Our very mild winter and early warm temperatures, with little precipitation, have brought us to what feels like an early burst of life and color in the garden this year some of my garden plants – roses and salvias for… Continue Reading
My hens are laying up a storm now that storms have arrived in our part of the world. I welcome both! Shrove Tuesday is February 17th this year, so the Lenten Season is here. Every year Shrove Tuesday arrives –… Continue Reading
It’s a new year. And in the first days of this New Year, I’m planting a new garden. In many ways, this garden – like this year – is a blank slate. The new garden is on an oddly shaped… Continue Reading
as I eat a persimmon? the bell starts ringing? at Horyuji Temple Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) PHOTOS above: firm rounded persimmon ripening at the Genetic Resource and Conservation Center, also known as the Tree Farm, in Chico. Persimmon have long represented… Continue Reading
I never did get a get picture of her. Not a drive-by snap shot, not a proper portrait. Despite regularly remarking on how lovely she was. And now that she’s gone – with the others – I go out of… Continue Reading
Sometimes I’m really organized as a gardener and sometimes I’m just not. Take for instance the deadheading that is now in progress among my early summer blooming perennials – sometimes I get everything in order in advance: I get my… Continue Reading
PHOTO: Rosa ‘A Shropshire Lad’ April has me left considering the total inadequacy of the word Sweet. I have happily filled my house this past month with old roses, hybrid tea roses, musk roses and climbing roses, with Salvia fructicosa,… Continue Reading
PHOTO: Native Salvia dorrii, in bloom at Gateway Science Museum’s Native Plant Pollinator Garden. The garden has received no supplemental water since November of 2013. It never seems to fail that despite plenty to do in the garden in January… Continue Reading
Photo : A small Pacific chorus frog, waiting. How long has it been? I sat with my eyes closed this past Wednesday just listening – listening to the sound of the rain on the roof, on the trees, on passing… Continue Reading
With the season of pruning, planting and gifts in mind, it seems a perfect moment to repeat the In a North State Garden interview with Robert Fanno of Fanno Saw Works in Chico. If you are like me, you love… Continue Reading
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