Solano

So many of my indoor plants have lived with me for many years. Some I've had for between five and ten years so naturally, like many of us, they all have stories! My Dracaena reflex var. angustifolia has a comeback story.

As I was walking around the garden, picking up debris left by the recent rains and strong winds, raking up leaves that have fallen from my deciduous trees before they drop in the pool, I started reflecting on how the garden has grown in the last 12 years that we've lived here.

In this issue: Preliminary results from transplanter field trials...

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.

I was cleaning the house recently and ran across a book on water. The title is Water in Plain Sight. I'm not sure how I acquired it maybe at the last Master Gardener Plant Exchange. But it came at a perfect time for me to read.

As winter begins, it provides an opportunity to assess what is working in the garden and what isn't, including whether and how plants should be pruned, moved, or removed. Now that many plants have lost their leaves or are dormant, it is easier to assess potential edits to the garden.