Okay, I had a beautiful basil plant growing, until this morning. Something chomped it to nubs. I don’t think it is caterpillars but I’m not sure what could have done damage that quickly. Yikes!
I cut the whole plant way down, just about the bud nodes on each branch. Time will tell if it will come back but I’m hopeful!
I have been having fun with my succulent bonsai trees. This one is coming along nicely. It’s a Crassula Ovata commonly known as a jade plant. The variety pictured here is ‘Ogre Ears’ or ‘Shrek’s Ears’ which I think is a perfect description of the leaves. This variety seems to be much more tolerant and trainable than the more common crassula argentea.
I am having fun with this project. It takes a bit of patience but there’s a lot of room for error if you make a regrettable branch cut. I am starting to pinch the ends of the crassula argentea variety because they tend to get a bit leggy and I’ve had a number of branches falling off. I’m hoping the pinching will promote more bushiness and hopefully smaller leaves. Time will tell.
To give you some scale, the oval pot measures about 3 x 4 inches across and about 3 inches high.
I was looking at the tree and it seemed a bit “crowded” was time for a trim. The branch I’m holding is the one I decided to cut back.
I only removed one branch but I think the tree looks much more balanced. 
Wild fruit before domestication look very different than we would recognize today. I thought this video was very interesting!
I am not much of a math person, but the first time I learned about Fibonacci numbers, it opened up a whole new perspective on numbers and how it is all connected to nature. This video is a beautiful demonstration of Nature in Numbers. Happy Easter!
Check out this interesting Ted talk:
Why do Honeybees like Hexagons?
San Diego County has six major climate zones which is important to know when you are planting. The San Diego County Water Authority breaks down the different zones to help guide you in your planting choices to manage your water resources efficiently and grow plants that are suited well to your environment. WIthin these climate ranges are microclimates, more specific to conditions of a particular location. A good example of this might be living in a valley or on a hillside where wind and sun might be variables dramatic enough to create different growing environments with a a climate zone.
Read by Jeremy Irons…..
March 24, 1940 – Kate Sessions, “Mother of Balboa Park” died at age 83.
Kate was a renown horticulturist trained at the University of California Berkeley. Kate operated a nursery in San Diego, and supervised the plantings at the Hotel del Coronado. The City of San Diego let her use 30 acres in Balboa Park rent-free, in exchange for her planting 100 trees a year in Balboa Park and donating another 300 trees for planting around San Diego. Kate Sessions was a woman with vision who left us a legacy of trees.
I’m having a lot of luck with orchids reblooming this year. Last year I lost a lot of my orchids because it was very cold and they never dried out from all the rain. I’ve been diligent this year at making sure all my orchids are placed in better protective spots and not allowing them to sit in water. Here’s my booty this year so far. BTW, these were all bought at Trader Joes. 🙂
