One of gardening’s oldest techniques is also one of the cheapest and most effective. And it’s especially useful in dry climates like Southern California’s. We’re talking about mulching or covering the soil with a protective layer. What makes it...
Your once-gorgeous strawberries are half-eaten before the harvest. Your once-luscious lettuce has more holes than a pegboard, and the brownish tinge of decay has crept up on your tomato plants. What gives? In your battle against garden pests, the pests are winning....
Plants have a buddy system. Certain plants help others grow stronger than they could on their own. Welcome to companion gardening. Farmers and plant enthusiasts have used this technique for centuries to boost crop yields, improve pest control, and promote overall...
There are hundreds of songs about butterflies. Zero songs about the lowly cutworm. It’s easy to understand why, despite the rhyming difficulties of a word like “butterfly.” Butterflies enchant us. Their brilliant colors and graceful flight capture...
Chinch bugs are a nuisance for California landscapes, especially yards with St. Augustine grass. These pernicious pests suck the sap from grass nodes and crowns, causing yellowish to brownish patches. If left unchecked, they can ruin a lawn in short order. Their small...
