Gardening for Your Health

There are many good reasons to garden.  Gardening makes campuses and neighborhoods more pleasing to the eye.  It also can provide food and homes for creatures large and small.  But gardens can also be important for our health.  For more see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2018/01/.   

A Gardener's Thanksgiving

Thanks and praise for winter rains.

Drought reminds us to treasure, whatever Nature can spare. 

Thanks and praise for emerging seedlings.

Each one a tiny miracle, hope for the year to come. 

Thanks and praise for new spring foliage.

Our spirit needs the fresh green color – our bodies, the sustenance. 

Thanks and praise for native wildflowers.

Their beauty quickens the heart; they are truly gifts to gladden the soul. 

Thanks and praise for warm days of May,

Encouraging plants to grow, enticing us into the fragrant garden. 

Thanks and praise for the fogs of June.

They bring magic to the garden, providing water for thirsty plants. 

Thanks and praise for Mother Nature’s pollinators.

From hummingbirds to the smallest bees, they safeguard the precious cycle of life. 

Thanks and praise for the ripening harvest of summer.

The fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds - food for all the garden’s creatures (including us). 

Thanks and praise for the dry winds of September.

They cleanse the garden, ushering in the tranquility of the dormant season. 

Thanks and praise for the dormant season.

The golds and browns rest the eye, providing a calm background for busy lives. 

Thanks and praise for the creatures of fall.

Insects, migrant birds and countless wee beings, each filling their niche in the life of the garden.  

Thanks and praise for our many human friends.

Their hard work, suggestions, love and donations - an evolving inspiration throughout the year.

 

 

 

Foraging Native Plants: Look to Your Own Backyard

Native plants play an important role in living sustainably.  They furnish habitat, create shade, improve the soil and provide edible and craft materials.   To put it simply, California natives are remarkable additions to the garden ecosystem. But it’s important to remember that these plants are also critical components of natural ecosystems.

The increased interest in edible and medicinal native plants creates several unintended consequences.   Most important is the overuse of natural stands of native plants growing in the wild.   This is not just a problem in California; over-collecting of native plants is a critical issue world-wide, leading to the extinction of entire plant species.

While some California native plants are still common, others are rare – even endangered - in the wild.  Humans have played a key role, primarily by destroying habitat (building houses, roads, etc.).  Global climate change is putting further pressures on wild plants and animal populations. 

To stress wild populations further by wild foraging is unsound.  In fact, there are legal, health/safety, practical and ethical/stewardship reasons to limit wildland foraging.  For more see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/06/sustainable-living-foraging-for-native.html

Spring in the Native Plant Gardens: Garden of Dreams

Approaching the Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Spring is a lovely time in the native plant gardens of CSU Dominguez Hills.  Here are some recent photos from the Garden of Dreams Discovery Garden.

Bush sunflowers (Encelia californica) brighten Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Enter the garden through the Lemonadeberry (Rhus integrifolia) entrance
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

White and purple from the Purple sage (Salvia leucophylla) 
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Look closely for bulbs like this Mariposa lily
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Medley of green foliage from sages, sagebrush and other local native shrubs
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Looking back towards parking lot - note the range of foliage colors
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Annual sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) have come back despite the fact that this area was scraped bare
 last July - Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Purple foothill penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus) and spires of White sage (Salvia apiana)
Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) glow amongst the nodding grasses (Foothill needlegrass - Stipa (Nassella) lepida) - Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Spring wildflowers - Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

A selection of shady groundcovers - Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Red Admiral butterfly - Garden of Dreams -  CSU Dominguez Hills

Trees and Shrubs for a Changing Climate: Plant Them Now!

Native shrubs at CSUDH look good despite years of drought
Garden of Dreams Discovery Garden

 

 

The last four and a half years have been difficult for those living in Southern California.  Lack of rain, dry winds and high temperatures have stressed everything.  Unfortunately, these are probably just a taste of things to come.  Now is the time to choose plants that will be able to thrive despite the changing climate.   Here are a few resources to help:

 

 

Climate Change and S. CA Gardens

Slide show: http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/climate-change-2014

Handouts (4 per pg) : http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/climate-change-2014-notes

 

 

 

Trees & Shrubs for the Future: large native plants suited to our changing climate

              Slide show:  http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/trees-for-future-2016

             Handouts (4 per pg) : http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/trees-for-future-2016-notes

  

 

Shrubs in a Changing World: CA native shrubs for a 1950’s-70’s ranch-style house (with an emphasis on our changing climate)

 

            Slide show:  http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/future-shrubs-2016final

           Handouts (4 per pg) : http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/future-shrubs-2016finalnotes