Book Review: California Native Plants for the Garden
Ask anyone who gardens with California natives to name a good, comprehensive book on that subject and you’ll always get the same answer: Marjorie Schmidt’s Growing California Native Plants....
Exploration
Caching In
Think of the western scrub jay: screeching, assertive, a bully and glutton at backyard bird feeders. But also, as Judith Larner Lowry has noticed in her West Marin yard, caching...
Book Review: Designing California Native Gardens: The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens
Designing California Native Gardens: The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens, by Glenn Keator and Alrie Middlebrook, UC Press, 2007, 352 pages, $27.50 www.ucpress.edu The decades-long drought is definitely...
Book Review: The Landscaping Ideas of Jays: A Natural History of the Backyard
The Landscaping Ideas of Jays: A Natural History of the Backyard Restoration Garden, by Judith Larner Lowry, UC Press, 2007, 292 pages, $24.95 www.ucpress.edu Most people don’t think of restoration...
Kayaking Resources
The San Francisco Bay Area and Central California coast are full of wonderful places to explore in a kayak, from the Russian River south to Monterey and from bayshore wetlands...
Visiting the San Pablo Baylands
Despite covering a large area that has abundant wildlife, the San Pablo Baylands offer few public access points, among them the following sites (listed roughly from east to west): Ponds...
Paddling on the Wild Side
Few craft can match a kayak for allowing you to immerse yourself in the watery universe of bay or ocean, moving silently through the world of seals, otters, dolphins, and...
The Summit Loop Hike
This strenuous 5.3-mile hike circumambulates Mount Diablo’s summit, and traverses many of the mountain’s geological and botanical features. When I was there in early April 2006, the air was startlingly...
Outdoor Summer Camp Resources
Too much homework? Bully picking on you at school? Perhaps not, but have you stopped to wonder if your children are yearning for a breath of fresh air? Sometimes, even...
Forrest Deaner Native Plant Garden
The newly fledged Forrest Deaner Native Plant Garden in the Benicia State Recreation Area has the distinction of being the second public garden in the Bay Area to focus exclusively...
