Whenever we visit the coast, I admire the various succulents flourishing in front yards of homes, businesses downtown, the Mendocino Botanical Garden, and at the nurseries.
There is a lot to love about bulbs, especially ones that can naturalize in our clay soil. One I have had success with are Narcissus, especially the tazetta hybrid Paper White.' When the bulb is able to naturalize it starts producing more and more bulbs.
I've never used a cloche, so I thought it was time to experiment with a modern cloche. If you're unfamiliar with a cloche (in French cloche means bell), it's a bell-shaped plant cover. Invented in 1623 in France,* cloches were initially made from glass.
I would love to have some of that beautiful chard a small voice called out as I was locking the shed at Avant Garden, where I volunteer as the garden coordinator. The sun was setting over the Carquinez Strait, the infamous Benicia wind was picking up as the temperature was quickly dropping.
One of the first flower I could recognize was the California golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica). On family trips to the Russian River in the spring I spied many a poppy bloom alongside of the roads. I found out they were the State Flower and it was illegal to cut them.
