Real Estate & Open Houses
Bloom gets too much credit. Variegation and colorful foliage also contribute color to the garden. Some plants provide colorful bloom, with col…
Roots generally dislike confinement. Some are merely more tolerant of it than others. Most prefer to disperse freely and uninhibited by contai…
Too many plants that crave more specialized pruning are disfigured and deprived of their bloom and foliar texture by inappropriate and unneces…
Bigger modern homes on smaller modern parcels are not designed to exploit free sunlight. Nor do they leave must space available for classic bi…
As the terminology suggests, a ‘layer’ is a stem that develops roots where it lays on the ground. Intentional layering is a practical method o…
Trees that grow so vigorously that they can not support their own weight can demonstrate spontaneous limb failure during the calmest of warm s…
Tony Tomeo:Â Wildflowers are not what they were centuries ago. California poppies and lupines must compete with exotic species. Exotic wildflow…
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Tony Tomeo:Â Lawn weeds, whether annual, biennial or perennial, are more challenging than weeds in open ground. Some ultimately integrate into …
Tony Tomeo:Â Nomenclature was intended to standardize and simplify classification and identification of plants, but has somehow gotten complica…
Tony Tomeo:Â Deadheading eliminates unappealing carcasses of deteriorating blooms, conserves resources, promotes subsequent bloom, and inhibits…
Tony Tomeo:Â Springtime is party time for the various vermin who have been laying low and perhaps quietly expanding their now voracious familie…
Tony Tomeo:Â Many cultivars of California native plants are very different from those that live in the wild. Furthermore, some are not as regio…
Tony Tomeo:Â Warm season vegetables that are now returning to the garden can benefit from garden rotation in order to avoid soil that was deple…
Tony Tomeo:Â Cool season vegetables that were productive through autumn and winter will now relinquish their garden space to warm season vegeta…
Average last frost dates remind us when it is safe to plant warm season vegetable and bedding plants, and prune or groom plants that are sensi…
As winter becomes early spring, invasive weeds start growing earlier and faster than desirable plants. They are easiest to pull while still yo…
Fruiting apple and fruiting cherry trees get pruned by now. Spring pruning is more appropriate for flowering crabapple and fruitless flowering…
Coppicing and pollarding are two potentially practical arboricultural procedures that offend arborists and, if not done correctly and regularl…
Now that spring bulbs that were planted last autumn are beginning to bloom, it is time to plant summer bulbs, like canna, calla, dahlia, gladi…
Pruning roses during winter dormancy is as important as pruning deciduous fruit trees. Overgrown roses do not perform as they should without p…
Winter is citrus season. Mandarin oranges and tangerines have been ready for a while already. Other less perishable citrus fruits can last for…
Pot plants, such as poinsettia, florist chrysanthemum, miniature rose and Easter lily, are forced into optimal performance, but then may not b…
Bare root stock starts to arrive in local nurseries as soon as Christmas trees relinquish their space. This is the time of year to get them in…
Deciduous fruit trees need aggressive but specialized pruning while dormant through winter. Otherwise, they eventually get overwhelmed with th…
Pruning is much less stressful during winter dormancy, than it would be while plants are more vascularly active, during warmer weather of spri…
Community members are invited to bring their culinary tips and tricks and special recipes to Solvang Library's monthly Sweet and Savory Cookin…
There should be no shame in cut Christmas trees. They are actually more sustainable and environmentally responsible than unnaturally living Ch…
As deciduous trees that were colorful earlier in autumn defoliate, colorful berries remain later into winter, at least until devoured by birds…
