Dragon Tongue is a great bean for the Sunnyvale garden. It is a bush bean, 24-30 inches tall. It is a great in a container. Lots of beans in 60 days. It’s suited to use as a fresh snap bean or as a shelled bean when fully mature. As a snap, harvest when the flat beans turn from lime green …

SCOTCH BONNET YELLOW – very hot; Habanero Type; 1.25 to 1.75 inches long by 1 to 1.25 inches wide; medium thick flesh; matures from green to yellow; pendant pods; green leaves; 18 to 24 inches tall; Very Late Season (90+ days); C.chinense.

This is our male hummingbird. He ferociously defends his feeder against all…except this time of year when he welcomes females to sip nectar. Then he will sit nearby bobbing his head and making some chirps (or at least that is what the high-frequency-hearing-enabled people tell me)

Another bulb I planted back in February is blooming. The tag is long gone so I need to do some detective work to learn its identity. Sue Clayton correctly identified it as crinum.

In October I harvested Mission olives from a tree. The ripe black olives I packed into coarse salt (dry-cure). The green unripe olives I placed in a salt-brine. It’s now November and the black olives have cured (the salt has leached out the oleuropin compound that makes them bitter). The black olives are now shrunken and wrinkled. They will keep …

Calendula is a well-known medicinal herb and uplifting ornamental garden plant that has been used therapeutically, ceremonially, and as a dye and food plant for centuries. Most commonly known as for its topical use as a tea or infused oil for wounds and skin trauma, the bright orange or yellow flower contains many important constituents and can be taken internally …

The carrots you find at the grocer require 10-12 inches deep of loose soil, othewise they grow stunted. Your standard ground soil in Sunnyvale is clay. The solution is to select one of many varieties that are shorter. ‘Nantes’ is about 7 inches long. ‘Thumbelina’ is 4 inches long.

Bearss limes are a wonderful variety for Sunnyvale that produces fruit in the late fall or early winter. You can grow it in the ground or in a container. If you grow in a container, you normally will select a dwarf rootstock. This variety can also be grown indoors. If growing in the ground, I recommend the semi-dwarf rootstock (because …

Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi ‘Oro Blanco’). Productive. Hardy. Long-lived (my tree is over 40 years old). Can be grown in container or small ground area (mine is in a 24-inch trench).   Family: Rutaceae (roo-TAY-see-ee) (Info) Genus: Citrus (SIT-rus) (Info) Species: x paradisi (par-ih-DEE-see) (Info) Cultivar: Oro Blanco   Category: Edible Fruits and Nuts, Trees, Tropicals and Tender Perennials   …

Marjoram is a somewhat cold-sensitive perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavors. It was known to the Greeks and Romans as a symbol of happiness. Considered a tender perennial (USDA Zones 7-9), Marjoram is cultivated for its aromatic leaves, either green or dry, for culinary purposes; the tops are cut as the plants begin to flower and …