Don't Touch that Dial!

Don't Touch that Dial!

As our rainy season draws to a close, gardeners everywhere are turning their irrigation systems back on in anticipation of the dry summer months to come. And this year, with the drought emergency officially over, it’s with an easy conscience. After all, why not treat the garden to a little more water this year? After all those lean water years, don’t the plants deserve it? Whoa! Don’t touch that dial!

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The April Gardener is June-Minded

The April Gardener is June-Minded

Spring is here, and the long-awaited rains are blessing the garden. By the south gate of Garden for the Environment, I can look with satisfaction at the bright bursts of color from harlequin flower and spring star flower blooming on one side of the pathway, while colorful grasses, rock roses, and irises light up the other side. But this is no time for a gardener to rest on her laurels. The flowers that are blooming today are the result of work done in fall and early winter. And today’s work must plan for the upcoming months.

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Solstice Musing on Stewardship

Solstice Musing on Stewardship

Gardens like GFE nourish people who are hungry. I'm not talking about dinner, but about our soul hungers; for the wild, for rich living dirt, for crazy beauty. Our culture restricts us more and more to two dimensions ("sent from my iPad"), but a garden can expand us back into ourselves, the smell of crushed thyme, the bright cries of a flock of bushtits in the butterfly bush, the rhythm of lifting and turning living soil.

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New Look for the Water-Wise Garden

New Look for the Water-Wise Garden

As environmentally responsible gardeners, one of the most important advocacies we can engage in is to create change in the predominant garden aesthetic. The thirsty lawns, clipped hedges, Japanese maples, rhododendrons, roses and annual beds which defined a beautiful California garden since the dam-building era cannot define beauty for the future.

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