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603 Articles
That skinny strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the street might be the toughest spot in your whole yard. It bakes in reflected heat,…
By John Miller CA · Sep 30, 2026
Plant Care
The last tomato is picked, the vines look tired, and now you have a bed full of stems…
By John Miller CA · Sep 30
Plant Care
A single dragonfly can snap up dozens of mosquitoes in a day, and its underwater young eat mosquito…
By John Miller CA · Sep 30
Plant Care
Walk into a big box garden center in California and you will mostly find the same few wildflower…
By John Miller CA · Sep 30
Plant Care
Your driveway edge sits right in the path of wind-blown embers during fire season, and the plants growing…
By John Miller CA · Sep 30
Plant Care
A tiny, thread-thin salamander may be living under a flat stone or a patch of leaf litter in…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
You step outside at dusk and spot a row of big, dark shapes settling into a tree near…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
Every fall, California gardeners line up early at plant sales run by nonprofits, botanic gardens, and water districts.…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
A big, hairy spider strolling across your patio in October can stop you in your tracks. In California,…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
A soft, bouncing trill drifts across your California yard after dark, and you wonder what is out there.…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
A long, patterned snake slides across your California yard, and your heart jumps. Gopher snakes are native, nonvenomous…
By John Miller CA · Sep 29
Plant Care
A long, patterned snake slides along the edge of a California yard, and the first instinct for many…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
Somewhere between water-wise landscaping and backyard wildlife, there is a plant that California gardeners keep overlooking: deergrass. This…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
Every night across California, bats slip out of roosts and begin hunting insects in the dark. Many homeowners…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
Mourning doves are a familiar sight in California yards, cooing from fence posts and walking the ground in…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
If you have noticed a California towhee repeatedly working the ground beneath one of your shrubs, you are…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
A single well-chosen shrub can do a lot of work in a California yard, and toyon is one…
By John Miller CA · Sep 28
Plant Care
Dragonflies are some of the most effective aerial hunters in the insect world, and California homeowners can make…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
Something unexpected is happening at specialty nurseries and UC Davis plant sales across California: a fruit tree that…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
Gravel yards are supposed to mean less work, but many California homeowners end up staring at a fresh…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
A firewise front yard does not have to look bare, gray, or unfriendly. In California, the best designs…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
Your backyard orange tree can send confusing signals in summer, looking thirsty and pale even when the soil…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
Curled new leaves on a backyard citrus tree can send a gardener straight to the spray aisle, but…
By John Miller CA · Sep 27
Plant Care
Spotting a ringtail near your California home at night can feel like a rare wildlife encounter, and in…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
Every fall, California gardeners watch their persimmon trees turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red before the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
California homeowners are hearing more about fence rules lately, and the focus keeps landing on the same spot:…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
Lemon and orange trees have been a backyard staple in California for generations, but lately some homeowners are…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
A lot of California homeowners expect defensible-space planting advice to mean bare dirt, gravel, and a yard that…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
Tiny, secretive, and rarely seen, California ring-necked snakes turn up in gardens across much of the state, and…
By John Miller CA · Sep 26
Plant Care
California homeowners who want a wildlife-friendly yard often hear that a messier yard means more lizards, and more…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
Dragonflies are some of the most capable hunters in your yard, and they spend the earliest part of…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
Every fall and winter, California homeowners grab their pruning shears and cut flower stalks to the ground, not…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
Plumeria is one of those plants that can look perfectly healthy one week and then suddenly appear limp,…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
California yards do better when new plants get a head start before the long dry stretch of summer.…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
Dry, empty patches can make a yard look tired fast, especially through California’s long rain-free season. The good…
By John Miller CA · Sep 25
Plant Care
Most California homeowners rake every fallen leaf off their property without a second thought, but that habit may…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
Finding a large, reddish-brown spider with oversized jaws in your California garage can make anyone reach for a…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
Most California gardeners know the sinking feeling of finding a tomato plant stripped overnight by a hornworm the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
You walk out to your garden bed at sunrise and find that a seedling that looked perfectly healthy…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
Grasshoppers can shred a California yard fast, and most homeowners reach for a spray bottle before they ever…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
Fall is one of the smartest times to plant fruit trees in California. The soil is still warm,…
By John Miller CA · Sep 24
Plant Care
If a skunk has been digging up your lawn at night, your first reaction might be to reach…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
Walk out to your California porch on a warm evening and you might spot a large, wheel-shaped web…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
A squat, brown toad sitting at the edge of a California garden bed is doing quiet work most…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
Wildfire smoke, ember showers, and scorched neighborhoods have pushed California to strengthen its fire-safety landscaping rules, and some…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
Spot a small lizard with a brilliant blue tail darting through your garden mulch and you might do…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
Bare patches in a garden can make even a well-planted yard look unfinished. The good news is that…
By John Miller CA · Sep 23
Plant Care
Small, bee-mimicking insects called hover flies may already be patrolling your roses and vegetable beds, and their larvae…
By John Miller CA · Sep 22
Plant Care
A flash of cobalt blue dropping from a fence post to snatch a beetle is one of the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 22
Plant Care
Meyer lemon trees in California can hold green fruit well into October and November, and that sight alone…
By John Miller CA · Sep 22