Just because a plant is native doesn’t mean it’s completely hardy. I suppose if all our native plants were from our exact location, things would be fine. However, like the wicked witch, they had houses dropped on them and are no more. Not even ruby slippers remain. Fooled by warmer weather, this hummingbird sage (SalviaContinue reading “Native plant, yes. Hardy plant, sort of”
Author Archives: mike
Water conservation mural, Fair Oaks Horticultural Center
Years ago, we created a series of water conservation panels for the Fair Oaks Horticultural Center – Water Efficient Garden. It’s still standing! It was a lot of fun coming up with the illustrations and doing the layout for the panels. Annette created a green character to add animation, while the text and diagrams showContinue reading “Water conservation mural, Fair Oaks Horticultural Center”
The Design Circus
Do design competitions truly choose the best design for a site? Do the judging criteria give us sustainable, livable, enjoyable spaces or bold, echoing spaces short on comfort?
Got birds?
Many species of birds enjoy the wildlife garden in winter, moving through the garden’s different habitats in their daily routine.
Iced cactus
Cold weather hit hard this year in Sacramento, reducing a once magnificent cactus to a frozen stump surrounded by shattered branches.
Wow. Hit by an infinite redirect loop error!
We’re back online again, after a tiny file in a server somewhere hundreds of miles away somehow became an infinite loop. If this ever happens to you in WordPress, all you have to do is log in to your server and inactivate the htaccess file by renaming it. Then just log into WordPress and makeContinue reading “Wow. Hit by an infinite redirect loop error!”
Cat-Friendly Gardens
A landscape’s design can make it cat paradise or just a ho-hum place to go when you’re not inside. Cats like choices, since they prefer some areas by season, others by time of day and everything else seems to be according to their mood.
Le deluge!
A big atmospheric river storm series soaks the garden
Where are the Monarchs?
Where have our local monarch butterflies gone? They seem to have almost disappeared from the Sacramento region.
When design goes bad… very bad
An alternate design for a difficult concept, an exercise in what could have been.