tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35708265872133575462026-04-08T23:15:40.201-07:00This blog is about gardening with native plants in my southern California yard. New attempts and the resulting successes and failures are posted. Gardening articles about the horticultural use of native plants are posted.Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.comBlogger366125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-6182416662213886532015-03-05T16:55:00.003-08:002015-03-05T16:55:29.524-08:00

It is already March and if you have not planted your native plant garden you might want to consider putting it off until next year. Once again this rain year is turning out to be rather disappointing, and it does not look like we will be seeing noticeable amounts this spring. Although the numbers are better further north, according to The California Weather Blog, most of the rain fell

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-28625209025541639422015-03-02T23:51:00.000-08:002015-03-02T23:51:56.886-08:00

My city, South Pasadena, and many others are offering rebates for converting lawns to reduced water-use landscapes. The current rebate program is scheduled to end on June 30, 2015. Clearly, lawn reduction through neglect, as described in the previous blog post, will not get you the rebate! If you are interested in pursuing it, then you must act quickly. Your choices for lawn removal are:

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-8836764073885208102015-02-14T23:16:00.001-08:002015-02-14T23:16:44.432-08:00

The first method of lawn removal listed on the Lawn Removal Methods: Pros and Cons sheet is neglect. I have used this method more than any other in reducing the turf-covering in my yard. And yes it does work, but as noted in the con category, it takes time, requiring a good bit of patience. The following pictures show the progression from lawn to mulch under a beautiful and highly valued coast

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-85606311823816356732015-01-28T17:17:00.002-08:002015-01-28T21:16:48.013-08:00

I want to start this post by stating the obvious: the following tips are things that I do to grow plants in containers. Some of my suggestions are not conventional, in fact, some plant people may strongly disagree with me. The main reason for this is that I do not purchase potting mix, amendments, fertilizers, pesticides, organic soap, horticultural oil... and the list goes on. I use what I have

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-23520834138127388342014-12-28T20:44:00.001-08:002014-12-28T20:44:14.723-08:00

Gardens, like people, have life stages. In the beginning, they grow vigorously, even rampantly. Maybe the first year or two seems a bit slow for a new native plant garden. Some plants don't do much and losses are usually higher in this very early stage. The next few years (around years two to five), however, are often filled with rapid growth. It may be a time when you wonder what you were

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-91039924094464405682014-12-07T23:11:00.002-08:002014-12-07T23:11:30.289-08:00

Working on a wildflower gardening calendar for a powerpoint presentation (10 inches x 7.5 inches). What do you think? Which one do you think is more readable? Thanks for your input!

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-87774639898382232242014-12-01T16:35:00.000-08:002014-12-01T16:35:43.752-08:00

Trying to catch the moment between the all day drizzle yesterday and the forecasted heavy rain tomorrow, I went to the nature park with the following ten new plants: 1 - 1g white sage (Salvia apiana) 1 - 1g buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliosum), collected from Verdugo Mts. 1 - 1g monkeyflower (Mimulus aurantiacus var. aurantiacus), from Verdugo Mts. 1 - 1g chaparral yucca (

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-45332631090420829132014-11-14T14:20:00.000-08:002014-11-14T14:20:29.320-08:00

The nature park anniversary celebration is over. Yay! The plant sale is over. Yay! And the weather is perfect for gardening, cool and overcast. YAY!  As I walk around the yard thinking about what has worked and what hasn't, I have lots of ideas on what I want to do. It is so exciting that I now have a sunny front yard to landscape. The irises and juncuses (junci?) will have to be moved

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-88262168158140236342014-10-31T13:15:00.001-07:002014-10-31T21:22:59.853-07:00

This year the plant sales were early. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, which for years and years held its sale on the first weekend in November, jumped to the head of the line by holding a Fall Planting Festival a whole month earlier. The San Gabriel Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), however, is sticking to its own schedule, the second Saturday in November, falling

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-72850917175702723392014-10-23T14:35:00.000-07:002014-10-23T14:35:45.272-07:00

The avocado tree is gone. Fortunately, the heat wave is over. Nevertheless, my office located upstairs in the front of our south-facing house, gets very hot in the afternoon. Anyone who ever doubted the cooling effect of properly placed trees should come to our house. That old avocado tree made the house far more comfortable than the air conditioner ever did. My office window is in the middle

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-42922879618573057232014-10-06T10:59:00.000-07:002014-10-06T10:59:19.916-07:00

A couple of months ago the bee hive in our avocado went silent. The hive, located in a cavity, was there when we moved into this house in 1998. We made a few attempts to rid the tree of the hive, fearing that people might get stung coming to the front door. I called companies that moved hives but no one would take this on. We sprayed the hive with poison several times and covered the entrance

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-24886524944608867862014-09-25T16:00:00.000-07:002014-09-25T16:00:05.645-07:00

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-27812823036375646372014-09-24T15:51:00.003-07:002014-09-24T15:54:10.805-07:00

It is officially autumn. Yes, it reached the upper 80s here in beautiful Southern California, but I know that it is autumn because most of my tomato plants are brown skeletons that could have (should have) been removed weeks ago. A few are still producing cherry tomatoes but the basil has all bolted and withered. Wish I had harvested more of the leaves for pesto before our week-long, triple

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-65959571985283018982014-09-15T20:06:00.000-07:002014-09-15T20:06:24.785-07:00

Summer was too short and way too busy. I spent most of it driving. Drove from LA to NYC, and back again. Then flew back east for another family gathering. This was followed by a backpacking trip in the Hoover Wilderness. Finally home, feeling exceedingly guilty about my carbon footprint. At home I ride my bicycle to the video store instead of taking the car, but overall I am not there. The word

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-86789567854243549682014-08-16T16:28:00.001-07:002014-08-16T16:28:48.976-07:00

Hello! Been a very long time. Not sure anyone is still out there in Wild Suburbia cyberspace. Are you there? If you are out there, I have a lot to report. This summer my garden mostly had to fend for itself while I was driving cross-country from west to east and then back again, logging over 9,000 miles. It was a great trip. When I got home, after being gone for over a month, the garden was

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-11770618397070761552014-05-16T14:04:00.001-07:002014-05-16T14:04:15.912-07:00

Did you ever feel like getting in the car and just driving east? You know, leaving the errands behind and crossing the whole country? Maybe it is the extreme heat we have been experiencing. Maybe it is the pull of my family, my daughter, son, sister, brother, in-laws, nieces, nephews... they are all back east. Yes, I want to visit, but more than that, I want to experience the expansiveness of

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-2862017232815709802014-05-12T17:15:00.000-07:002014-05-12T17:15:02.058-07:00

All of a sudden it got really hot here. And more heat is predicted for tomorrow, the next day and the next day and the next day. Welcome to summer. I got a few new, used lenses for my Nikon D7100 today. Couldn't wait to try them and they didn't disappoint. I tried to capture the dry heat digitally.  

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-66933303767361195042014-04-30T19:45:00.000-07:002014-04-30T19:45:52.898-07:00

Yesterday I spent most of the day inside trying, unsuccessfully, to "migrate" from a Windows image database (IMatch) to Lightroom. The reason for the move is that I migrated from Windows to Apple about six months ago. I prefer IMatch as an image database but Lightroom has really nice image editing capabilities, and IMatch is not made for the Mac. Although I have my MacBook set up so it can mimic

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-71793667899822422062014-04-20T22:02:00.000-07:002014-04-20T22:02:06.798-07:00

This weekend was the Wildflower Festival at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. If you weren't able to see the Wildflower Show, it will be open for a third day, on Monday, April 21st. Though the irises have past peak, the garden is still looking lovely. The following album shows pictures of the garden taken today. I tried to capture the beauty of the irises as the petals wilt and the seeds swell.

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-18587505665686783332014-04-02T21:52:00.000-07:002014-04-02T21:52:04.022-07:00

Although my own garden is not short on weeds - and being on the Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour this Sunday, it really should be - I spent much of the day bashing, scything, pruning, pulling, wrestling, and cursing the weeds at the nature park. The late rains have brought more wildflowers, lovely clouds, even a rainbow over the Angeles, but also lots of weeds to the park. The plants we

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-45933246227049215112014-03-23T22:26:00.001-07:002014-03-23T22:26:31.185-07:00

It has been more than month and a half since I last posted. Though my electronic mouth has been silent -  if you don't count a few murmurs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - much has been happening in the nature park and my own garden. Following the only significant rain of the year, the weeds in both places have been having a party. I have spent more time at the nature park than I

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-44038618084939054312014-01-30T12:49:00.000-08:002014-01-30T12:57:09.828-08:00

There is much debate about the best way to garden with clay soil. Growing native plants is very different than cycling through annual vegetables and herbs, and so recommendations for edible gardens usually do not apply to natives. The best approach to native plant gardening with clay soil, as long as weeds or other plants have been able to grow in the area, is to select plants that do not

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-45007628410806052032014-01-25T16:32:00.001-08:002014-01-25T16:32:05.408-08:00

The green arrow points to a sagebrush seedling, the progeny of native sagebrush that was planted in the nature park to re-create coastal sage scrub habitat. The rest of the seedlings (red arrows) are non-native weeds that would outgrow this and other native seedlings if left to their own devices. This is why we spend time carefully hand-weeding neighborhood bullies. Non-native mallow, mustard

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-86026587679031006152014-01-20T12:59:00.001-08:002014-01-25T16:32:36.302-08:00

Just thought I'd upload some pictures of gardens that are based on coastal sage scrub and chaparral plant communities. Naturalistic paths and boulders help define the space in a pleasing way. The gardens shown are: Maloof Garden Eaton Canyon Nature Center South Pasadena Nature Park 140120_ScrubChaparral, a set on Flickr.

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3570826587213357546.post-65435552671271343162014-01-08T21:08:00.001-08:002014-01-08T21:08:30.675-08:00

People new to using California native plants are often overwhelmed by the many new and unfamiliar plants. Some of us "experts" further confuse these newcomers by using botanical names. Today I spent some time looking for short lists containing the most commonly used garden natives. The very best list I found was on the Tree of Life Nursery website. Under Plant Information they have a list

Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com7