Under the Solano Sun

The title actually was a question that came on the Master Gardener hotline some time ago.  It appears that the person calling had bought a Jacaranda “shrub” and was concerned because it kept trying to put out a large “stem” which required constant cutting back; also, it was never blooming as promised by…

This past week I have seen up to four monarch caterpillars and yesterday, there were none. At the beginning of the week, I was doing my daily count and there was a good-sized lizard attempting to eat one of the larger caterpillars. Lizards are known predators. I came to the rescue on that day and scared them…

At the end of May, there were a few monarch butterflies fluttering among my milkweeds. Five narrowleaf milkweed plants and five years later, I now have two good-sized patches of them. Then we had heavy rains and gusty wind conditions in Fairfield, which was concerning for the eggs and larvae. The milkweeds…

I'm quite sure that people have wondered what became of my Hoya after my last blog.  I did wait until what I thought might be spring.  It was hard to tell by the weather, so I used the calendar.  Also, the plant was starting to tip over the bigger pot that I put the plant into to…

June signals summer Winter plantings bearing fruit Hot days and cool nights