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I look out my window and see deep pink, ruffled flowers covering my Blireiana flowering plum. It's one of my favorite early spring-blooming plants, and those fragrant blossoms are strong enough to scent my garden.

As she peered down through the water at the south end of Loch Lomond, inveterate kayaker Alecia Morgan spied something big, round and white. Maneuvering her boat around, she slipped her paddle down three feet into the sandy shoreline and picked up a Canada goose egg,

Maybe we can't improve on Mother Nature but can we learn from her to make our own gardens more beautiful. My late summer travels this year took me to Lake Mary in the Mammoth Lake area where I began to get ideas. This small Sierra lake formed in a depression in the glacial moraine below majestic Crystal Crag. Dozens of small streams keep the meadows blooming with wildflowers even in August. Huge granite slabs and obsidian domes create an impressive landscape. Everywhere I looked I saw how the plants, stone and water came together to make a combination that would look incredible in a regular garden.

The Brookdale Bluegrass and American Roots Festival held its 24th incarnation at the Brookdale Lodge over the weekend and was blessed with lovely weather—a stark contrast with the no-power edition of 2023. Doreen Heath, a woman walking around with fiddle in hand, said she’d made...