Our Journal

In case you nearly missed it, we’re just reaching the end of California Poppy season! This is Eschscholzia californica, California’s state flower and a familiar roadside weed. Plants reach only 1-2 feet tall, and they grow well without water or fertilizer in the Bay Area. Orange is the most common color, but you can find them in many shades, including red, pink, pale yellow, and even white. You sometimes hear that it is illegal to cut our state flower, but that’s not exactly true. State law says you need permission to remove / sell…

Our client asked us to come up with a solution for this sad slope between a fence and a sidewalk. Over time, soil can wash away or become too compacted to accept irrigation. Then you’re left with a steep slope with poor soil and just a few plants hanging on. One solution would be to take out everything and start over with concrete retaining walls, a new irrigation system, and lots of new plants, but that can add up to an expensive project for such an out-of-the-way area. We took a more economical approach, performing a tune-up…