El Nino Prep by Valorie Shatynski What is El Nino? El Nino is not a storm. El Nino is a normal 3-to-5-year cycle of warmer water which originates in the equatorial region of the planet. This year’s waters are warmer than in the past, which makes for a possibly very strong rainy season. We could […]
By Cindy Bruecks I’ve received a few Hotline questions asking why a particular plant is acting “out of character”. I’ve seen reports of citrus behaving poorly for no apparent reason, perennials that are not following their “standard” springtime routine, and annuals that clearly have no notion of what the calendar says about the current […]
Nonnative plants rob native species of water, nutrients, space to grow BY LINDA JONES (This article originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on August 13, 2022) Have you noticed dead Canary Island palms (Phoenix canariensis)? Hills covered with bright yellow flowers in spring or with dried nonnative grasses in summer? Maybe you’ve seen waterways […]
Pay attention now to what works well with low water, low effort BY LYNLEE AUSTELL (This article originally appeared in the June 9, 2022 edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune) It is customary for us to think of drought and climate change as being the same. They are not. Climate change requires us to change our […]
