Create a 'Garden for Wildlife'

Soon I hope to register our garden with the National Wildlife Federation. It's easy and with the small $15 application fee, I'll get a little sign I can put out in our yard to show passersby in our neighborhood that they can create a colorful, waterwise yard that attracts a multitude of birds, bees, and butterflies.

Visit the National Wildlife Federation's website to get more ideas about how you can get started. Even if you don't have all the 'ingredients' in your yard to satisfy the Federation's rules for registering, you can get ideas about how to bring more native life into your garden.

Spring Blooms in Our Garden

If you've followed me on Twitter, you know that sometimes the garden surrounding our house is foremost on our minds. At the beginning of spring, weeds were a major stumbling block after the winter rains. We discovered that when weeds had taken over the paths surrounding our planters, we could wipe them out without using poisonous weedkillers. Instead we used a square-nosed shovel and scraped them off. After about two weeks of work, we had almost weed-free paths.
Now we've got a bunny in our yard that feeds almost exclusively on weeds in the DG (decomposed granite) and on any grass that takes hold in our planters. I never thought we could have a symbiotic relationship with rabbits.



These are photos of our front yard in full bloom. When Mickey works out front, he gets many compliments on how well it's doing.














Last weekend, we had a woman ask us who did and does our yard. Well, the landscapers that are no longer in business did the hardscape and planted some of our plants, but after about eight months of unreliable maintenance on our yard, we keep it up on our own. So far, so good.

Almost all the plants are on a drip system. In addition, most of the plants are drought-tolerant, such as Salvia, Ceanothus, and Kangaroo Paw. We've got an assortment of lavendar plants, dwarf bottlebrush, daisies, heavenly bamboo, and in the back, some camellias and azaleas.

Shortly, I hope to register our garden with the National Wildlife Federation. I'll write about how to do that in the future.

Anza Borrego in Bloom, Spring 2008

These photos are stacked on top of each other. I'm still trying to figure out a better way to display them as a slideshow. I tried 'Photobucket' but didn't like having to make all my photos public. To see the pictures in full view, just click on the photo. Enjoy!




If you live here in San Diego, you know that this is the season to get out to Anza Borrego to see the desert in bloom. With all the rain this winter, we were guaranteed a spectacular display of wildflowers. I went twice over a three week period and am so glad I did. Not only did I see this precious work of Mother Nature, but the second visit helped me a little to overcome this heaviness of heart in losing Shadow. The desert and the mountains are wonderful outdoor cathedrals of worship and comfort.