Tom Karwin

6 days ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Karwin

This column returns to a regular recommendation: walk through your garden to appreciate recent growth and blossoms, spot problems that need attention and identify opportunities to enhance the landscape. Taking a fresh look at your piece of nature can be a departure from daily pressures and an invitation for creativity. Today’s image gallery features blossoms that I encountered during my garden walk. These images are only selected examples of spring growth.

1 week ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Karwin

Getting your hands in the dirt is essential for gardening. A recent article about dirt reported, “Experts say that regular contact with healthy soil has physical and psychological benefits for adults as well as children.”We continue to advocate direct involvement with installing and maintaining plants as an enjoyable and beneficial activity. Still, we cannot ignore the technology that surrounds us.

2 weeks ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Karwin

Gardeners are enjoying a seasonal series of shows and sales by local garden societies. This column has recently highlighted events by the local chapters of the California Native Plant Society, the American Dahlia Society and the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. There’s more to come. The Santa Cruz Orchid Society and the Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai club will co-host their respective shows on May 3 and 4 at the Capitola Mall (in the space previously occupied by the Sears store).

3 weeks ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Karwin

We’re now at the peak bloom period of the highly regarded garden plant, the iris. For the Monterey Bay area, the popular tall-bearded irises typically reach their peak blooms from the end of April to the beginning of May. The bearded iris category includes varieties in several different heights. In my garden, tall-bearded irises and beardless Pacific Coast irises are both in bloom.

1 month ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Karwin

Today’s big news is the Spring Show and Sale of the Monterey Bay Area Cactus and Succulent Society, which will be held April 19 and 20 in Watsonville. See the details in “This week in the garden” (below). Gardening with succulent plants can be part of our preparation for drought conditions, a future possibility that we should not ignore, despite the lush growth supported by recent rains.