Our yard is alive with wildlife this spring, so thought I would post some photos of the critters and a few native plants they’re especially attracted to. The insects attract a host of larger insects and in the chain of life, they in turn attract a rich bird and lizard population that feeds on them all. The last photo I took was of a Cooper’s hawk hoping to feed on one of those birds. [Read more...]
Sustainable landscaping: Some tips…
April 7, 2013 by · 4 Comments
Wondering how you can do your landscaping and yard work in a more gentle-on-the-earth and sustainable way? Janet Hartin, horticulture advisor and author with the U of California, has given over 1000 talks on sustainable landscape topics, and our local horticulture group was one of them last month.
Below are some of takeaways from her talk [Read more...]
Native Bees and Other Wildlife Find Our Home
March 31, 2013 by · 1 Comment
What a joy this spring to walk around our yard here in Southern California – a former lawn now full of native and other wildlife-attracting plants. The native bees have arrived in higher numbers, challenging the busy honeybees on our blooming ceanothus and lavender. Our resident Anna’s hummingbird seemed to survive the cold spell this winter and is perching on his usual tree branch
[Read more...]
Our Vital Pollinators: Birds, Bats, Bees and Butterflies
February 23, 2013 by · 2 Comments
Pollinators – birds, bats, bees and butterflies – are critical. They pollinate over 200,000 of the world’s flowering plants, including 80% of our food plants. The genetic material they transfer allows seeds to form, which continue the species.
Kurt Leushner, a popular professor at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, highlighted our local pollinators at a recent horticulture meeting.
Below are some of his highlights [Read more...]
Low-water Yard Attracts People and Wildlife
February 1, 2013 by · 2 Comments
One thing Redlands resident Brenda Wolfe definitely didn’t expect after she converted her former landscape, primarily composed of a not-so-healthy lawn and an oleander hedge, to a low-water one. “I’ve learned I need to close the blinds in the bathroom. I’m not used to having people standing out front. [Read more...]
Seek Local Native Plants for Cold (and Hot) Tolerance
January 19, 2013 by · 2 Comments
“One of the advantages of growing local native plants is that the plants from your immediate vicinity are well adapted to our climate’s yearly fluctuations and can take those rare days with winter low temperatures and high temperatures in the sumners” – Bart O’Brien, RSABG
our agave ‘Blue Flame’, coffee berry, Mexican feather grass and manzanita did well in recent cold snap
Here in California we’ve had some unusally cold weather this January [Read more...]
Favorite Native Plant: Hardy, Dramatic Manzanitas
January 8, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Manzanitas (arctostaphylos) are one of my favorite native plants. Their reddish bark offers a striking contrast to their green leaves, which look healthy even when temps start soaring. Very drought tolerant, they grow well in the West as long as [Read more...]
