EcoGardenista

The California "Moonglow" poppies have ceded the stage and the California Fuchsias are having their moment. Known also as Epilobium canum, these have the common name of 'fuchsia' as the flower form is reminiscent of the imported plant by that name.   These plants are powerhouses in the garden, blooming from late July into October, and feeding White Lined Sphinx moth caterpillars (in my sister-in-law's garden) and a variety of bees. I had originally planted just one of these plants to try it out, and as soon as it bloomed, a hummingbird appeared. After drinking from its meager 12 blossoms, the hummingbird zoomed over to me, hovered in front of my face as if to say "plant more!"  I wound up adding 5 more and am so glad that I did. The hummingbirds visit this frequently and it is a favorite with the bees. Even late in the day the blossoms seem to glow and draw a lot of comments from neighbors and other passer-by. A troop of Girl Scouts toured the garden one...

  Back in February I scattered some California native Moonglow Poppy seeds along the front border. I hoped they'd bloom in time for the April 2 Growing Natives Garden Tour, but with the colder weather, they didn't actually bloom until early May. But oh what a beautiful show - well worth the wait!   The poppies lit up the border, and provided visual interest running parallel to the Catalina Perfume (Ribes viburnifolium) that is still maturing.  Their luminescence really lit up this area that is dappled shade all morning and full sun all afternoon and evening.  As I looked closely at the poppies, I noticed tiny bees that I hadn't seen in the garden before.  I believe they are Arizona Small Carpenter Bees, but I'm waiting for confirmation from iNaturalist.org. But the important thing is that, with each new element I add to the garden, a new species emerges and seems to desperately need these precious native plant resources.  It feels wonderful to see the ...

The land we live on is a small patch of coastal scrub in San Carlos, California. When we moved here in 2007, it looked like a picture from a magazine, with Japanese maples, Chilean jasmine, French (via China) roses, all kept in a tidy corral by an English Box hedge (from southern Europe).  But the garden was just that, a picture. A "still life." The plants were picture perfect, tidy and pruned. They would have fed the ecosystems in their native countries, but here, far from the insects they co-evolved with, they were simply pretty objects for us to look at.  Our gardener came and meticulously clipped the plants, mowed the lawn and aerated it. He clipped seed heads from our Mexican sage and kept things looking, well, picture perfect.   Before: Our garden as a "still life" picture, with imported  plants,  providing no food for local ecosystems. But as it turns out, this picture has a very steep price.  My husband and I were so busy working that it did no...