First weeks of Fall in the Sierra foothills The season has changed in the foothills around Oakhurst. The fierce heat of the last month has broken and the cool of this morning is delicious. I’ve been hand watering all along and I can see the end to this chore coming. I take stock of the…
Harvesting the straw bale garden I call this experiment a success! After reading and reviewing the book Straw Bale Gardens sent to me by author, Joel Karston, I became intrigued by the concept of growing a garden in straw instead of soil. I wondered if this would be a good idea here in the Sierra…
The Highly Valued Manzanita Manzanitas are typical and beautiful Chaparral plants in the Sierra foothills. They, and the chaparral as a whole, have long been here in California before we so how can we think it is good or bad? My thought is that manzanita is not any more flammable or less flammable than any…
I’m a fan of this chair! Take a couple old pieces of junk and transform them into into a tiny little garden scene using just a little imagination. It’s sometimes difficult to find outdoor decoration that will fit into a ranchy/foresty type garden but this wicker chair is a classic. Here’s how I planted my…
Testing,…both camping and blackberries… I did something today that I’ve wanted to do for years! Picked blackberries at Kerckhoff Lake. So many times we’ve driven by this pretty and serene lake, actually a reservoir, on our way here and there between over the last twenty so years. The reservoir is just south of North Fork, Oakhurst…
Some of our deer friends… I still like the deer better than any one plant. They are the best sort of ‘lawn ornaments.’ I watch, don’t you, when they’re passing by and it’s gratifying when they pass by my carefully chosen ‘deer-resistant’ garden? List of what I plant: Acer palmatum, Japanese maple Acer negundo,…
Myths and facts about the Sierra Foothills Bull pine From the time we moved into the mountains, I heard from neighbors and local friends about the Bull pines. Bull pines, Pinus sabiniana, are seemingly hated, seen as ugly, messy trees and reputed to somehow(?) suck water from people’s wells and aquifers. You must cut down the…
Part Two: Summer In May, Tractor Man and I lugged four bales of hay down our slope and set them up as a garden! At the same time, we constructed a ‘Ranch Gate Garden’, by stringing three old ranch gates together that we found on our place, fencing in the 16′ x16′ garden. The fourth…
Tim and Barbara’s garden, one year later If you remember, Tim and Barbara Fruehe of Oakhurst, CA, renovated their entire front and back gardens, installing drip irrigation, gravel paths, garden benches and iron arbors. It was a huge undertaking, but Tim had it all thought out and he and Barbara knew what they wanted, an…
Canyon Live-forever or Rock Lettuce, Dudleya cymosa, is a great California native for containers. This container is a brick found at the lake and probably used as an anchor along the shore. I found a better use for it and planted a small dudleya in each opening. It’s lived happily here for two years,…
I learned Latin names of plants from my mother at an early age and become a logophile, a lover of words, especially gardening terms and names of plants. I love the richness of all the local and ancient names of flowers and plants. In this charming essay, you’ll find a schedule of bloom that, if…
A Straw Bale Garden? Sure, I love experiments! Recently I decided to try the technique called straw bale gardening, after an online chat with the author, Joel Karsten, who wrote the book, Straw Bale Gardens. My garden is on a mountainside in Central California. See the steps I took in this experiment! My Ranch Gate…
Our ‘bad’ soil…? I get comments all the time from discouraged local gardeners about ‘our bad soil’ in the Oakhurst, Coarsegold and North Fork areas. Giving this some thought, I’m wondering if gardeners are making use of the natural ‘mulch’ we have in pine needles and oak leaves? Using the resources we have here was…
On a rainy day in April, I still take Maggie for her daily walk in the garden. It’s not cold and though Maggie’s not a fan of wet, she loves to walk and sniff, waggy, waggy…she sniffs everything! Just yesterday, I was weeding the meadow, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, with the sun warm…
One year of seeds brings seven years of weeds! Three things will make your life easier when it comes to weeds in your garden… #1 Mulch I use mulch around the plants in my garden as a lazy way to manage weeds. After three years of mulching your garden, you’ll see that your weeding chores have lessened…
Hello! Just wanted all my blog followers to know that I have switched from WordPress.com to WordPress.org and now my url is www.sierrafoothillgarden.com. What led to this change? First, I found that I need to go back to work temporarily…hopefully for just a few years. This is a big change in lifestyle for me, since…
Sowing smart! What vegetables can you grow this year to save the most money at the grocery store? Yields per square foot and dollar value and of that (organic) produce at harvest in the supermarket were considered to form this list. Here are the ones to grow that will save you the most. Of course,…
Plant sweet peas. Between rains you can plant sweet peas along a fence or trellis. It’s amazing how sturdy the stems are on this delicate looking plant. Plant bulbs. Many bulbs are on sale now and can be planted in groups of 5 or 6 about 6 inches deep. When March arrives, stop and enjoy…
