Tag: Santa Cruz Mountains

As summer approaches, so does California’s dreaded fire season. In recent years, fires have run rampant in Northern California, including last year’s Bear Fire which destroyed 400 acres of land.

I’m helping my friend Colly, the food columnist for the Press Banner, with her cooking class at the new Boys & Girls Club in Scotts Valley. Colly has planned a summer program filled with delicious recipes and I’m looking forward to learning along with the kids in the class. The first week was all about eggs. I’m sure we’ll be using herbs in a future recipe so I’m getting my own herb garden ready. Whether you grow herbs in pots or in the ground here are some tips.

Several local agencies are working towards creating a way for wildlife to cross Highway 17 without causing vehicle-animal collisions. Still in the early stages of implementing the project, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) hosted a public information meeting in Scotts Valley last week.

I know many people who wait until the beginning of May to start their vegetable gardens for the summer. Conditions make not be right for them to grow cool season vegetables like beets, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, unions, radish and spinach. Those plants don’t mind cold soil and chilly weather. But it you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to plant those scrumptious tomatoes you crave- wait no more. And if you plan your garden right you can still grow some of the cool season crops in the shade of your other sun lovers.

I’m envious of those of you who garden in lots of sun. Well maybe not so much on a hot July day but mostly I wish I could grow more edibles in the opening of my tall redwood forest. My neighbor gives me volunteer Sun Gold cherry tomatoes each spring and some years all the stars align and I enjoy these sweet morsels, picking them mostly as I putter in the garden. They rarely get inside on a salad but boy, are they delicious.

Who knew that in 1937 Lawrence and Ruth Lane, recent transplants from Iowa and the new owners and publishers of Sunset Magazine, also bought the Quail Hollow Ranch in Santa Cruz County that same year?  Sunset Magazine and its publishing brand would go on to achieve great success in the decades ahead, and from the patio and kitchen of the Quail Hollow ranch house the Lane’s would develop many of the ideas that would later become famous as the “California lifestyle.”

Thomas Hogye, an avid fly fisherman, won a hat for knowing the San Lorenzo River is 29.4 miles long. This was the first of many interesting facts shared at the State of the San Lorenzo River Symposium held at the Zayante Fire House last weekend.

A couple weeks ago in a column about allergy free landscaping, I mentioned dogwood being a good tree choice as their pollen is not wind borne. Their showy flowers are pollinated by insects rather than by the wind. Producing less pollen, their pollen is large and heavy, sticking to insects rather than becoming airborne and leading to sneezing, runny noses and watery eyes. With dogwoods about to burst into bloom I thought I’d share some information about growing this iconic tree.

With its majestic Redwood trees and rolling hills, the Santa Cruz Mountains are ideally perfect for building a “Hobbit” home. And that is exactly why Anna Pissanetzky and her husband Pablo decided to begin the endeavor of building one on their property in Scotts Valley.

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.