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A plumeria that dropped its leaves in October can leave you wondering if you did something wrong. Most of the time, the plant is just…
By John Miller CA · Oct 16, 2026
Plant Care
Every rosemary grower eventually notices it: stems that turn brown, stiff, and bare while the green tips seem…
By John Miller CA · Oct 16
Plant Care
You open the garden shed door and spot a banded snake sliding under the woodpile. Your first thought…
By John Miller CA · Oct 16
Plant Care
When the first big winter storms soak California soil, voles get busy. These small, chubby rodents dig fresh…
By John Miller CA · Oct 16
Plant Care
One clear, still December night can undo a whole year of care for your avocado and citrus trees.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 16
Plant Care
Some of the prettiest plants at the garden center are now on California’s most-wanted list. Counties, cities, and…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
You glance out the window as the light fades and a coyote trots across the lawn like it…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
A brown, narrow-bodied insect with a white zigzag on its back may be visiting the tomatoes and pomegranates…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
In California, the smartest time to sow wildflowers is right before the first big winter storm rolls in.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
Maybe a pair of mourning doves has nested in the same corner of your California yard again. It…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
In California, the smartest time to plant a shrub is right before the first big storms roll in.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 15
Plant Care
Roof rats love a fence line wrapped in thick ivy or overgrown hedges, because it gives them a…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
Warm days can linger in California well into autumn, and your yard lizards are out in it. These…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
That quick gray lizard doing push-ups on your garden wall is a western fence lizard, and it eats…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
You lift a log and a slim, shiny lizard darts out of sight. A day later, you see…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
You step outside with a flashlight and there it is again, a pale, pointy-nosed opossum ambling along your…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
Your neighbor’s kitchen window lines up perfectly with your patio chair, and you both know it. Plenty of…
By John Miller CA · Oct 14
Plant Care
Wake up to a lawn dotted with small pits and torn-up turf, and a skunk is a likely…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
A neighbor knocks on your door and says your tree has to be cut back because it blocks…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
That brown bird hopping and scratching beneath your shrubs might be a California Towhee, one of the most…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
Every California yard seems to have one: a sunny, baked hillside where the hose barely reaches and anything…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
A pencil-thin snake sometimes turns up under a flowerpot or a pile of leaves in parts of California.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
Some of the prettiest shrubs in California yards can act like kindling when embers fly. Fire agencies like…
By John Miller CA · Oct 13
Plant Care
Every fall, western monarchs flutter across California on their way to coastal groves where they spend the winter.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
Hearing a barn owl screech over your California yard at night feels like a free pest-control service. Owls…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
You flip on the patio light and spot a scorpion near the planter. Your mind jumps to the…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
Bare soil in a California bed is basically an open invitation for weed seeds. Once fall rain arrives,…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
Fall is the secret season for California wildflowers, because seeds scattered before the first big storm get watered…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
That narrow strip of grass beside your house probably looks tired, brown in summer and muddy in winter,…
By John Miller CA · Oct 12
Plant Care
Your wooden fence may look like a simple boundary, but in a wildfire it can act like a…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
Most big-box garden centers in California sell the same five or six fruit trees every winter. But tucked…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
You glance out the window and there is that soft gray dove again, sitting in the same corner…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
Your bougainvillea was covered in leaves last month, and now the patio is littered with them. Many California…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
Your avocado tree does not stop working when the garden looks quiet. Below the mulch, shallow roots are…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
A tiny frog tucked under a flowerpot can make you wonder who has moved into your garden. Many…
By John Miller CA · Oct 11
Plant Care
You may have seen posts claiming California will make everyone rip out every plant next to their house.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
A small gray-brown lizard is flat against your warm stucco wall on a bright October afternoon. It is…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
California winters are short, mild, and wet, which makes them one of the best growing windows of the…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
Red, bumpy fruits hanging from a dark green evergreen in October can stop a gardener mid-step. That is…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
That oleander hedge along your fence may look tough, but it offers almost nothing to native wildlife, and…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
Tiny green lacewings get plenty of credit for eating rose pests, but only part of their life cycle…
By John Miller CA · Oct 10
Plant Care
Walk into most big-box garden centers in California and you will find plenty of palms, Bradford pears, and…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
Plenty of California gardeners hope one native shrub can bring in birds that clear out the evening mosquitoes.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
November is when California gardens quietly get a head start. The first rains soften the soil, the air…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
Every fall, California gardeners notice fresh dirt mounds popping up right when the first rains arrive. Wet winter…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
A slim, fast animal darts across your lawn and vanishes into the shrubs. It was a long-tailed weasel,…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
That long, scaly lizard slipping under your patio pots may look a little scary, but it has a…
By John Miller CA · Oct 9
Plant Care
Your neighbor’s orange tree drops fruit on your lawn every week, and you wonder if it is yours…
By John Miller CA · Oct 8
Plant Care
A pomegranate tree in a Central Valley yard can turn July heat into deep red fruit by fall.…
By John Miller CA · Oct 8
Plant Care
Most people picture a fire-safe yard as bare dirt and gravel, but California fire experts tell a different…
By John Miller CA · Oct 8