Learning to See the Beauty of Nature in Our Gardens
On my recent visit to the spectacular Joshua Tree National Park, I got an opportunity to visit the Oasis of Mara and learn about Desert Fan Palm Oases. The Oasis of Mara is located at the Northeast corner of Joshua Tree National Park. The oasis was created by geological movement a very long time ago. The [...]
It is an unusually warm Southern California winter evening, as I contemplate this Urban Park laid out in front of me, here in Woodland Hills, CA. I have been able to spend a lot of time at the Park while in town visiting friends, and I have noticed a definite lack of birds in the [...]
GARDEN DREAMS I’m daydreaming about how my beautiful wildlife garden will look this year. I’ve spent the last few weeks looking through magazines and sorting my flower seeds in anticipation of the arrival of butterfly season. I’m so glad that I hand-raise butterflies. It has given me such joy through the years and a deep [...]
In 2010 and 2011 as my last post for the year I have shown a critter or plant that was a special encounter or a photographic moment for each month of the year at my place. Once again I will keep with tradition and do the same. May I present to you, Two-thousand and twelve: [...]
A belated Happy Halloween! Arachnids are an oft-used symbol of this holiday so I wondered how it came to be that spiders are a part of Halloween celebration symbolism: “Spiders have long been associated with haunted houses and graveyards. This haunt element links them with Halloween. During the Middle Ages, spiders were regarded as companions [...]
Over on Facebook the other day, Native Plant and Wildlife Garden team writer Kevin Songer remarked about the value of Bidens alba, a wildflower native to Florida. One of my favorite pollinator magnets, I have it growing in various sections of my yard. Every day I find several species of butterflies side by side on [...]
Sitting in the garden, quietly reflecting can bring about many surprises. Recently one of those surprises was caught out of the corner of my eye. As I was sitting looking about at nothing in particular, I spied a very bright green something moving about on the arbor. Of course I had to check it out, [...]
Butterflies…the gateway bug Many people know us as the butterfly people, and that’s not a bad thing. We consider butterflies to be our gateway bug, since they were the first insects to spark our imagination and move us from being curious to being serious about studying nature. But now we continue to find excitement in [...]
I saw a “hanging thief” this past week, and was dismayed that a honeybee was held in its clutches. Hanging Thieves are a type of Robber Fly (Asilidae Family). While interesting to watch, and fun to photograph, robber flies have never been a favorite of mine since it seems that any time I’ve seen [...]
Well, here we are in the middle of a sweltering hot summer trying to convince people to enjoy the great outdoors. That’s a bit of a challenge considering that we’re ready to retreat back into our air-conditioned house by noon! Our beautiful wildlife garden has suffered from this year’s drought. We try to take advantage [...]
One of the prominent players in the Southwest Native Garden is the Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia littoralis). One of many different kinds of cactus seen throughout the Chaparral, it is a valuable part of the wildlife garden, offering both food and refuge to wildlife. Bees enjoy the bright yellow cactus blossoms, as do hummingbirds. Birds [...]
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