the fall. The first half of September […]
While hand watering my container plants on Wednesday, the approved day to water in my district’s guidelines, I thought about comments people made to me last week. They were basically of two kinds: “We’re all going to have to move out of California.” “We can’t have gardens anymore. There is no water.” […]
I’m writing this from my outdoor office, surrounded by shrubs, trees, vines, perennials and one giant night-blooming cactus. It’s hard to be a gardener and not prefer the out of doors. But it’s hot. Barely summer and it’s already hot. And dry. Not brown in my courtyard, thank heavens! But brown on the hills surrounding […]
“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly. “One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Hans Christian Andersen This year, spring sprang into being in the Northern hemisphere at 2:37 a.m. PST March 20. Some plants in the garden decided it was spring in February, or even January. Some are just getting the […]
March was the first month of the year in the original Roman calendar. That feels right to me: March is a month of flowers and growth, the first full month in which almost everything in the garden is bursting with energy. Even the weather gets in on this act: March may be hot, cold, dry, […]
September is a hopeful month that begins to remind us that winter will be here again someday. It has become harder to predict what kind of September we will have. Historically, we should enjoy cooler temperatures both day and night, mostly due to the ever-shortening days. Planting:. We can finally begin to plant trees, perennials […]
“In time of crisis people want to know that you care, more than they care what you know” Will Rogers How will we remember this spring of 2020? What we remember? How much we learned about coronavirus or how much we discovered we cared about things we took for granted? I’ve been reading lots of […]
Garden Tips for February 2020 Wait out rainy days – should they actually return — by planning the garden year ahead and shopping online or in print catalogs for ornamental and edible seeds. On dry days, at our little farm, we are harvesting oranges, pomelo, limes, kale, collards, chard, lettuce, spinach and radish. The broccoli […]
It’s not unpleasant to be out of doors in a light March rain, but working the soil at all when it’s this wet can easily cause compaction problems, which means drainage, root growth and root health problems later.
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 and team members! The plants […]