Inspired Gardening

Snowmelt continues to flow into creeks and to create ephemeral waterfalls

while wildflowers and shrubs have started filling the mountains with color once again. Each week

brings something new.

Last weekend, we found a hillside covered in blue ceanothus and bright yellow bush poppies.

Phacelia distans

Owl's clover

Fortunately, the hillsides that were blackened two years ago are slowly recovering with wildflowers. 

What a great treat to discover new bursts of color coming out of the otherwise dismal landscape.

Scarlet bugler

Lupine

Showy penstemon

Being surrounded by such beautiful native plants has inspired me to be a better gardener.

These are a few of my favorite flowers that I have planted in our backyard a couple of years ago. Summers get mighty hot and dry plus we have resident chipmunks, squirrels and gophers so not everything I plant is successful. These are doing pretty well though.

This spring, I planted one of my all-time favorite flowers - the California Poppy. Currently, I have 3 plants. Maybe one day, I'll have a huge orange field replacing my present dirt patch. That is certainly a dream of mine!

Happy gardening from King Frog and me!

Click on photos to enlarge.

Photos and content by Robin Roberts.

For more information about native plants of California or to purchase them, go to

Tree of Life nursery. https://californianativeplants.com/

I just discovered this website which includes some educational virtual workshops. I plan to make a trip there soon.

Blooms and Feathers Among the Cactus

Beavertail Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus

Before moving to the southwest, I had zero knowledge of the amazing diversity of plants that flourish in this region. California is considered a biodiversity hotspot due to the high number of endemic species that are located here. That includes 61percent of the 3,500 species of plants unique to this area. Despite my minimal knowledge of plants, I never grow tired of the blooms that begin to appear each Spring. They are critical to a healthy ecosystem that supports all the critters and insects that make it their home.

View from Cactus Springs trail

Years ago, a dear ornithologist friend told me that one day I would want to be a Master Gardener since I was a bird lover. I didn't quite understand at the time but I do now. We support birds and other pollinators such as butterflies and bees when we are gardening.

Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata)

Scott's Oriole (Icterus parisorum)

These are a couple of the birds that showed themselves to me on this arid trail.

Yucca

When you are used to living in a forest of trees, you don't think of the few woodpeckers that need to make a nest in a landscape with little or no trees. The Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris) is one that can utilize yucca snags for nesting.

Giant Four O'Clock
When I started my early morning hike, these beauties were like this but a few hours later, they had totally closed up- a good technique for avoiding the heat of the intense sun. Next stop, the high country for inspiration for my own garden.

Click on photos to enlarge.
Photos and content by Robin Roberts.