The Real Dirt Blog

Does Extreme Heat Mean Taking Extreme Measures in Your Garden?

How is your garden holding up during our all-too-frequent summer heat waves? Chances are you're seeing scorched leaves, deformed flowers, severe die-back, blistered branches, constant wilting, and...
Fighting Blossom End Rot

Are your tomatoes not looking their beautiful best this year? They may be suffering from blossom end rot. Blossom end rot first appears as a small, water-soaked spot on the blossom end of a...
Are Your Tomatoes Feeling the Heat?

It's hot. Tomatoes like heat, right? Actually, tomatoes like warm weather, between 65 and 85 degrees. When temperatures soar past 95, tomatoes stop growing. In that kind of heat, their flowers...
A Native Plant Garden is Planned for the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in Willows is headquarters to the Sacramento National Wildlife Complex. In January of this year, construction was completed on a beautiful new headquarters...
Elderberry

Gardeners looking for a drought-tolerant and highly disease-resistant native shrub might consider adding the blue elderberry (Sambucus cerulean also known as Sambucus Mexicana) to their landscape....
The Desert Willow: A Beautiful Small Tree for Native Gardens

Chilopsis linearis, the desert willow or desert catalpa, is prized in dry gardens for its showy, fragrant blossoms which cover the tree in summer. When many native bloomers are past their...
Local Trees: Consider the Redbud

Redbuds in bloom are a most welcome harbinger of spring. Their dense clusters of magenta flowers bloom early, providing splashes of color against a winter landscape of browns and grays. Is the name...
Local Trees: The Enchanting Dogwood

Ideally, you'd be reading this in very early spring, when the dogwood bloom is beginning to work its elegant magic in the older neighborhoods fanning out from Lower Bidwell Park and downtown Chico....
Local Trees: The Cork Oak

Why are wine bottles tall and narrow? That distinctive shape contributes to the happy marriage between cork and a bottle made tall enough to lie on its side so the wine can “breathe”...
Local Trees: The Pacific Madrone – Rare in Lower Bidwell Park

A beautiful tree sits on the north side of Little Chico Creek, shading the picnic table at site #34 in Lower Bidwell Park. Its thick, smooth lower branches are perfect for climbing, and its form is...
Shrubs for Shady Spots in the Garden

Summers are getting hotter in much of the U.S., including our local environment. One way to counteract this change in climate is by planting trees to provide more shade in the summer...
Best Friends in the Garden—Companion Planting

Companion planting combines diverse plants in an informed manner to bring a balanced ecosystem into the garden. This approach to gardening has been used by organic gardeners for decades. ...
How Plants Adapt to Their Environment

Next time you go for a walk in Upper Park, look closely at the different plants you see. Notice the enormous diversity of shapes, colors, and forms. There are trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals,...
Azaleas are a Great Perennial Choice

A colorful perennial has been brightening spring gardens for many weeks. Azaleas are the easy-to-care-for stars of semi-shaded locations. The most common varieties are evergreen azaleas,...
It’s Fire Blight Season!

If you are noticing droopy, dried-out flower clusters on your pears, Asian pears, quince, apples or crabapples, fire blight may be the cause. Fire blight is caused by a bacterium and is a common and...
Firewise: Fire Resistant Plants

The devastating Camp Fire of 2018, along with the numerous fires North State residents have experienced since then, have led many of us to focus on creating a defensible fire-resistant landscape...
Be Firewise with Fire Resistant Landscaping

It's springtime, and many of us are adding new plants to our gardens. That means it is also a good time to review the principles of creating defensible space around our homes. Fire is a normal...
Using Integrated Pest Management to Control Slugs and Snails

Our rainy spring weather has been great for our gardens – but may also have encouraged some unwelcome garden visitors, including snails and slugs. Snails and slugs are similar in structure and...
Dealing with an Ant Invasion

It's that time of the year again – Ant Season! We often experience ants in our homes when weather conditions change. They are typically looking for food, water, warmth, and/or protection...
Euphorbias Thrive in Our Climate

Looking for a drought tolerant plant? Euphorbias are one of the most dramatic garden plants, and they happen to do well in our ongoing conditions of drought. The genus is expansive and...