Napa Master Gardener Column

It all started with an abandoned plant. Twelve years ago, as I was moving into my new home, I noticed a sad-looking plant in a plastic pot at the far end of the front yard. It had been out in full sun for, I guessed, quite a few days and was very dry.

In early 2008 I was watching the news on television. The economy had started its decline and the story concerned a woman in Pennsylvania who had been laid off from her job. She was filmed pushing a shopping cart out of a grocery store and was asked what she had purchased with her final paycheck.

Besides gardening, I love birds and have several birdhouses in my garden. A few years ago, in early spring, I found a couple of plants growing at the base of a birdhouse in the backyard. At first, I thought they were weeds.

When it came time to replace the landscaping in front of our Napa home, California was in drought conditions. We had long ago replaced our lawn with decomposed granite so the project at hand was to replace plants and shrubs that had outlived their usefulness.

To mulch or not to mulch? That is the question.