No, as much as I loved their music, this post won’t focus on the Grateful Dead band and their fans. Sorry to all the deadheads, but the allusion is unavoidable for a 60s child! A few years ago, we prepped our house and yard for an overnight visit from my sister, her husband, and her friend, and I got the task of “deadheading” our Iceberg roses in the front yard. Icebergs produce abundant white roses, but flowers die and need to be pruned for new blooms to blossom. Hence the name “deadhead.” The process is to…
Read MoreA Time to Replant?
Several weeks back we visited our favorite Chapin Winery in Temecula, then in the midst of pruning. The long branches, accurately called canes, that produce the grapes had been cut back to the spur buds on the laterals, or cordons, that grow horizontally. But some long canes remained, seemingly at random, and we puzzled about the purpose. Then last Sunday we figured much of it out. Most of the long canes were now gone, and we first noticed some…
Read More
Overgrown
Among California’s coastal redwoods, a small stream crossed under a bridge on the trail, and then disappeared. Looking closer, I discovered it hadn’t gone underground--it re-emerged not far below. Instead, the moderate climate and abundance of rainfall in the Santa Cruz mountains led to the stream side bushes to grow over and completely cover the stream, for maybe 25 feet. Trust me, a stream IS below the brush! Not a huge issue, unless…
Read More
Defensible Spaces
In addition to nearly two dozen wildfires in CA, smoke from a fire at nearby Camp Pendleton covers our town. No, we’re not revisiting wildfires this week, but I do want to steal a fire fighting term—defensible space, which is controlling the vegetation around your house to help keep it safe. To broaden it, that term applies to our…
Read More
The Curse of Optimism
Long ago, I determined to look on the bright side of life. Earlier focusing on the dark side and possible problems and what others thought of me led to contemplations of suicide. My own. To balance my natural negative take...
Read More
Grateful Dead album cover
Deadheads
No, as much as I loved their music, this post won’t focus on the Grateful Dead band and their fans. Sorry to all the deadheads, but the allusion is unavoidable for a 60s child! As we prepped our house for an overnight visit from my sister, her husband, and her friend, I got the task of “deadheading” our eight Iceberg roses in the front yard. Icebergs produce abundant white roses, flowers that die and need to be pruned for new blooms to blossom. Hence the name “deadheading:” taking some clippers and sniping off all the rose heads now dead.
Read More