Tag: California

The announcement of a new principal for Scotts Valley High School was met with praise and excitement during a Scotts Valley Unified School District board meeting Tuesday evening. The Trustees approved the hiring of Michael Hanson to be the next Principal for SVHS.  Mike has worked at SVHS since 2006 where he was hired as a science teacher. 

You can tell right away when you walk out the door how hot or cold it is, how windy, shady, moist or dry. You know if your soil is pure sand or hard clay because you’ve dug a few holes in your time. You don’t need a book to tell you these things. So why are the gardening zones described in Sunset Western Gardening book important when you add a new plant to your garden? And why are they so confusing in our area? The USDA Plant Hardiness zone map may tell you where a plant may survive the winter but climate zone maps let you see where that plant will thrive year round.

Each day my windshield is coated with yellow pollen grains from Douglas fir trees. Roadsides are crowded with blooming acacia trees. If you’re an allergy sufferer some plants are worse than others for you. What’s a gardener to do to mitigate scratchy eyes and congestion nearly year round where we live?

Local Happenings

My plants are confused. Actually they know exactly what they are doing it’s me that’s confused. The mild winter, so far at least, has encouraged many of my plants normally still dormant at this time of year to start growing for the season. What’s a gardener to do when the roses, fuchsias, oakleaf hydrangeas and many other plants never really went dormant this year?  Here are some February tasks that I’m going to be doing.

When locals heard that Punxsutawney Phil had forecast six more weeks of winter, they did a double take and looked at their calendar.

Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a draft of rules and regulations for growing marijuana for commercial sale at a special meeting on Feb. 5. The proposed ordinances, with several recommendations made by various supervisors, now go to the Planning Commission for review. More public input will be requested on Feb. 28 before being returned to the Board of Supervisors for an additional hearing and final adoption in March.