A Gardener's Thoughts & Fancies

May is the month to finish up your spring planting by focusing on those heat-loving vegetables. While many of Southern California’s native plants are beginning to shut down for the dry summer months, if you plant your vegetables now and keep them well mulched and watered, they should flourish throughout the summer and provide a [...]

Here are five relatively simply ways to save water, an essential commodity of life. While the information is gardening common sense, it’s been complied by a terrific garden resource, Sunset.  Their newsletter is well worth a subscription. Select Drought Tolerant Plants Succulents create a marvelous bed. Planted together, these drought-tolerant plants with their outrageous shapes, [...]

Along with April showers comes National Landscape Architecture Month, Earth Day – celebrated on April 22 and on April 26, the birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture and the designer ofNew York’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, thegrounds of the U.S. Capitol and many other extraordinary gardens and parks though out our country. So, I thought April [...]

As a follow-up to my previous posts, Creating Your Own Victory Garden and Growing Tomatoes In Southern California, a client was thoughtful enough to send  me an interesting article from “Advertising Age.” While the article’s focus was on Miracle-Gro Maker Reaps Bounty as More Turn to Vegetable Gardens, what my take-away was this: “Hope springs eternal at [...]

You would think that with our long growing season Southern California would be the ideal climate for growing tomatoes. But according to the University of California, our ideal conditions are not so ideal: high temperatures can delay fruiting and intense sunlight can burn and cause improper ripening. Selecting the right tomato? According to the U [...]