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726 Articles
A plain brown bird scratching through your garden beds might be doing more than making a mess. California Towhees are year-round residents across much of…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17, 2026
Plant Care
A plain brown bird hopping through your flower bed might seem like a nuisance, but that scratch-scratch-scratch in…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17
Plant Care
A scaly, prehistoric-looking lizard slipping under your garden debris might actually be doing you a quiet favor. Southern…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17
Plant Care
Something hovers over your garden flowers just as the sun goes down, and for a split second you…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17
Plant Care
California’s summer heat can leave citrus trees quietly struggling even after temperatures drop in September. The soil beneath…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17
Plant Care
Most California homeowners assume that a fruit tree worth growing needs plenty of water, but one Asian import…
By John Miller CA · Sep 17
Plant Care
Late summer in California can be brutal on landscape trees, and the weeks before a heat spike are…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
Imagine sitting in your California yard on a warm summer evening, watching butterflies float by while mosquitoes stay…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
Your California yard might be doing something you never intended: inviting cockroaches to move in right next to…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
Walk outside on a hot California afternoon and you might find your lemon or orange tree looking a…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
If your crape myrtle has developed a dark, sticky coating on its leaves or bark, you are not…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
A letter from your neighbor demanding you cut down your oak tree can feel alarming, especially when that…
By John Miller CA · Sep 16
Plant Care
Pebbles and decorative gravel have a way of making a garden bed look sharp and finished, and it…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
Plenty of California homeowners have grabbed a saw to clean up an oak tree, only to find out…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
If you live in California, you already know summer means bone-dry soil, water limits, and the nervous glance…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
Growing tomatoes in California sounds simple enough, but a surprisingly common watering habit can quietly lead to blossom-end…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
Skunks are not really trying to ruin your evening in California, they are just looking for an easy…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
Fall in California can still bring long, dry, warm days that leave a lot of gardens looking tired…
By John Miller CA · Sep 15
Plant Care
Rats are experts at finding the easy life, and a lot of California yards accidentally roll out the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
When a heat forecast rolls in for California, it’s tempting to grab the hose and drench every tree…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
If you grow citrus in your California backyard, you may have walked out one morning to find oranges…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
Arborvitae looks great in the garden center, but here in California it often browns out, thins in the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
A tree from the yard next door crashes through your fence or lands on your car, and your…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
Spending a warm afternoon in the backyard and realizing you have not spotted a single lizard in weeks…
By John Miller CA · Sep 14
Plant Care
Every garden has those awkward empty spots between plants, and the wrong filler can take over your whole…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
You do not need a big backyard to grow real, juicy fruit in California. With the right variety…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
Some trees look gorgeous at the nursery, but a few years later you are raking, sweeping, and scraping…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
Gravel paths and rock-mulched beds are supposed to make yard maintenance easier, but for many California homeowners, the…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
Barn owls are some of California’s most effective wild hunters, quietly patrolling yards and fields for rodents every…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
California fuchsia is a tough, sun-loving native perennial that can bring hummingbirds to your yard from late summer…
By John Miller CA · Sep 13
Plant Care
Meyer lemon trees are one of California’s most popular backyard fruit trees, but they have a habit of…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
Most California citrus growers head into fall thinking the hard work is done, but the trees are still…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
Most California homeowners with a backyard fruit tree never connect their harvest routine to the scratching sounds they…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
California plumeria owners spend all summer enjoying those waxy, fragrant blooms, but the decisions made in fall often…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
South-facing walls and concrete driveways in California soak up sunlight all day and then throw that heat right…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
That thirsty green lawn out front might be costing you more than you think, and California will actually…
By John Miller CA · Sep 12
Plant Care
California gardeners often reach for the same handful of plants, missing out on native beauties that thrive with…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
Solid fences can block wind, trap heat, and make a coastal yard feel stuffy and closed off. The…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
Spotting a gray, pointy-nosed animal shuffling through your yard after dark can be startling, but the Virginia opossum…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
California heat spikes can hit citrus trees hard, and the moments right after the temperature drops are more…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
Fall is one of the best times to garden in California, when the brutal summer heat finally eases…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
Spotting a small, shiny lizard darting under your mulch or vanishing behind a stepping stone can feel like…
By John Miller CA · Sep 11
Plant Care
Nobody wants to spend a hot California afternoon skimming leaves and flower bits out of the pool instead…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
California hummingbirds are always on the hunt for their next reliable meal, and your patio can become one…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
Growing an avocado tree on a small California patio sounds like a dream, but not every variety plays…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
Finding a black bear in your fruit tree is startling, but it usually says more about the bear’s…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
California gardeners are quietly falling in love with native plants, and the best place to learn about them…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
Grabbing the hose at noon on a scorching California day feels like the right thing to do, but…
By John Miller CA · Sep 10
Plant Care
Most neighbors assume the other person is on the hook when a dividing fence falls apart, and California…
By John Miller CA · Sep 9
Plant Care
If you love hearing birds sing right outside your window, the plants in your yard matter more than…
By John Miller CA · Sep 9