Real Estate & Open Houses
Winter bloom might get scarce while most plants are dormant and not trying to get any attention from pollinators who are also mostly dormant.
Coppice pruning to remove shabby, disfigured or overgrown thicket growth promotes vigorous new growth to renovate deteriorated old shrubbery.
Many flowering potted plants are forced to bloom, so may be slow to recover and adapt to home or garden situations after their primary bloom.
Citrus trees provide citrus fruit for winter, which is the season for dormant pruning of deciduous fruit trees that provide fruit for summer.
Defoliation of deciduous plant species decreases vulnerability to windy winter weather while foliage would typically not be efficient anyway.
While they are dormant through winter, most deciduous fruit and nut trees require some sort of specialized dormant pruning or winter pruning.
Winter is bare-root season when dormant deciduous fruit trees and roses are available for sale without the cumbersome soil that they grew in.
For a climate of such mild weather and gentle transition of the four familiar seasons, the first rain starts the rainy season quite abruptly.
The potential for frost damage is regional. Some plants in some regions may benefit from frost protection or corrective pruning after winter.
Live Christmas trees are not as practical as their reputation implies. Nor are cut Christmas trees as environmentally detrimental as reputed.
Winter berries are for the birds. Nonetheless, they can be delightfully colorful
Fireplaces and wood stoves are not yet completely obsolete. Wood burning fire pits and chimineas have actually become a fad. All use firewood.
Foliar debris, mostly from defoliation of deciduous vegetation, accumulates at the worst possible time, immediately prior to the rainy season.
Maintenance of chimney clearance prevents encroachment of combustible vegetation that can compromise the safety of fireplaces and woodstoves.
Contrary to common belief, some autumn foliage develops exemplary foliar color in response to seemingly inadequate chill of regional climate.
Spring bulbs and perhaps a few summer bulbs go into the garden about now, to slowly disperse roots through winter, and then bloom for spring.
Juniper cultivars might still be unpopular because of past excessiveness, but are remarkably resilient and appropriate to local home gardens.
Botanical nomenclature is designed for simplicity, even if it seems confusing.
Plenty of seed might be ready to collect from the many flowers that finish bloom through the end of summer, but some may not be true to type.
If warm season annuals finish while the weather is still too warm for cool season annuals, autumn annuls can provide nice transitional bloom.
Several cool season vegetables which are now seasonable are cole vegetables, of the Cruciferae family, which is also the Brassicaceae family.
White bloom is just as appealing within home gardens as bloom of any other color. It brightens dark situations but can mellow brighter color.
Many perennials develop pups, which are basal sideshoots that can grow into new genetically identical copies of the plants that produce them.
Ground cover plants can exclude weeds and mitigate erosion. They function like mulch but are more appealing. However, they require attention.
Many popular garden features, such as window boxes and foundation plantings, evolved from more utilitarian and perhaps obsolete applications.
Shallow roots appreciate how aesthetically tidy mulch retains moisture, insulates the surface of their soil and inhibits weed proliferation.
Soil saturation should not be a problem within the local chaparral climates but occasionally becomes a problem with supplemental irrigation.
Aquatic plants require specialized maintenance that is completely different and likely more demanding than maintenance of terrestrial plants.