Category: Nature
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Flowers in Bloom as Summer Wanes
Spring in southern California is the biggest and showiest blooming season for native plants. Poppies, verbenas, and penstemons are strutting their stuff after a cool, rainy winter. But by late summer, the plants are pulling back, waiting out the long dry season and protecting themselves from the 90 degree days. How do our pollinators, birds, […]
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Butterflies in the Air
Summer is here and the birds and butterflies are abundant among the native trees and shrubs in the garden. As I was writing this post, I noticed a pale swallowtail butterfly settling on a California coffee berry (Frangula californica). I took a break from the blog, stepped outside and captured this photo of an adult […]
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Powered by Insects
Did you know that most birds gather insects every day to nourish themselves and feed their offspring? Many people believe birds can survive eating seed from bird feeders, but most birds need insects to provide digestible protein for energy, migration, and breeding. A baby bird’s tender digestive system needs soft, fat-filled proteins from insects and […]
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Befriending the Bumble Bee
Did you know that honey bees were imported from Europe and are not native to the United States? In California, we have about 1,600 species of native bees, and 26 of these are bumble bees. The bumble bee is the largest and gentlest of all the known species of bees. The queen bumble bee hibernates in the winter, […]
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My Interview with the LA Times
Jeanette Marantos, garden reporter for the LA Times, called me in mid-February as I was returning home from a landscape restoration project I work on in Trabuco Canyon. Marantos asked me to provide a short list of the best native plants Southern Californians can plant in their home landscapes, and also why it is important […]
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How Many Trees on the Planet?
For many years, scientists could only guess at the number of trees on earth. But in 2015, Thomas Crowther and colleagues at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies used a combination of satellite imagery, forest inventories, and supercomputer technologies to produce a global map of tree density at the square-kilometer pixel scale. The […]
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Bring More Hummingbirds, Orioles, and Warblers to Your Home
How can you get more birds visiting your garden? Go to Audubon’s guide for plants that attract birds. When you click on this link, you will be directed to the Audubon Society database that recommends plants that help birds thrive where you live. Enter your 5-digit zip code and explore the best plants for birds in your […]
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Where Do Western Monarchs Spend the Spring?
Despite the fact that Western Monarch butterflies are universally loved, their numbers have plummeted in recent years. What can you do to help? Join the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge–a campaign created to increase awareness of locations where Western Monarchs spend the spring in California after leaving their coastal California overwintering sites. If you see a […]
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Join the Great Backyard Bird Count
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is partnering with National Audubon Society to encourage all of us to go outside this weekend and count the birds we see in our backyard or favorite place. I spent about 30 minutes this morning with a pair of binoculars and my Birds of California Field Guide by Stan Tekiela. I counted […]
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Butterfly Weekend
This weekend was California Biodiversity Day 2019 sponsored by the California Natural Resources Agency. Scientists sought observations by fellow scientists, gardeners and ordinary citizens in mapping plants and animals living in California. In honor of Biodiversity Day, I took a break from my chores and spent some time outside in my backyard with my husband […]
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Local Plants Support Bird Life
Even planting a small corner of your garden with locally native plants will help support bird life and butterflies.
A Buckwheat in Every Garden 