Succulents and More™

‟A book about Texas gardens? I live in California / Arizona / Oregon / Washington / etc. How is that relevant for me and why should I care?” I'm sure that's what some of you may be thinking. And I get it. We tend to focus on places and things we're familiar with. But most of the time, the challenges we face, as well as the joys and triumphs we experience, are not unique to where we live. I was reminded of that in vivid terms when I read Pam Penick's new book, Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State . In this review, I will explain why it resonates with me so strongly. Pam Penick, photographed by Kenny Braun Texas is enormous: encompassing 268,000 square miles, it's the second largest U.S. state by area (Alaska is #1).  It's part of the southern Great Plains , but it spans ten ecoregions and USDA hardiness zones  6b to 10b. Yearly rainfall totals range from 60 inches in southeastern Texas to 10 inches in El Paso. Challenges include everyt...

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I visited Max and Justin in Oakland. As you can see in this post , their garden is a lush oasis in an otherwise ungardened neighborhood. (Actually, it would be a standout in any neighborhood.) A couple of Saturdays ago, Max and Justin came to Davis to check out the UC Davis Arboretum plant sale and see my garden. Once we were done here, we made the 25-minute drive to Sacramento to drop in on Kyle. Visiting each other’s gardens, hanging out, and talking plants, that’s what it’s all about. I see Kyle’s garden on a regular basis, but I don’t take photos each time I’m there. But since he was doing some cleanup anyway (leaf drop season!), I thought this would be a good time for an update. After all, my last post was back in April . This post is very picture-heavy, so you may want to pace yourself. In fact, there are so many photos that Google Blogger, the platform I’m using, was balking at the number of images I tried to upload at the same time. Kyle’s garden i...