Under the Solano Sun

Your peripatetic blogger has been in the desert for the last month enjoying all the beauty that the desert provides. A favorite spot that keeps drawing us back is Joshua Tree National Park. The stark beauty and vastness of the over 800,000 acres casts a mystical spell.

Recently, a Los Angeles Times article suggested planting coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia) as fire-resistant trees for landscaping after the Southern California wildfires.

Halfway around the world on the island of Okinawa, Japan, is the tropical version of Victoria, BC's glorious Butchart Gardens. It is called the Tropical Dream Center, a 6-hectare garden housing several greenhouses, countless exotic plants and fruit trees, and approximately 2,000 orchids.

Tis that time of year To look back and remember Projects done or not.

I recently discovered a plant buried underneath a shrub on my hillside. It survived these last three years in a small clay pot that was only half-filled with soil! The plant was not in very good shape, as you could well imagine.