Summer is here. Two things we know for sure: it will be hot and there will not be a drop of rain. If we are experienced gardeners we also know that, regardless of our efforts, many of the
Gardening in a Warm Season
For Clean, Healthy Air, Bring Plants Indoors
Imagine walking into a home that’s full of green plants. When you open the door the area greets you with an unmistakable feeling. The air is alive and clean, full of positive energy. The plants seem to be
Peonies in our local gardens? And the Verdict is . . .
Serious gardeners love a challenge, especially when it comes to zones, frost, temperatures and all that boring technical stuff. Tell a serious plant lover that you can’t grow one and they’ll buy two. Tell them it’s too tropical
Invest in Your Landscape
Home prices throughout Southern California continue to fall. The median price paid for new and resold Southland houses and condos last month was $280,000, down 8.2% from a year earlier and the largest drop since September 2009. Don’t
Travelling Through Nature’s Gardens
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
- John Muir
With me on this road trip to some of California’s botanical highlights were
Summer Vegetables Are Hot
May and June is the perfect time to plant heat loving summer vegetables. Planted too early they sulk – too late and their season is cut short. Some plants just tolerate summer, but these sizzlers actually prefer the
Plumerias Hit The Mainstream
Curtis Hayes knows plumerias. He grows about 500 plants in his Orange County garden.
It’s hard to imaging that as recently as twenty years ago plumerias were quite rare in Orange County. Even ten years ago, just before Curtis,
Are You Gardening Organically? Why Not?
As a young boy growing up near Los Angeles I loved the outdoors, especially our garden. We had a solution for everything. When aphids showed up we used malathion, ants were subdued with Chlordane, lawn weeds meant Turf
Starbucks And Gardens
I begin the writing of this week’s column while walking beneath near century old maples, ash, linden and walnut trees, not in Orange County, but less than three miles from downtown Seattle. I haven’t actually typed a word
A Salad Dressing To Control Powdery Mildew?
It seems that last week’s Question and Answer portion of this column created a bit of a stir.
You may remember that Maggali in Newport Beach wrote to me about how to best control powdery mildew on her roses.
