Columns

What happens if you don’t pay taxes? The IRS, or FTB, writes to say you owe and you concede the amount. To remind us all that taxes are compulsory and no say on expenditures, the IRS can prosecute for tax fraud, but courts and...

I’d been waiting for the tour of Griggs Wholesale nursery in Watsonville for a while. This company bought Suncrest Nursery last year and has breathed new life into it. A favorite for years, Suncrest had a reputation for excellence and this new version is...

We all celebrate the holidays in a different way. Each family has its own traditions and warm memories from years gone by. Some of us celebrate Christmas, some Hanukkah, some Kwanzaa. Many of our traditional Christmas customs originate from Winter Solstice celebrations. The plants...

Boy, was I impressed. Not long ago I was at a garden to consult with a new client on some upgrades they envisioned for their property. I love to meet new gardeners and give them “my two cents worth.” Well this homeowner had Googled...

“Could a greater miracle take place than to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” —Henry Davis Thoreau That day in Boulder Creek was much like these past few days have been, cold with on and off spurts of rain with some sun mixed...

The assignment: create a cutting garden. For a designer this is the best kind of request. Until about 100 years ago, one of the most important areas of any large garden was the cutting garden where flowers were harvested like a crop and taken...

New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to makeyour regular annual good resolutions. Next weekyou can begin paving hell with them as usual. —Mark Twain Over the past 40-some years, I have made dozens of New Year’s resolutions, some I have succeeded in keeping, and...

In Washington State, fresh Elberta peaches would begin appearing in local markets in September, but in July, in California, we have just begun to see fresh peaches for home use coming in from Fresno, Tulare and Madera, where processing peaches are grown mostly in...

What’s that wet stuff coming from the sky? Hopefully by the time you’re reading this we will have gotten some much-needed rainfall. I wanted to research the latest scientific papers on how climate change is impacting our gardens. Plants have adapted over millennia to their...

Winter weather has begun, even if the official start to winter is still weeks away. And while we desperately need the rain, we must be on guard for the dangers it can present. The large storm that drenched Santa Cruz County on the evening of...