Care for Your Garden and Yourself in the Heat It’s hot. Back dripping, forehead wiping, ear perspiringly HOT. This morning’s weather report said temperatures are ten degrees above normal this week, and unusually humid too. So how can you help your garden handle the heat? First, take c

— Nan Sterman Have you noticed your plants wilting in the heat? It’s been so oppressively hot that droopy leaves are everywhere. Here’s what you need to know about plants that wilt: if they look droopy at the end of the day, don’t worry. If they look droopy first thing in the mo

–Nan Sterman In these hot days of summer, we take pleasure in watering vegetable gardens and fruit trees but we don’t often think about watering pines, liquidambar, magnolia, floss silk, and all the other trees that grow so well in our climate. Once tree roots are deep in the ea

— Nan Sterman While there are lots of great garden products on the market, some are questionable. Weed cloth is one of the questionable products. Is it good? Is it bad? Is there any reason to use it? Weed cloth, weed fabric, weed barrier, and landscape fabric are all names for m

March in the Garden Get Ready for Spring — Nan Sterman March is such a busy month for gardeners. There’s so much to see, so much to learn, and so much to do. Where to begin? Here’s my list for getting your garden ready for the months ahead. Edibles Start your home ve

— by Nan Sterman Week before last, Southern Californians had our first taste of El Niño rains; four inches in three days – nearly half the rainfall we normally see in a year. Fortunately, we prepared ahead of time at our house. We had the plumber out to clear in-ground dra

— by Nan Sterman My phone has been ringing off the hook (do phones still have hooks?) and my inbox is overflowing with queries from people asking for help removing their lawns, designing new gardens, and redesigning outdated gardens. Finally, Californians are getting the message

— By Nan Sterman Having a waterwise garden means much more than simply planting unthirsty plants… To create a waterwise garden you have to look at the garden as a system in which every component contributes to water conservation. Start with soil. Whether your garden has he