Garden Notes

 “I hate manzanita!” is the sentiment of a friend of mine who in the early 90s, while working in the U.S. Forest Service with archeologists, was on the lowly field crew, surveying areas scheduled for logging. They were hunting for historic and prehistoric artifacts, often spending way too many hours…

Tropism (trow-piz-em) n. in botany. An involuntary orientation by an organism or one of its parts that involves turning or curving by movement or by differential growth and is a positive or negative response to a source of stimulation. Out of curiosity, I looked up the word for how sunflowers…

Designing, Planting, and Using a Therapeutic Garden by Sue Jeffries In the classic 1970 folk song, “Woodstock,” Joni Mitchell opined “…and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” In fact, data suggest that 60% of us spend less than 30 minutes per day outdoors, 30% of us less than one…

  How easy is it to pick the best container for your plant? Is it just a matter of size of the container—10 inches versus 12 inches?—or color? Below are some factors to consider that will help provide your chosen plant the best chance at a healthy and happy life.  Know Your…

When I think of Halloween and the familiar decorations that pop up in neighborhoods, one creature always comes to mind, the bat. From eerie silhouettes hanging in windows to plastic models dangling from porches, bats are synonymous with spookiness. But why? Perhaps it’s their connection to vampire folklore…