A clouldess giant sulphur butterfly (Phoebis sennae) stops to sip nectar from Salvia madrensis, forsythia sage
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Enamored with Emus
As much as I love our California native plants, I equally enamored by those from the world's other Mediterranean climate regions, especially plants from Australia. Australian plants are just... special! The colors, the textures are enchanting. They add so much to our modern, drought resilient, resource conserving, wildlife supporting gardens. The best known of the Australian natives are members of the Protea family - all sizeable evergreen shrubs and even a few small trees that include Grevillea, Banksia, Hakea, even Macadamia! Eremophila glabra 'Gray Horizon' - 1' tall x 4-6' wide with silver leaves and gold/burnt orange flowers. Eremophila glabra 'Kalgoorlie' -- 2-3' t x 3-6' wide with silvery green leaves and flowers in shades of apricot with yellow. Eremophila glabra 'Kalgoorlie' Eremophila glabra 'Fire and Ice' 4 - 6' tall x 4-6' wide with nearly white leaves and scarlet red flowers Eremophila glabra 'Fire and Ice' Look closely at…
Raise Your Vegetables in Bed
While you wait for your vegetable seeds to sprout, you have plenty of time to prepare your planting beds. For vegetables, annual flowers, and herbs, I always advocate for growing them in raised beds rather than in the ground. In regions like Southern California and the southwest, soils have very little organic matter, water is limited, and summers are hot and dry. In our backyards, growing vegetables in the ground is a big challenge. Growing them in raised beds, on the other hand, allows us to create the ideal conditions meeting vegetable plants’ needs. Extra water is limited to just the soil in the bed – fertilizer too – so it’s not wasted on ornamental plants that are just as happy – or happier – growing dry. On-ground beds For decades, I’ve gardened in 22” tall redwood beds that sit on the ground. While I still love my handsome wooden…
Fantastic Video About Coastal Sage Scrub
Coastal Sage Scrub is one of California's major and most defining habitat. This amazing and complex plant community has analogs in each of the four, other Mediterranean climate regions of the world. Learn all about it in this absolutely fantastic video by the San Mateo Creek Conservancy Coastal Sage Scrub, a Fragile Habitat coastal
