Here is a developing list of the existing native plant life here existing before we came to our home on Malum Ridge next to the Sierra National Forest near Oakhurst-Yosemite, CA.
One of the best ways to appreciate the park is to watch this Yosemite Nature Notes series. It’s produced by Steven M. Bumgardner, who has lived and worked in Sequoia and Yosemite Park for 20 years.
Drought tolerant and colorful plants for any garden… Sometimes you find an ideal list of plants suitable for your area to save and keep. This time one of my customers at the nursery happened to bring in an especially nice one. We were able to impress each other,..they were because most of the plants they…
Violas and pansies are perfect daffodil partners Last year, I planted violas over the mini daffodils in patio pots and want to do the same this year. Deer don’t bother these on the patio,…they rarely come up the concrete steps any more and they aren’t attracted to either plant. It’s a safe zone. …
My Favorite Junk Store and Why I Like It I’m itchin’ to go to the junk stores again. Boy do I miss the “ARC Store” (Assoc of Retarded Citizens) in Fullerton, CA, near where I used to live. They’d bring new things in by the box-full EVERY DAY from the greater Los Angeles area and…
To prepare for a community garden club talk on this meadow project today, this slideshow was put together to show highlights from the first two years. This will give you an idea of what changes have been made from this former weedy field! First I seeded the meadow the first year, 2010, with California native…
One evening near dark, I lost myself as I wandered, looking for turning leaves around the place. “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus French “the quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and…
It is a commonly heard in casual remarks on gardening topics and maintaining a landscape in the Sierra Foothills that Manzanita and other chaparral plants must be cut down and removed because they are so very flammable. Yes, it is important to clear 100 feet of defensible space around your home, and yes, Manzanita can…
Here in the Sierra foothills of California, sometimes the Autumn season brings a feeling of melancholy to gardeners, faced with drooping faded flowers, drizzly rains and overcast skies. Larry Rettig, a member of Dave’s Garden website, pondered this feeling one day while out walking and a poem just came to him that expressed all the…
How to choose end-of-season sale plants Every year, while visiting my favorite nurseries, I prowl the sale tables in late August and September. I cheerfully call these plants that I purchase “rescued plants.” I bring them home at a much discounted price and find them a home in my garden so that they can make…
Spicy mints? “Much Virtue in Herbs, little in Men.” – Benjamin Franklin The rich, spiciness of these plants makes them useful in cooking, and nearly half the spices in your kitchen come from this one family, including basil, rosemary, lavender, marjoram, germander, thyme, savory, plus culinary sage and of course mint, peppermint, and spearmint. It’s…
A nearly native drought tolerant garden Tim and Barbara Fruehe came into the True Value Garden Center with a list of needed plants that we could really work with! Their ambitious whole house-whole yard renovation was winding down and they were at the point where the outdoor hardscape was done and the soil was amended. …
Starting from scratch – Then and now Laying out garden beds in clay and decomposed granite is the way you start when faced with new construction in the Sierra Foothills. How do you possibly begin a garden? Many house pads are scraped clear of topsoil and planting is not easy without replacing all the soil.…
“The more people know about bats the more they’ll care about them.” Sitting out tonight, while watering, I noticed a few mosquitoes and moths flying about in the half light. I hadn’t realized so much that bats could see the same insects as I, yet, here they were, swooping and darting around the big sky…
or …Why I remember a Sunset Magazine article from 1999. A few months before we bought our place here in the shadow of Peckinpah Mountain, I read an article called ‘What to plant under native oaks and pines?’ Do you still have the September 1999 issue of Sunset magazine? No? Well, if you live in…
Do you get up early? I do,…but have found that many couples have one. One that gets up at dawn and the other who sleeps through it all. The cool air, the purplish cast in the early, early dawn, the soft peeping of the first birds all draw me out to sleepily make my coffee.…
The natural meadow in the second year By that, I mean, this is the second year that I have weeded but not planted here. I’ve planted my 5 year old garden in irrigation zones. The area around the house gets the most water and has the most ‘non-native, but Mediterranean plants.’ We’re on a slope…
Big changes all around The meadow in May…checking the progress and weeding, weeding… Last year, here in the Sierra foothills, I started a meadow project in a weedy field below the south side of our home. Bounded by a sycamore tree on the south a path on the north, a rock garden on the west,…
I’m only mentioning my impressions of the house pad prep, because to tell it all would be very boring. Although,….we country folk can talk for hours amongst ourselves about the details of our septic installations and well digging. Those subjects, especially the depth and gallons per minute for your well are hot topics among the flannel…
Many of us here in the California Sierra foothills have gravel driveways, paths and roads. This can be a help or a hindrance to gardeners searching for more space in which to garden. Gravel gardens could have their origin in formal Japanese ‘dry landscape’ gardens located on the grounds of Zen Buddhist temples. The raked…
