California native plants range from large trees like redwoods to ground covers like milkvetch. The conditions they are native to also vary widely: local to Santa Clara Valley, the Pacific coast, the Mojave dessert, or the Sierra Nevada mountains. Just because a plant is native to California doesn't…
Below is a collection of previous newsletter articles related to non-food gardening and landscaping topics here in the Lake Tahoe Basin, sorted in reverse chronological order. To get the entire newsletter emailed to you every month, sign up here.
Have you ever wondered how queen bumblebees survive winter? Many queen bumble bees living in temperate climates spend the winter in underground nests and remain buried in a hibernation-like state called diapause. During diapause, the quiescent queen’s metabolism slows; in common eastern bumblebee queens, it…
When you add new flowering plants to your garden this year, be sure to keep pollinators in mind. Planting for pollinators is a colorful way to attract bees, butterflies, birds, and insects to your garden while increasing the productivity of many edible plants.
Imagine a garden designed to focus on creating natural wildlife habitat. Why not eliminate turf grass from your own garden and replace it with trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals that benefit wildlife? Welcome to Naturescaping, a method of landscaping that allows people and nature to coexist. By growing…
In 2007, the United States Senate unanimously approved a resolution designating a week in June as "National Pollinator Week" (this year it is June 23-29, 2025). In response to the alarm raised by an annual increase in commercial honey bee deaths in the US, the government and researchers began addressing the…
A true treasure of the Americas, hummingbirds are a diverse family of more than 340 species, only 17 of which are found north of Mexico. They are also keystone mutualists, nectar feeders that have coevolved with the indigenous plants they pollinate.
Monthly Care | Plant Care | Fertilizing | Pruning | Propagating | Planting | Tools | Garden Sanitation | Health & Safety in the Garden Browse through a list of pruning information for the most common California native plants and trees!