Succulents and More™

Last week's heat wave was early and intense, setting new temperatures records in Sacramento and many other places up and down the Central Valley (110°F/43°C on Friday in Sacramento). Of course this pales in comparison to cities like Palm Springs (120°F/49°C on June 15), Las Vegas (117°F/47°C on June 16), and Phoenix (118°F/48°C on June 18), not to mention Death Valley (128°F/53°C on June 17). Yes, you read that right: Death Valley reached 128°F/53°C last Thursday; the highest temperature ever recorded there (and anywhere else on Earth) was 134°F/57°C in 1913.  According to the UC Davis weather and climate station , Davis got to 112°F/44°C on Saturday. The highest I saw on our outdoor thermometers was 106°F/41°C, but even that is plenty hot. I hunkered down inside under a ceiling fan and binge-watched Netflix's new Icelandic series Katla . It's set on and around the subglacial volcano of the same name, and merely seeing how cold people looked on screen helped me feel cooler....

After my visit to Stephen and Gary's East Bay garden chronicled in this post , the three of us headed over to Justin's garden in Pinole. It's only 8 miles as the crow flies, but the drive takes about 25 minutes because of the hilly terrain in between.  The two properties—Stephen and Gary's, and Justin's—couldn't be more be different. The first is 27,000 sq. ft. in the tree-studded hills, the second is 6,000 sq.ft. in the flatlands. But each gardener has adapted to the location and topography and put his own stamp on it. Justin's front yard was a large expanse of pretty much nothing when they bought the house. Because of ongoing gopher problems, Justin began to create mounds to make it easier to install cages around the roots of plants preferred by the critters (especially agaves). He also incorporated rocks into the mounds in such a masterful way that they look entirely natural—no mean feat. This kind of work takes time and there's still plenty of room l...