Month: November 2017

Have you been down to the South Pasadena nature park recently? Although we are at the end of nearly 10 months with almost no rain at all, the park is looking great. With the cooler temperatures and a sprinkle of rain, quite a few plants – such as penstemons, sagebrush, and bush sunflowers, and others –  are coming out of dormancy. The buckwheat flowers are dark rusty brown, and the toyon berries are bright red, even orange on one plant. Surprisingly, the California fuchsias continue their long bloom period of around five months! Enough words. If you can’t take...

In Vancouver BC, we have such mild winters – except last year! – that one could continue gardening through most of the year.  But at this time of year, most plants have slowed right down in their growth, and dropped their leaves, and so it is a time to “put it to bed”, do some tidying up, turning off hose bibs, removing garden hoses, and covering up pottery and other items which could be damaged if there were any harsh freezes. The weather has been quite wet, so I’ve not been motivated to do more than the basic cleanup. ...