A blog about gardening in Las Vegas
I love identifying plants for people, mostly because it makes me feel smart, but also because I genuinely like to see people excited about adding something new to their landscape. About half the time they’ll bring in a picture or a cutting from a tree or shrub that they’ve …
What kind of tree is right for your needs? Just about daily, people come into the nursery looking for a tree that’ll keep its leaves year-round, based on the assumption that deciduous trees are messier and because they look dead in the wintertime. What these folks don’t usually …
Let me start by making one thing perfectly clear, please. I love good landscape contractors. In fact, I straight up worship and adore those who make it their business to know their business. A landscaper who goes to the trouble to do things right is worth the weight of their truck …
Ah, bougainvillea. People seem to either love this plant or hate it, and their feelings are usually based on whether or not they’ve ever had to take care of one before. They are, after all, gorgeous when they’re in bloom, putting on a brilliant and eye-catching display of color …
I feel like we need to talk about bad pruning again, guys. Because here’s the thing: I’m not even really having to look for this stuff at all. It just kind of jumps out at you when you’re least expecting it and it could happen pretty much anywhere in Vegas, …
Ever wonder why there are so many plants in the world ending in –wort? Yeah, me neither, but it’s actually a pretty good question if you think about it for a minute. I mean, there’s adderwort, asterwort, awlwort, banewort, barrenwort, bearwort, bellwort, birthwort, bishop’s wort, bitterwort, bladderwort, blawort, bloodwort, …
It’s that time of year again. Summertime is palm-pruning season, which means that we’ll be seeing a lot of beautiful palm trees around town receiving some pretty bad haircuts by people who really should know better. Cutting palms back too far is bad for the tree and it looks positively awful, and …
The residential lots in Las Vegas are considerably smaller than what you’ll find in many other cities, which means that there’s not usually a lot of room for a giant tree in either the front or the backyard. A tree that comes in at no more than 20’ is probably one of …
With the recent announcement that the potentially very dangerous giant hogweed plant had been found in Calhoun County, Michigan, it seems like a good time to bring up the subject of toxic plants that are more commonly found in and around Las Vegas. Since giant hogweed tends to grow in …
I’m really only half-joking when I say that gardening in Las Vegas is like gardening on Mars. We have brutal summers where the temperature regularly tops 110°, while our winter nights dip well below freezing at least a couple of times a year. I once heard a soil expert on …