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Category: Gardening

stapelia flower starfish shaped
Wicked Flowers for Halloween

Wicked Flowers for Halloween

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Stapelia gigantea is a bizarre garden surprise every fall.  The succulent plant has balloon shaped flower buds that grow and spill all over the porch every year just as October begins.  Once the flowers begin to slowly unfurl, hairs appear on the star shaped flower’s petals.  The flowers are the size of plate, about 10 inches across and actually pretty cool looking. Right now the first ones are just beginning to open.  So what makes Stapelia gigantea so wicked?  Its common…

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I have caught the Iris Virus

I have caught the Iris Virus

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* Iris Virus = A burning desire to learn everything there is about growing and caring for iris plants. A person with an iris virus reads tons of iris publications and surfs all of the known iris society web sites. The person with the virus may have just started growing irises, be an avid collector, or be an established grower/ hybridizer of irises. For me, it all started back in 1995, when a next door neighbor gave me two rhizomes…

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California Desert Tortoise
Start of the Gardening Season

Start of the Gardening Season

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Yes, you read that right:  October is the start of the gardening season for those of us gardeners that happen to live in Southern California’s year round growing climate.  For me personally, October is probably my busiest month for working in the garden.  The scorching heat of summer and lack of rainfall make August and September the end of our local gardening season, with very few garden chores, other than things like dividing bearded irises.  But by September, the last…

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dog in garden
Preventing Dog Damage in the Garden

Preventing Dog Damage in the Garden

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I had already planted the backyard gardens before we got our first dog back in 2000.  Shortly after getting her, she began to drive me nuts with her incessant digging, trampling of tender plants, laying on others, and eating whatever she could reach off the tomatoes, berry bushes, and fruit trees.  We loved that big sweet black Labrador, so of course she wasn’t going anywhere, but I also wanted my garden to thrive.  I was at my wits end.  Something…

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new fig tree
Adding More Plants To The Edible Landscape

Adding More Plants To The Edible Landscape

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I actually didn’t get as many new edible plants and trees this winter or spring as I have in past years, but I still probably got more than I really have room for.  Basically, my small urban backyard is getting too full and the family isn’t ready to give up the front yard lawn yet.  Since many of the neighbors on the block are changing over their lawns in the city’s Lawn to Garden program, our front yard has become…

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royal lee low chill cherry flowers zone 10b socal best how
Kiwis, Berries, Cherries, and More [Spring Update]

Kiwis, Berries, Cherries, and More [Spring Update]

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By Southern California gardening standards, we are already half way through Spring, and as usual, the Hanbury edible landscape and ornamental garden continues to evolve.  Every winter and Spring I change out things that under performed or plant new varieties of things I never tried before.  For last couple of months I have kept pretty busy with chores in the garden, the kid’s activities, local plant shopping, two landscape designs for others, and with home improvement projects around the house. …

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The High Cost of Sub-Urban Homesteading

The High Cost of Sub-Urban Homesteading

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  Am I imagining it or are edible plants at the nurseries going way up in price due to the increased popularity of backyard food gardening, sustainability, and homesteading? I was running errands this morning, and one of them took me past a Garden Center; it’s a chain, but I won’t name names.  I love browsing at new plant selections and I am in process of helping a friend with a backyard garden design that includes some fruit trees, so…

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An Uncoventional Organic Method for Killing Root Knot Nematodes

An Uncoventional Organic Method for Killing Root Knot Nematodes

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As you may have read in a previous post, root-knot nematodes recently became public enemy number one in the Hanbury House vegetable garden.  I was kind of depressed about it for a few days, struggling to find an Organic treatment to kill root knot nematodes in our garden.  Being a home gardener, especially an organic one, there are few options for dealing with nematodes in the soil. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. When you click on an affiliate link…

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Spring Garden Gamble: Tomatoes in February

Spring Garden Gamble: Tomatoes in February

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As a seasoned gardener, I should know better than to plant tomatoes at the beginning of February, but H & H Nursery already had tomatoes in, including my favorite cold weather variety, Stupice.  For $1.99, I decided I could take a gamble on the weather on this one variety.  It is one of the few varieties I would call “Ultra Early.”  I can’t always find Stupice, and I don’t bother growing them from seed myself, therefore, I could not resist…

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Repurposing a Leaky Lemonade Jar into a Homemade Terrarium

Repurposing a Leaky Lemonade Jar into a Homemade Terrarium

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We have a really pretty lemonade jar; the only problem is, it leaks.  I have tried a few different things to deal with the leak, but eventually, it ended up stored hidden away in the cupboard and unused.  Rather than discard it, I decided this afternoon to make it into a  homemade terrarium. Here are the photos of making it… Read more of my craft ideas here.