Daylilies like this maroon beauty are sturdy.

Daylilies Are Perfect for New Gardeners

It is thanks to a vigorous root structure that daylilies can survive in dry conditions and poor soils. The rhizomes store nutrients and water that can keep the plants healthy during drought conditions.

Also thanks to these roots, daylilies are wonderful plants for hillsides or banks to help prevent erosion.

Updating a 1960’s Garden: Flower Borders Poolside

My gardening efforts have focused on updating the flower beds around the backyard swimming pool and fence. These beds haven’t been changed since the pool was added.

You Can Transplant Spring-blooming Bulbs Year Round

Steps for Transplanting:

Wait until blooms have faded.

Use a hand trowel or shovel to dig around foliage clump.

Grasp the stems and foliage in one hand while using the trowel to loosen the soil around the bulb. Then, use the trowel to leverage the bulb out of the ground.

Trim off any broken foliage.

Replant the bulb in the desired location at about the same depth as the bulb was previously growing.

A New Start, A New Garden

If you’ve never tried gardening but are curious about it, I encourage you to give it a go. Yes, it can be a lot of work. But it’s also good exercise, meditative, and personally satisfying.

Irritating Plant Allergies You Should Know About

I remember pulling dead leaves off my euphorbia. Did I wash my hands or scratch after removing gloves? Did I wear gloves? I honestly can’t remember.

Growing Native Plants to Inspire a New World

The foundation is dedicated to the preservation of California native plants and hosts an annual garden tour of scores of California’s best private gardens.

May Flowers in Garden and Woods Welcome a New Season

Hopefully, you will get some good ideas about what you can plant in your own garden, to enjoy every spring!

Spring Blossoms that Are Truly Deer-Resistant

Keeping deer from devouring everything in your yard is especially difficult in spring and fall.

Luxembourg Gardens Overflows in Pink

Six-on-Saturday is six pictures of garden beauty, with limited comment! Last week, I was lucky…

California Travel Rejuvenation: The San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

With such color and form all around, who would argue that these aren’t Nature’s works of art?

orange coleus, green sedge, purple potato vine, black iron trellis

Take Your Garden Design to the Next Level

The edges of a driveway, a stone wall, a series of flower pots, or wrought iron poles for hanging plants are all examples of how lines are brought into garden design.  Lines take your eye on a journey through the landscape.

Allium have large purple pompom flowers

6 Deer-Resistant Spring Blooming Plants

Chemical content, scent, and texture all play a part in repelling foragers.  And their effectiveness follows in that order.

A large daisy flower in bright yellow gold with center markings of deep brown and purple.

Fall Favorite Flowers, Six on Saturday 9-8-18

The border that the Rudbeckia grows in has a little “secret path” that makes it easier for me to get into the bed to weed.  

Mushrooms Bloom, Six on Saturday, September 1, 2018

What happens when it starts raining after a period of drought? Out pop the mushrooms.

a soft pink Japanese anemone flower in bloom

Crisp Air for a Fall Garden, Six on Saturday, 8-25-18

The tri-color dappled willow bushes (Salix integra ‘Hakuro-nishiki’) had a burst of growth, from 2 feet at the start of the season, to over 8 feet today.