A Kitchen with an Awkward Layout Gets More Storage and a Huge Pantry

Helianthus annus ‘Sonja’

Not everyone has a backyard appropriate for a large garden, but almost everyone can keep a container plant. Size is only one of the many advantages of growing plants in containers rather than in the ground. This only works well, however, if you select plants that are happy living in a pot. Gardeners in the West have many choices. Read on for some top options for California or Nevada container gardening.

Bermuda Grass is a popular warm-season garden specimen known for its durability and resilience. In this guide, we will provide you with essential tips and tricks on how to grow and maintain a lush Bermuda Grass Lawn.

There’s nothing like a tall,green hedge to create a little real estate intrigue, and the best neighborhoods in Santa Barbara are lined with them. The coastal California community is known as one of the country’s favorite beachside retreats, and for its many homes that look as though they were plucked straight from a storybook—if you’re lucky enough to catch a glimpse through thick green foliage.

Ah, garden dreams. We all have them. You drive by someone’s front yard and gasp at how original, yet welcoming it is. Or you go to a friend’s garden party and get positively green with envy over their, well, greenery and the overall flow of the space. To achieve such greatness, you decide you need to hire a landscape designer. And then you realize you have no idea what to do next. 

The growing season might be in full swing, but there are still ways to upgrade your garden game. From keeping out unwanted pests (or pets) to building your own customized trellising and irrigation—it’s time to make your beds work smarter, not harder. We’ve got five ways to customize your planters this summer that will not only make things look fantastic, but will take your growing capabilities to the next level. Whether you choose to tackle them all or just add one to your list of weekend to-dos, I promise it will be a noticeable refresh with rewarding results. 

The ‘80s film Back to the Future (and its subsequent sequels) are total classics, and while fans will most definitely remember the comedic one-liners, storylines, and iconic characters, there are also some noteworthy architecture and design moments. Doc Brown’s home in the film is the Gamble House in Pasadena, California, a stunning, historic example of the Arts and Crafts movement designed by influential 20th century architects Charles and Henry Greene. Movie fans still flock to the location to take photos and go on tours.

Georgia O’Keefee painted some brilliant portraits of red Poppies some times upto 3 feet wide and high, even bigger than the real thing in my garden.The last photo shows how Red and Green work well together on a canvas or in a garden setting. Oriental poppies are perennial and most Poppy species are easy to grow from seed of which 50 varieties are available from Thompson & Morgan

Credits Avocadoes Camknows CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 “avocadoes by Elsa4Sound CC BY-NC 2.0

Experience the charm of Cactus with Arms, where nature takes on an unexpected twist. These captivating plants bring you the rugged beauty of cacti with arms, showcasing nature’s creativity at its finest.

Japanese camellias (Camellia japonica) are one of the most recognized evergreen shrubs planted in Southern gardens. As the common name implies, these beauties are native to the Orient. The first ones were introduced to South Carolina by a Frenchman, André Michaux, who was a botanist to King Louis XVI. Michaux developed the first botanical garden in the South near Charleston in 1786. He shared his camellias with his neighbor, Henry Middleton, who started his landscaped gardens at Middleton Place in 1741. One of the original plants survives at Middleton today, a beautiful double red camellia ‘Reine des Fleurs’ (Queen of Flowers).

“Last year [2012] at the overwintering sites, the area occupied was at only 60 percent of its previous low,” she says. “It had been declining, but that was astonishingly low.”The migration-monitoring program Journey North also reported lower stats in 2013’s cold spring. And though the numbers were only preliminary when we spoke that fall, University of Minnesota’s Monarch Larva Monitoring Program seems to indicate that “we’re at about 20 to 30 percent of our average,” Oberhauser says, acknowledging that these drastically lower numbers might be a “new normal.” But she’s not sounding defeated, by any means.A big positive: A lot of people are interested in monarchs. “Though it will be difficult to make up for all the habitat we’ve lost, we can make that ‘new normal’ as good as we can.”  (Ways to help are father down this page.)what going wrong for monarchs?MONARCH