Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Ground Beetles
Karen Ground beetles are members of the Carabidae family of insect with about forty thousand species worldwide, two thousand of which live in North America. They are variable in size and…
Plant Profile: Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
Oriental bittersweet is a deciduous woody vine native to northern China, Japan and Korea growing up to 60’ tall often girlding and killing nearby shrubs and trees. It is a…
Book Review: The Urban Homesteading Cookbook
Do you live in the city but want to homestead? Michelle Catherine Nelson’s book, The Urban Homesteading Cookbook, will give you all the information you need to start collecting, growing,…
Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wine: Clover Wine
Clover wine today is made with the flowers or red rather than white clover. Over a hundred years ago when my paternal grandmother, Helen S. Wright, wrote her book Old…
Plant Profile: Desert Olive (Forestiera pubescens var. pubescens aka F. neomexicana)
Desert olive, also known as stretchberry, elbowbush, spring goldengrow, Texas forsythia, and downy forestier, is a thicket-forming deciduous shrub or small tree is native to desert slopes, canyons, woodland edges…
Plant Combination: Rose ‘Graham Thomas’ and Clematis’ Francizka Maria’
‘Graham Thomas’ is an exceptional rose with intense gold colored flowers that fade to lemon yellow. The plant blooms in flushes all summer and makes a striking combination with the…
Plant Profile: Stiff Aster (Aster liniarifolius aka Ionactis linariifolia )
Stiff aster, also known by other names including bristle aster, flaxleaf whitetop, and savory leaf aster, is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial native to eastern and central US where it grows…
Book Review: Embroidery from the Garden
Inspired by the flora of South Africa, Diane Lampe’s book Embroidery from the Garden presents forty eight embroidery designs suitable for using in many varied projects. Some of the flowers…
Weeds and Their Control: Yellow Rocket (Barbarea vulgaris)
Also called bittercress, herb barbara, rocketcress, winter rocket, and wound rocket, this herbaceous biennial belongs to the mustard family, Brassicaceae, that also includes broccoli, alyssum, and stock. It is native…
Plant Profile: Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum frutescens aka Terania frutescens)
Also known as cenizo, purple sage, Texas barometer bush, and silverleaf, this compact evergreen shrub is native to open canyons, arroyos, ditches, ravines, and hillsides in Texas and northern Mexico…