John Miller CA

A coyote trotting across your lawn at dusk can make anyone stop and stare. Most of the time,…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

A heaved driveway slab or a sewer backup with roots in the pipe can leave you staring at…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

Your plumeria leaves are turning yellow, and the pruning shears are calling your name. Before you cut, it…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

You step onto the patio after a stormy night and spot a snake near the planter. It is…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

Some of the most popular plants in California yards can turn into fuel when a wildfire ember lands…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

Lantana hedges and lily of the Nile borders are everywhere in California, and they look tidy for most…

By John Miller CA · Oct 24

Your tomatoes are done, the bed looks a little sunken, and you wonder if the soil is worn…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

Most side yards in California are a strip of dirt, a trash bin, and a path you squeeze…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

Planting a tree near your house in fire country can feel risky, but the right tree can actually…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

A toad hopping across your patio at dusk is a good sign that your yard has a bit…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

You walk out to your Meyer lemon tree, and the fruit is full and plump, but the peel…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

Some of the best spring flowers in California are already waiting underground, tucked inside small bulbs and corms.…

By John Miller CA · Oct 23

You planted flowers, skipped the sprays, and still the butterflies seem to be somewhere else. It is tempting…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

The strip of soil along your house might be the toughest spot in your whole yard. In much…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

Come December, the sun sits low and your tomato bed may be stuck in the shadow of a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

Some evergreen shrubs get passed over at the nursery, even when they fit a California yard well. California…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

Every fall, thousands of orange and black monarch butterflies fly to the California coast to wait out the…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

Nothing ruins a sunny California afternoon faster than fishing soggy leaves out of the pool before you can…

By John Miller CA · Oct 22

Many people think spring is the time to plant, but California natives often follow a different calendar. Our…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

A small California yard can feel like a fishbowl when the neighbor’s kitchen window looks right at your…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

California is writing new fire rules for the strip of ground closest to your house, and many HOA…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

Walk into most garden centers in California and you will find plenty of thirsty petunias, but almost no…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

You spread the compost, you did the work, and the bed still feels like a sponge after a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

Your tropical hibiscus was covered in fat buds last month, and now they are dropping onto the patio.…

By John Miller CA · Oct 21

Walking out to find pomegranates on the ground can feel like a small garden disaster. It is easy…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

You walk out to water the tomatoes and find a wheel-shaped web strung across the path, with a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

You are winding down for the night when a strange sound floats through the dark, like a ping-pong…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

Bermuda grass keeps creeping into lawns and flower beds, and every fall many California homeowners wonder if it…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

Those skinny green shoots crowding the bottom of your crape myrtle can look like a sign that something…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

Agapanthus, also called lily of the Nile, has lined California driveways and medians for decades. It looks tidy,…

By John Miller CA · Oct 20

California is writing new fire rules for the first five feet around your house, and that strip is…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

You flip on the porch light and there it is again: a masked face, small hands, and a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

You lift a flowerpot and a thin little snake with a bright ring around its neck slides into…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

A bare fence can become a wall of strange, striking flowers with the right vine. Passionflower is one…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

Those big, round webs strung between shrubs in a California fall belong to spiders that quietly work for…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

Few California birds are as easy to love as the quail, with its bobbing head plume and its…

By John Miller CA · Oct 19

Walk past a thick evergreen hedge on a warm California evening and you may wonder what is tucked…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

A yellow leaf on your lemon or orange tree can make you reach for the fertilizer bag right…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

A roadrunner sprinting across your patio can stop you mid-sip. When the same bird keeps coming back, it…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

Drive through almost any California neighborhood in winter and you will spot toyon shrubs loaded with bright red…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

Every fall, western monarchs travel back toward the California coast, and the flowers they find along the way…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

Walk into most big-box garden centers and you will find the same Meyer lemon and navel orange every…

By John Miller CA · Oct 18

Every spring, orange California poppies light up roadsides and hillsides, and many homeowners wonder if they can get…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

You head out at dusk and spot a gray, pointy-nosed animal slipping under your deck. Many California gardeners…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

Every fall, a flash of yellow, black, and red-orange may slip through some California gardens on its way…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

A blur of wings, a burst of scattering finches, and then a hawk is sitting on your fence.…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

Bare dirt is an open invitation for weeds, and thick tangles of ivy or overgrown junipers are a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

Gophers can wreck a California yard fast, and barn owls are known to eat them. That makes a…

By John Miller CA · Oct 17

Mint smells wonderful by a front door, and plenty of gardeners wonder if it also keeps spiders away.…

By John Miller CA · Oct 16