Garden Tour Favorites I loved sharing my top five favorite flowers with visitors to my garden on the Mary Lou Heard Garden Tour this past Saturday. As I chatted with dozens of the visitors, many ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ over the same plants which luckily were blooming on cue for the tour. So here’s some more […]
How to Create a Stunning Wildflower Garden Anywhere
Seed ‘bombs’ are fun to make, share, and sow! January rains bring prime conditions for wildflowers like California poppies to germinate, grow and thrive. A fun project for a rainy day for kids and grownups alike is to make seed ‘bombs’: portable, easy to sow spheres of wildflower seeds and planting mix. Make up a […]
What to Do in the Garden: September
Get Ready for the Cool Season During the hot days of September, it’s tough to imagine that the cool season is only a few weeks away! But starting in the second half of the month it’s time to plant cool season plants and get ready for one of the busiest planting months in southern California: October! Here’s […]
Who Else Wants Non Stop Summer Flowers?
Continuous blooms, loves heat, pest resistant! Nicotiana Aztec are the longest blooming, pest and disease free summer flowers I have ever grown! I started it from seed donated by Seeds of Change to a public garden where I volunteer (the Farm + Food Lab in Irvine, CA). But that was a couple of years ago and […]
What to Do in the Garden: June
June marks the transition from spring to summer. The typical ‘June gloom’ overcast mornings that often occur in southern California provide one last chance to get the garden ready to weather the hot days of July, August and September. It’s also not too late to do some planting of veggies and flowers that will take […]
Spring Flowers
It’s a special time of year! Today I was fortunate to see my garden through the eyes of others. I’m often so absorbed by the never ending list of ‘what needs to be done’ in the garden, that I forget to really look at the beauty and enjoy. But for the last two days a […]
What To Do in the Garden: March
Feed! Seeds! Weeds! March is probably the busiest month of the year in the southern California garden. So head to the nursery to get plants and supplies, slap on those gardening gloves, and let’s get busy! Feed Everything! It’s spring and everything in the garden is sending out new growth. Encourage vigorous healthy growth, and […]
Favorite Warm Season Flowers to Start From Seed
Showy and Easy Flowers to Plant from Seed I planted warm season flower seeds in six packs this weekend! In about a week I’ll have dozens of baby plants and in 4-6 weeks or so they’ll be ready to be transplanted into the garden. Why Plant from Seed? The main reason I plant from seed, […]