My Orb Spider friend was in a Sacramento Digs newsletter last year when I first read about Orb spiders. Before reading the article, I had mistakenly assumed the ones I had seen were poisonous.
Before moving to California about a decade ago, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. Although my new home in Woodland is rightfully known as the Food Front, thanks to the fertile farmland that surrounds it, Tucson also has a highly regarded relationship with food.
Now that the Learning Garden in Clarksburg is planted and a great many weeds removed, we needed to concentrate on irrigation. Twice a week, for several hours, we drug a long, heavy hose to the different areas in need of water.
As summer begins to wane and many flowers fade, the California Aster enters the spotlight. This resilient wildflower, native to the western United States, brings a burst of color to gardens and landscapes when other blooms are winding down.
