Category: gardensPage 1 of 3

The January Garden

We are fortunate in the Bay Area to be able to have decent-looking gardens in January. Using native plants as the bones of the garden helps. This January…

Stipa arundinacea (New Zealand Wind Grass)

Stipa arundinacea is one of my favorite nonnative landscape plants for our area. I like its copper coloration, its fountainlike shape, its toughess, its low maintenance, and the…

Study View

The small north garden has become a favorite bird habitat. The spiky foreground plants are asparagus ferns. The orange flowers are Iochroma coccinea, beloved of hummingbirds, and perching…

Calendrinia spectabilis, Stipa arundinacea, Iochroma coccinea

Browsing the seed catalogues: Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Next up on our tour of seed catalogues is my favorite of all, Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Johnny’s, based in Winslow, Maine, is a large operation that was started…

Jasmine

I’ve been traveling and haven’t posted much here for a little while. So here’s some Star Jasmine to tide us over.

The Prodigal Gardener

Returned to the Bay Area after a while away. I was worried when I heard about a local heat wave while we were gone, but fortunately a neighbor agreed…

Artemisia douglasiana, Mugwort

This California native mugwort, here growing in a container, is happy after this year’s wet winter. I acquired a couple of specimens last summer, and they looked pretty…

Euphorbia myrsinites, Donkeytail Spurge

Lots of new growth on the Donkeytail Spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) this mid-March. The new growth is bright green; older leaves are blue-gray. Also called Myrtle Spurge because the…

What’s this weed?

It’s a new one this year. Kind of pretty, but it sends out long tendrils that choke out everything.

Browsing the Seed Catalogues: Kitazawa Seed Co.

Kitazawa, now based in Oakland, offers a two-color (green and black) catalogue printed on yellow paper and illustrated with line drawings. 2017 marks the company’s 100th anniversary. It…

The Garden, March 2017

After this extraordinarily wet winter, we had to remove some trees from our hillside lot. This gives us more of a view of the valley as well as…

Browsing the Seed Catalogues: Overview

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that one of the delights of gardening is browsing seed and plant catalogues. I have a handful of vendors I usually buy from, but…

Jalapeño peppers in the Bay Area garden and kitchen

Jalapeño peppers are an easy and rewarding plant for the garden. I grow mine in containers, and they do very well. In fact, the majority of my vegetable…

The French Laundry Garden

French Laundry reservations are notoriously hard to get, and if you do get in you will pay a bundle for your good meal. But if you enjoy gardens you…

Mystery hummingbird

The iochroma is flowering, and that means the hummingbirds are back. I like to photograph them, in part because this particular iochroma is right outside my study window, and…

How to Make a Climate Summary Graph Showing Duration and Intensity of Hydric Deficit

Those of us who live in one of the world’s five Mediterranean climate areas can take cheer from the fact that these regions are home to some of…

May Day Garden (part 2 of 2)

It’s taken me a long time to complete what was meant to be a quick survey of the garden after returning from a trip. These photos are now…

May Day Garden (part 1 of 2)

May Day: Not the distress signal, more like the traditional Northern European folk festival marked by bountiful “May Baskets.” I think the festival developed out of Floralia, the Roman celebration of the goddess…

Grüss an Aachen Rose

It’s April, and the northeast is covered in snow. But here in the Bay Area a heat wave is starting up, with temperatures today projected to be in…

New Acquisitions

At the Watershed Nursery in Point Richmond we picked up several California natives that we will be trying out in the garden. We also got a few nonnative…

Papaver Glaucum

After a hiatus of at least two or three years, these “tulip poppies” decided to pop back up in the garden, looking better than ever. In the second shot…

Hummingbird and Iochroma

This hummingbird loves the iochroma. Iochroma is a Central or South American plant unrelated to fuschia but similar in appearance. The flowers can be blue, purple, red, yellow,…