True Blue: The Search for the Garden’s Most Magical Color By Earl NickelCurious Plantsman Why do we love the color blue? Certainly blue skies above mean sunshine and warming rays on our faces. Blue can also mean the ‘ocean blue’,...

We’re Crazy for Clematis: The Queen of Flowering Vines Earl NickelCurious Plantsman No shrinking violets, Clematis are some of the most beautiful, hardy and heart-stoppingly gorgeous perennial vines in the world. Boasting a wide range of flower colors and shapes,...

Native Shrubs That Attract Bees, Butterflies, and Birds Native Shrubs It is quite natural when thinking about California native plants to picture the great wealth of native annuals that populate garden center racks in spring. Blue flowering favorites such as...

Winter Garden Care: Tips for a Healthy Spring Garden Earl Nickel,Curious Plantsman Gardening in our mild Bay Area can be a year round endeavor and late winter/early spring offers the opportunity to ready your garden for spring. The experienced gardener...

Layered Planting: Maximizing Beauty in Small Garden Spaces Earl Nickel,Curious Plantsman Many Bay Area gardeners are working with small spaces, where it can be a challenge to find room each season for all the new plant varieties we want to...

How to Plant a Pollinators’ Garden That Thrives One of the joys of gardening is seeing the many types of bees, butterflies, and birds that come a-calling to our bit of paradise. Many of these visitors are there to collect...