Lemon Verbena has a citrusy fragrance and a pretty light green foliage. The leaves can be used in a variety of cooking: including limoncello. I grow it in a foot-square patch under a fruit tree It’s an herb with a strong lemon flavor.. Lemon verbena’s flavor is also rounded out by the lack of acidity that comes with lemons, and …

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 …

The five-spotted hawkmoth (Manduca quinquemaculata) is a brown and gray hawk moth of the Sphingidae family. The caterpillar, often referred to as the tomato hornworm, can be a major pest in gardens.

Reposting of article from HomeGuides.SFGate.com. They have additional articles on this topic. Blueberries are known for their love of acidic soils, preferring a pH level of 4.8 to 5.5. If you’re discouraged from growing blueberries because of chalky or alkaline soil, take heart. Your soil can be altered both before and after planting to create and maintain the low pH …

Raised beds provide the same advantages as container pots but for less cost. The primary disadvantage is you can’t move it. Both raised beds and pots give you at least a foot-depth of loose soil with good drainage. It is easier to have denser plantings because you do not use rows. See This Old House’s video on Raised Beds.

Blackberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow at home. They are a native species to the United States and grow as a small shrub or trailing vine. The fruit from this plant can be used for table fruit, syrup, jams and jelly. How to Plant, Care, Prune and Harvest Blackberry Bushes Blackberries are produced on the canes of …