There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) is a beautiful, hardy plant for Alta California. This downy, bushy, evergreen subshrub produces white or purple flowers clasped by soft purple calyces from late summer to frost. It grows 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide, and is great for the border. Salvias are some of the showiest plants for containers, annual borders, and …

Ginkgo is practically pest-free, resistant to storm damage, and casts light to moderate shade. Young trees are often very open but they fill in to form a denser canopy. It makes a durable street tree where there is enough overhead space to accommodate the large size. The City of Sunnyvale has planted them in the median along Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road. The …

Calero County Park is a large park in southern Santa Clara County. It is in a string of parks and open-space-preserves that stretch for 50 miles from San Francisco down to Gilroy. The 4,000 acre park is in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and is comprised of the Pueblo lands of San Jose, the Rancho Canada de …

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum). Used for fresh green foliage, edible flowers that attract beneficial insects, and coriander-its dried seeds. Produces lots of excellent eating foliage with great flavor. A preferred strain of cilantro providing essential flavoring in Indian, Chinese, North African and Latin American cooking. The perfect accent to soups, salsas and bean dishes.Grows to 2′. Make successive plantings in well-drained …

California’s oak woodlands are the place to look for Nuttall’s Woodpeckers. If you find an oak tree in California, even in suburban areas, there’s a chance that a Nuttall’s Woodpecker will be around. These small woodpeckers don’t just forage on trunks and branches, they also forage on tiny stems in willows and alders where they might look more like a …

Salvia greggii, the autumn sage, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to a long, narrow area from southwest Texas, through the Chihuahuan Desert and into the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, typically growing in rocky soils at elevations from 5,000 to 9,000 ft (1,500 to 2,700 m). It was named and described in 1870 by botanist Asa Gray after …

Introducing the Creaper! My hot sauce made with home-grown Carolina Reaper chile peppers, carrots, ginger, and some other stuff. I will say it again later but I am saying it here first: Use a food mill to filter out the pulp. It quickly and efficiently squeezes the thick sauce to extract the juice and leave behind the chile pepper seeds …

Cape Flower (Nerine bowdenii) is a brilliant pink, fall-flowering bulb, which will flower for years once they have settled in. Planting If planting in the soil, it is recommended to start the bulbs in a 4 inch pot in a mix of 50% compost and 50% loam based potting soil. When planting, make sure that the roots are spread out …

Hot and smoky