Horticulture

Home gardens are becoming shadier. Modern homes are taller to fit closer together. Modern fences are taller to compensate. Densely evergreen trees and large shrubbery compensate more. Taller homes and fences, and denser vegetation, shade more of their smaller modern parcels. Not much sunlight...

Ferns are foliar perennials. They provide neither floral color nor fragrance. They provide neither fruits nor vegetables. With few exceptions, they provide no shade. The very few that are deciduous are not impressively colorful for autumn here. Ferns can not grow as hedges. Nor...

Within the outdoor rooms of home gardens, shade trees are ceilings, shrubs and hedges are walls, and turf and ground cover plants are floors. That is why the selection of plants for such purposes is as important as the selection of paint and carpet...

Warm season vegetables will be productive until autumn. Several will produce until frost. Those that grew slowly during mild weather through last spring are performing well now. Summer does not end until later in September, while summery weather may not end until a bit...

Bare root season begins as the year ends for a simple reason. That is when deciduous plants are dormant. They are unaware of the otherwise distressful process of relocation. This is also why winter is the season for dormant pruning. Such pruning would be...

Seed is the most familiar source of much of the vegetation that inhabits home gardens. It is the origin of almost all vegetables and most annual flowers. Some seed grows directly into its gardens. Some grows in nurseries to become saleable young plants. Seed...

This is extreme dormant pruning. Pollard and coppice pruning involve complete removal of all new growth. They typically involve growth from a previous season annually. A two-year cycle involves growth from two previous seasons, and so on. This repetitive pruning to the same origins...

You'll be able to say "Hello," to a California King Snake named Morticia and dig into Earth's history as part of a special event organized by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. That's because the Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation Center and the Santa...

A tree is a woody perennial plant with a single tall trunk and branches. Banana trees and tree ferns lack both branches and wood. Arboriform yuccas develop branches but are not woody. Palm trees are no better. Some develop a few trunks but without...

Pruning at the proper time has been a concern all winter. Dormant pruning was timely as soon as defoliation began. It remains timely almost until bloom. Pollarding and coppicing are generally although unnecessarily a bit later within that range. Spring pruning begins soon after...