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You can't fault Gerald Weber - Geology at Point Año Nuevo
Sedimentary, my dear Watson!No matter what your focus as a naturalist -- plants, birds, animals, whatever -- understanding the geology of the place where those things exist is, well, foundational.I've...
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Instructions for the House Sitter
I'm planning several trips these summer, but I'm lucky to have Mr. Mouse or a house sitter here at all times. A lot of my garden is on Techline drip, and the front garden can get by for a few weeks...
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May Flowers in the Country Mouse Estate - Reseeding, Resprouting
I've been enjoying a few blooms in particular lately. Most of them are blooms of plants that I propagated from local wild. And most of them are in the sunny pool garden...Poppies golden poppies, Symbol...
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Gardening with California Native Bulbs
Triteleia ixiodes 'Starlight' - Pretty Face in Town Mouse gardenTown Mouse is going to be posting about her garden bulbs so first we thought it would be good to share some general info about growing...
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Joy of Bulbing
I almost titled this post "Why don't Bulbs Read Books" - because I'm actually breaking the number 1 rule for bulbs in my garden - plant in containers.I have in a container:Colochortus luteus 'Golden...
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At this year's SF Flower and Garden Show, one exhibit stood by not featuring plants, but featuring opinions. "Wanted Weeds" had reams of paper for people to comment on an idea that wasn't so very new -...
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Yay! I'm a California Naturalist!
I spent a marvelous day today with my fellows in the California Naturalist Program at the UCSC Arboretum. We were wrapping up a 10 week program by presenting our "capstone projects."Such a variety of...
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Hillsides covered in blooming chamise
Blossoms of chamise, tiny but exquisiteI live among a patchwork of plant communities: redwood, mixed-evergreen-forest, and chaparral covered slopes. With vineyards, orchards, corrals, homes, and...
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Dad's Memorial Garden, Planted
A few posts ago I mentioned I was working on a special little garden and would write more about it soon. Well, I was writing about my dad's memorial garden. My dad passed away in April. We miss him,...
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Telling Fat from Slim False Solomon's Seal - and a bit of a botany lesson
As I walk the dirt road where I enjoy wildflowers and (con permiso) collect seeds, I encounter Maianthemumracemosum, false fat solomon's seal, and Maianthemum stellata, slim false solomon's seal. They...
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Dara Emery's Seed Sowing Schedule (and Stories from Reality)
Lovely oily seeds of western columbine, Aquilegia formosaIt was back in 2009 that I tried for the first time to grow western columbine, Aquilegia formosa, from local seed, using a prescribed seed...
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California Coastal Prairies - Part 1: Not your aaaaverage prairie!
Spring Wildflowers on the Carrizo Plain.Spring 1998, after a heavy El Niño rain season. Located North of San Luis Obispo, off Highway 58 east of Elkhorn Road. Photo by Lisa Marrone. Image taken from...
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Small mysteries resolved - and a new bird encountered in the chaparral
Vermivora celata. Image is from Las Pilitas: http://www.laspilitas.com/images/grid24_18/5614/California_birds/Wood_warblers/Orange-warbler/p1040658-Orange-crowned-warbler.jpgI'm pretty stoked! It's a...
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And now for something completely different....
Traveling can broaden our view of the world, and I've found that especially true of a recent 11 day, 160 mile hike in Franconia, organized by the Sierra Club.And, while others exclaimed about the...
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New thug in town - Dittrichia graveolens. How to get rid of it. And how to...
Young Dittrichia graveolens, stinkwort, showing "Christmas tree" formSo I recently learned what that sticky smelly plant on my neighbor's grassy hill is. It's a very very bad weed! -- Dittrichia...
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Learning from the Garden
I was touched by a recent post at Gardening Gone Wild about cultivating patience in the garden. But coming back from almost a month away, I found my garden had other lessons to teach.The back garden...
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You have to see this...
I'm still not quite done with my trip to Europe - I still can't believe some of the amazing plants I saw this year. Above, a lady slipper orchid. The parents of our trip leader found this gem for us,...
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Orchids closer to home - Stream Orchids on Loma Prieta
Epipactis gigantea, stream orchid, on Loma PrietaI've been enjoying Town photos from her recent epic hiking tour in Germany - including those lovely lady slipper orchids.I also saw some wonderful...
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Loma Prieta Red White and Blue flowers - they're in my garden too!
Summit of Loma Prieta showing whatever you call all that electronics stuff up there.This post is about the rest of the walk led by Randall Morgan that I wrote about last - those fabulous stream...
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Loma Prieta Hike Part 3 - Wildlife and wonderful plants and wandering thoughts
As we walked an experienced young tracker was paying less attention to the plants than to footprints and scat at the trailside. Not so pretty as a flower but fascinating to help build up a picture of...
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