- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When unusually hot weather is in the forecast, it's time irrigate, shade and mulch plants to protect your plants, reported Sandra Barrera in the Los Angeles Daily News.
The story was prompted by a heat spike in Southern California recently, when temperatures soared above 110 degrees in many areas.
"While most plants can endure triple-digit temperatures, they suffer when heat comes on suddenly," the article said.
- When a plant is dry, it's already stressed, so give it a good soaking before temperatures...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
More and more, lush green golf courses and residential lawns in desert communities are giving way to swaths of sand, gravel and flowering bushes that use much less water, reported Rosalie Murphy in the Desert Sun.
"I don't think anybody realized how attractive it could be," said Stu Stryker, president of the homeowners association board.
Janet Hartin, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension advisor, said people in the Coachella Valley are getting used to the look of desert landscaping.
"A lot of people move here from Ohio,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The calendar says fall, but California's mild climate isn't the only thing that's confusing the seasons. An expert with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California says the lack of rainfall, declining groundwater levels and irrigation cutbacks due to the drought are causing some trees to drop leaves early, reported Jan Sears in the Riverside Press Enterprise.
"If you live on a street with sycamores or maples, you usually get a little treat in the fall when they turn colors," Bill Patzert said. "This year, you have already been raking their leaves."
Patzert believes the fall may be colorless in Southern California this year, but
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks shared her disappointment with her summer garden, she got words of encouragement straight from Missy Gable, the director of the UC's Statewide Master Gardener Program. Gable commiserated with Banks, saying her own homegrown tomatoes wound up with blossom end rot because of irrigation difficulties this year.
"I had the same experience that most people did," Gable said.
Banks began the 2014 summer gardening season like most home gardeners, full of hope and enthusiasm. But as fall approached she found herself with "a few spindly stalks of okra, a tangle of barren melon vines and a pepper plant loaded with misshapen...
