News Dislodges A Traumatic Memory Of A Police Killing
UNITED STATES—Nine minutes of video brought many White people a sudden awareness that different treatment for people of brown and browner skinbn was a real thing. Say the name, George Floyd.
I was not a newcomer to that unequal treatment. When a friend of mine, a widely traveled Rhode Islander, came to Los Angeles for the first time five years...
Bronze Is The New Green For Foliage
UNITED STATES—Bronze foliage will never actually replace green foliage. Even if there were enough variety of plants with bronze foliage to do so, too much bronze would look dreary. Bronze is just another option for foliar color in landscapes with significant vegetation. It is distinct from simpler green, and contrasts nicely with gold, blue, gray and variegated foliage. Some...
Hanging Planters Need Extra Attention
UNITED STATES—With few exceptions, plants dislike confinement of their roots. They prefer to be in the ground where they can disperse roots freely. Houseplants stay potted because of a lack of other soil inside. Some plants live in pots for portability. Some plants just happen to look good in pots. Plants in hanging planters conform to any combination of...
Sweeping Changes
UNITED STATES—A good pandemic is not being wasted: it is sending science racing for answers and fresh ideas are not only being heard, but being implemented. For instance, on busy thoroughfares like Sunset with heavy foot traffic, pedestrian crosswalk buttons were suddenly phased out. Something I'd been dreaming about, especially as in recent times, as you'd have groups of...
Stinky Flowers Serve Their Purpose
UNITED STATES—From a human perspective, flowers should not be stinky. They should be pretty and colorful, and perhaps delightfully fragrant. Many flowers in landscapes and home gardens actually are. After all, they are grown for their appealing bloom. Many plants that provide only foliage produce wind pollinated flowers. They are not particularly pretty, colorful or delightfully fragrant, but not...
Mentally Stronger Than You Know
UNITED STATES─Sometimes you never know how strong of a person you are mentally until you place yourself in a predicament to prove your willpower. I have been actively working to improve my health since the start of the year, I’ve had hiccups throughout the process, but if there is one thing that I’m good at is when I make...
Bedding Plants That Defy Seasons
UNITED STATES—Bedding plants that go into the garden in spring are generally warm season or summer annuals. They should perform through summer until the weather gets too cool for them the following autumn. Bedding plants that go into the garden in autumn are generally cool season or winter annuals. They should perform through winter until the weather gets too...
Multi Trunk Trees Seem Natural
UNITED STATES—For several years in the late 1960 and early 1970s, European white birch were trendy. Most lived in ubiquitous groups of three. Where three did not fit, a single multi trunk tree, typically with three trunks, was a popular option. Each multi trunk tree provided as many trunks as a few single trunk trees. For these particular white...
Food Refuel
UNITED STATES─Food it is the one thing that we all must have to keep moving. Food is an essential need, without it you cannot live people. However, there are food items that are good for the body and others not so much. With that said, I have recently had a food refuel. Why? I’ve been sick lately, to the...
Nature Gets Too Much Credit
UNITED STATES—Vegetation make people feel closer to nature. It is, after all, what most of us expect to see out in the wild. Most vegetation that is observed in forests and undeveloped areas really is natural. Much of the associated insects and wildlife are natural as well. Such flora and fauna know how to survive within their respective ecosystems....