Today’s historical post takes a look at our hillside areas over twenty-four of the garden’s thirty-year history.

This week’s featured California native plant is the cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum). It not only grows in California, but in most of the United States, and is the only plant in the genus Heracleum native to North America.

A simple nature art activity that produces beautiful impressions of flowers and leaves on paper.

I’m excited about a new element in the streetscape, sidewalk gardens. More and more frequently, I pass sections where the sidewalk has been removed and small gardens have been planted even where there are no street trees. Here are blooming yarrows, geraniums, sages, and lavenders. There are dramatic effects with New Zealand flax and muscular succulents. Grasses, wallflowers, and California natives like hummingbird sage or ceanothus, thrive in a profusion of colors and textures.