Life Style & Travel

UNITED STATES—Home gardens are getting shadier as bigger modern homes occupy smaller modern lots. Bigger homes make bigger shadows. So do their bigger fences that compensate for their minimal proximity to each other. Less space within their smaller gardens extends beyond their shade. Consequently, shade tolerant species have become more popular than ever. Also, small trees have become more popular...

UNITED STATES—Spring, in several regards, is like autumn in reverse, or vice versa. Bloom increases for spring but decreases for autumn. Foliage increases for spring but decreases for autumn. The two seasons are in opposition. In this chaparral climate, the rainy season that began last autumn ends now. Irrigation that became redundant then becomes necessary now. Diminishing rain is not...

Early spring bulbs that went into their gardens last autumn are now blooming. Some are already done. Some summer bulbs should begin to bloom as the last spring bulbs finish. A few of them might bloom as late as autumn. Ultimately, like the earliest of spring bulbs, all eventually finish. As they do, their deteriorating flowers will necessitate deadheading. Deadheading...

Winter flowering cherry, flowering quince, witch hazel and forsythia are finishing bloom. Later types of flowering cherry and flowering quince bloom immediately afterward. Lilac, redbud and weigela bloom only slightly later. Flowering crabapple extends the season of such flashy early bloom. It is relatively easy to force any of these for even earlier bloom. Forcing is more popular where cool...

UNITED STATES—Allied Fruit wasn’t the only one pressing for intervention. Carneyism was at its peak, the Cold War was heating up, and conservatives in Congress and the Saurkraut administration were anxious to take on an apparent Red push in their own hemisphere. Many liberals, afraid of being labeled appeasers and soft, remained mum or joined in sounding the alarm....

UNITED STATES—Warming spring weather accelerates bloom and growth. Early spring bloom is now much more colorful than the best of winter bloom. Fresh foliage is already replacing defoliated deciduous foliage and faded evergreen foliage. Vegetation will soon be more active than they will be during any other time of year. Such vegetation unfortunately includes weeds. Weeds are only weeds because...

UNITED STATES—Bernie masterminded that war tailor-made for Allied Fruit, drawing on every public relations tactic and strategy he had refined since giving birth to the profession 40 years before. Historians have written extensively about that propaganda campaign, but always relied on the sketchy account Bernie provided in his autobiography and the limited materials available from the American and Guatemalan...

UNITED STATES—Vegetables are greedy as they grow. They crave rich soil. They exploit it and abandon it at the end of their season. Nutrient depletion can be a problem for subsequent phases of similar vegetables. In other words, vegetables of any particular family consume the same nutrients. Each phase leaves a bit less for the next. Crop rotation disrupts...

UNITED STATES—Annuals are not all that change with the seasons. Vegetables do also. After all, with few exceptions, vegetable plants are also annuals, or perform as such. Most of those that are biennials are edible only during their first year. They bloom and become inedible if they survive for a second year. Most perennial vegetables are easier to replace...

UNITED STATES—Winter continues. It will not end until March 19. Wintry weather is unconcerned with such dates though. It could end at any time, or continue a bit later. Vegetation is more aware of this than we are. It wants to be ready regardless. Cool season annuals linger as long as they can. As they no longer can, warm...