Gardenig in state California. Tips & Guides

Sleep Week has arrived. Whether you’re on the side of keeping daylight savings or hope to get rid of the clock-adjusting routine, now is the perfect time to take advantage of all the bedding sales as your body adapts to losing an hour. And as someone who needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep (more for proper functioning than beauty), I firmly believe in making investments to create the best sleeping experience one could have. 

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How to Grow Five Spot Flowers Nemophila maculata

Being the third largest state of the United States in size, it has diverse climate, this is why this list includes drought tolerant, sun loving, cold hardy, tropical, and temperate trees for the “Golden State.”

Tips for Growing Saskatoon Serviceberries Amelanchier alnifolia

Oscar Mayer

Back in June, friend of the GPOD Cherry Ong attended the Vancouver Hardy Plant Study Weekend and was kind enough to share photos of some of the gardens that she toured. Today she’s taking us along to visit Gwen and Paul’s gorgeous garden and nursery.

How to Grow and Care for Fennel Foeniculum vulgare

How to Grow and Care for Sea Thrift Armeria maritima

A group of tender perennial plants, only one of which is commonly grown. This is Strelitzia Reginae, which has large ornamental leaves on long strong petioles (leafstalks), and bears brilliant orange and purple flowers, several together within a large bract, on stems 3 ft. or more high in spring. It is a native of South Africa and belongs to the Banana family, Musaceae. The name commemorates Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Today we’re in Redding, California, visiting with Carol Cowee.

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How to Grow and Care for Camassia (Wild Hyacinth) Camassia spp.

A Love Affair with Texture, Stone and Water | Talk & Tour Moving to a new home with no garden, dry rocky soil and huge stone outcroppings was just the challenge this gardener was up for. Starting a new garden from scratch

Kathy Sandel has shared her gardens with us before (More of Kathy’s Calabasas Garden, Kathy’s Garden Transformation in Sacramento), but today she’s sharing the garden she created for her daughter in Sacramento, California.

I have given up indoor seed starting completely on several occasions. The first time it happened I was a novice gardener. I had ordered seeds of just about every plant that I saw in the garden catalogs without thinking about such practical things as gallons of potting soil, hours of daily watering, and square feet of windowsill space. It also did not occur to me to determine whether or not I had room in my garden for even a fraction of my seedlings. My chaotic efforts eventually produced some wonderful plants, but the process was so exhausting that I said: “Never again.”

We were fortunate to win at Half Moon Bay, California this year. The competition was intense with 80 entries, 10 of which were over 1,000 pounds. The weigh-off is always on Columbus Day. The winner stays until the following weekend to participate in the HMB Pumpkin Festival.

Lately, I have noticed that the mail-order garden supply catalogs are full of Asian-themed garden accessories such as pots, traditional bamboo fences, and stone lanterns. This seems to go along with the trend toward Asian-inspired minimalism in home décor. In California and the Pacific Northwest, traditional Asian and Asian-inspired gardens have been popular for years. Can a national vogue for Chinese and Japanese gardens be far behind?

Hardy perennial and annual plants of varying heights which bloom in June and July chiefly; the original species or wild types from which the modern beautiful varieties are descended are natives of California, Siberia, Syria, India and other countries. Delphinium Ajacis, originally from eastern Europe is one of the plants from which the annual Larkspurs have been raised. Delphinium belongs to the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. The name is an old Greek one.

Apart from the odd bit of snow about the rest has all gone, and the world is green again! I only worked a morning today, so this afternoon I was able to get out into the greenhouse and sow a load of seeds. The temperature in the greenhouse is about 15 degrees so that’s a good temperature for seeds to germinate. I’ve got a lot to go through, so if you’re ready and sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin.

This weekend was mainly spent pricking out various seedlings. Some individually, but others in little clumps of 5 or 6 seedlings. When doing little clumps you don’t have to count them exactly, they will just clump in groups naturally, so if there are a more in some clumps and fewer in other, then that’s fine.

Today we’re visiting with Max Cannon who gardens in south San Francisco, California:

We’re in Northridge, California today, visiting with Terry Sanders:

Collaborative post

If you’ve eaten today, you can thank a trucker. Much of the food we eat in this country, and most other things as well, are transported by trucks—as much as 70 percent of the value of all commercial goods shipped in the US. And while the average American might not think too much about long-haul truckers in their day-to-day life, maybe we should. Not only is this an industry that we depend on critically, it’s one that is going through something of a transformation.

Orange wildflowers, ranging from the Butterfly Weed’s peachy tones to the California Poppy’s fiery shades, play a crucial role in attracting pollinators, creating a thriving ecosystem in your backyard.

The Modern Farmer team has been hard at work this year, bringing you great stories about farming and food systems, and we’ve covered a lot of ground.

How to Grow and Care for Mexican Fan Palms Washingtonia robusta

Kathy Sandel sent in just a few more photos of hercurrent garden in Sacramento, California, and I couldn’t resist sharing them:

HO-HO-HO: It’s seed season, among other festive reasons to celebrate in December. Today I invited a similarly seed-obsessed friend, Jennifer Jewell, to help me curate some seed-catalog recommendations you might not otherwise browse, and to talk seeds in general.

Last week Kathy Sandel shared her former garden in Calabasas, California, and today we’re back visiting her current garden in Sacramento:

When to Plant Succulents in the Northwest

While some may be familiar with Japanese sacred lily (Rohdea japonica, Zones 6–10), Rohdea pachynema is an uncommon species that is indeed a Rohdea less traveled. Found only in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, it is an intriguing member of the Asparagaceae family that is slowly becoming more available to gardeners. It was formerly known as Campylandra sinensis or C. pachynema, but recent DNA work has moved it into the genus Rohdea, whose name commemorates German botanist Michael Rohde. We can find no documented common name for this species, so we have dubbed it “yellow thread rohdea” since pachynema means “thick thread” (referring to the colored central stripe on the leaves). 

The Isles of Scilly are like an idealised version of England – where the sun always shines, the food is wonderful, there’s no traffic and no one locks their doors! To say the sun always shines is an exaggeration, but they’re among the sunniest and mildest places in the UK – sea breezes mean it’s never too hot or humid and thanks to the Jetstream, they almost never have frost.