UC Gardening Blogs
December Miku
preparation
success
What Native California Plants Are Best for Attracting Pollinators?
What native California plants are best for attracting pollinators? That's a question often...
Phacelia campanularia was one of the 43 plants tested in the UC Davis research garden. Here a honey bee sips nectar from a blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These are some of the 43 plants tested in the UC Davis research garden. This is an illustration from the research paper. (Photos by Ola Lundin)
Useful Lantana
lantana
Time to Revisit 'The 13 Bugs of Christmas'
It's time to revisit the "13 Bugs of Christmas!" Back in 2010, two innovators with the UC Davis...
"On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 5 golden bees." This is one of them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A varroa mite on a honey bee--not something that beekeepers want to see on their bees! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A queen bee and her retinue. "On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 11 queen bees piping." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Goodbye Old Friend
I said goodbye to an old friend this week. We had been friends and sometimes not so friendly but I always loved my friend.
My old friend was a Salvia greggi (red), yes a plant. We had been together here at this house over 25 years. But as time passed my friend started to age and look old. She, yes she, was gone on the inside but still had leaves and blossoms on the outside.
So we thought let us prune her down and see if she sprouts new growth and can be saved, but the more we pruned the more we found she could not be saved, so we just did a light tug and out she came.
Now I have a large empty space where my old friend was, soon to a new friend for that spot.
Spot where 'she' lived. (photo by Betty Victor)