Welcome to California Gardens - the year round gardening site
California Gardens is the growing source for information on plants and gardening in California. From the Native to the Creative there are thousands of plants to fill your garden and even more ways to combine them - California Gardens is a gardening community for California. We have year-round gardening in a climate made for growing -- take advantage of it. Join us in the garden, get mud under your fingernails, and share your gardening interests. We'll grow together!
What can we do to better our planet, our city, our homes? One person at a time we can choose to plant a garden. One more living thing that consumes CO2 helps just a little bit. And your living space will be more beautiful because of it. Find a natural method to accomplish your task, so your part of the world will be abundantly alive. Plant something appropriate to our climate. There is no food more local, nor more healthy, than the food you grow in your garden. Add another flower to give you or someone who sees your garden some joy. Not a bad start if you ask me.
Look through our plant lists where you can find many of the plants that we have experience growing in our bit of California. We will give you the lowdown on our trials and tribulations with these plants in our gardens and show you a great photo of each plant at its blooming best. Many drought tolerant plants can look awful in their container at the nursery. That is one of my prime inspirations for creating this site. I kept bringing plants that were not in any books to my client's gardens and struggled to communicate how great they would become. Good photos tell so much, a list of pages with our best photos is on the garden image page. Truth be told most plants do their best when planted long before blooming. Try it, choose one of the smaller younger plants, these plants will become extraordinary beauties once they are planted in your garden.
Cut to the essentials. What gardening tools do you really need? With a limited amount of truck space a good measure of what you need is what gets to go along for the ride day after day? These are the tools in the truck. We have product reviews for some excellent sprinkler and irrigation timers to help keep your garden irrigated without wasting water.
Attract wildlife to your home and landscape. Become part of the wildlife diversity solution. Our project section has many ideas for garden themes and how to make your garden more interesting. I recycled a power pole, or at least the part that was most important to my garden. Acorn Woodpeckers are a keystone species and they had a cavity in the pole. I relocated the top 10 feet with the cavity, the woodpeckers found it. Make your garden smell great. Fragrant flowers and foliage attract more than wildlife, they attract garden lovers too. Visit our Butterfly Garden page and see the plants you can use to attract butterflies to your garden. Go to our critters page to see some of the beautiful wildlife we have found in our garden. Visit our page on how to attract hummingbirds. See how to create your own hummingbird garden design. Design your Silver and Gray Garden. Spread out your plant's blooming times and include Spring Flowers and Summer Flowers and Fall Flowers in your design.
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To get a horticultural question answered ask the gardener.
Fall is here and it is planting season yet water supplies are short, trying to manage a garden with these conditions is a challenge. There are plenty of drought tolerant plants that come from far worse climates than ours. Check our July Garden Calendar to see what we are doing to keep our plants happy and healthy.
Have you thought that a water feature would bring a section of your garden to life? A pond evaporates at the same rate that a lawn transpires. But you usually have a much smaller pond than lawn. Use your water to it's greatest effect. We show you how to plan, build, and plant your own pond, fountain or Water Garden. A small water feature can have an outsized effect on attracting birds, reducing noise from outside and just making a garden special.
Come visit our Garden Book Reviews to see our favorite references. You can also find reviews scattered within the corresponding sections of the plant lists. There is plenty of good reading for plant lovers.
Photos taken by Martin Fletcher see our recent best in the garden image catalog. More of Martin's wildlife images can be found at Organic-Landscape.com
Site address: 2076 Los Encinos Rd. Ojai, CA 93023