John Miller CA

Finding a large, patterned snake coiled near your garden bed is enough to make anyone freeze. Most California…

By John Miller CA · Jul 30

If your grassy slope drinks water like it is going out of style, there is a better way…

By John Miller CA · Jul 30

Spotting a praying mantis on your tomato cage or rose bush is one of those moments that makes…

By John Miller CA · Jul 30

Crape myrtle looks pretty, but it drinks a lot of water and does almost nothing for California’s bees…

By John Miller CA · Jul 30

Barn owls have a reputation in California wine country as nature’s rodent patrol, and the research behind that…

By John Miller CA · Jul 30

A small group of California quail bobbing through your yard on a quiet morning is one of those…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

Every fall, colorful orb-weaver spiders show up in California yards and start spinning large, circular webs across garden…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

A scaly, slow-moving lizard that slips under your garden debris might be doing more for your yard than…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

Spotting a tiny, cup-shaped nest tucked into a branch of your California yard is one of those surprises…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

Spotting a praying mantis perched on your tomato cage or rosebush can stop you in your tracks. Most…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

Many California gardeners plant tropical milkweed with the best intentions, wanting to help monarch butterflies survive and thrive.…

By John Miller CA · Jul 29

That loud, blue-and-gray bird raiding your tomatoes might actually be doing your garden a favor. The California Scrub-Jay…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

California quail are one of the most recognizable birds in a suburban yard, with their bobbing topknot and…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

If you’ve noticed a plain brown bird hopping around under your shrubs and flicking leaf litter in every…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

Most California homeowners see fresh holes in the lawn and immediately blame the skunk waddling through the yard…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

Praying mantises are one of those backyard creatures that California homeowners genuinely root for, partly because they look…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

Most California homeowners who spot a scaly, strong-jawed lizard darting under a pot or log have no idea…

By John Miller CA · Jul 28

Orioles are some of the flashiest visitors you can invite into a California yard, with their bright orange…

By John Miller CA · Jul 27

A headline making the rounds says California has banned wood panel fences, and homeowners across the state are…

By John Miller CA · Jul 27

If your boxwood hedge is turning brown and begging for water every dry California summer, you are not…

By John Miller CA · Jul 27

If you live in a fire-prone part of California, that ring of bark mulch around your house might…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

Pulling weeds all summer gets old fast, especially when California’s dry heat makes bending over the garden feel…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

For years, a lot of Californians heard “defensible space” and figured it meant ripping out every plant near…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

If you have ever watched a hummingbird zip right past a full feeder to land on a single…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

Most California gardeners plant flowers to help bees, and that instinct is exactly right. But a whole group…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

Rats can turn a peaceful California backyard into a stressful mess, chewing through irrigation lines, raiding fruit trees,…

By John Miller CA · Jul 26

Imagine walking into your local library and checking out packets of seeds instead of books. Across California, seed…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Something is chewing its way through California backyard gardens this summer, and if you grow both tomatoes and…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

California quail are one of the most charming birds you can host in your yard, with their little…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

You do not need a big backyard to grow real fruit in California. All over the state, homeowners…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

If your yard is thirsty, struggling in the summer heat, or oddly quiet without bees and birds, the…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

If you love the soft, swaying look of ornamental grasses but live where wildfire is a real worry,…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Every spring, a soft cooing from the backyard signals that a mourning dove has settled into a familiar…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Walk through almost any California garden and you will likely pass within inches of a spider so small…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Somewhere between hope and gardening reality lives the idea that one plant near a backyard pond can call…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

When a heat wave rolls through California and temperatures push past 100 degrees, the birds visiting your yard…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

A small lizard basking on your backyard fence might be doing your garden a quiet favor. Most California…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Ticks love to hitch a ride on tall grass and shady garden edges, and that is bad news…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Finding a small frog clinging to a plant stem or tucked under a pot in your California garden…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Barn owls are one of California’s most effective natural allies against rodents, and plenty of homeowners want to…

By John Miller CA · Jul 25

Some plants that have lived in California yards for decades are now showing up on county lists with…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

That small lizard doing push-ups on your backyard fence is probably a western fence lizard, and it plays…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

Finding a Mourning Dove nest tucked into a backyard shrub or balanced on a porch beam can stop…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

If you have a hillside in California, you have probably noticed how fast ivy or ice plant can…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

Rosemary earns its spot in so many California yards because it shrugs off drought and smells amazing, but…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

Standing water in your yard can turn into a mosquito nursery fast, but nature has a built-in cleanup…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

Big box garden centers sell the same handful of plants to everyone, but California’s native landscape holds hundreds…

By John Miller CA · Jul 24

You step outside to check your pepper plants and find them packed with deep-green leaves, looking healthier than…

By John Miller CA · Jul 22

You planted your peppers back in spring, watched them grow into full, healthy-looking bushes, and then waited for…

By John Miller CA · Jul 22