Succulents and More™

We've had a very mild winter so far with just a few brief dips below freezing. So much so that I'd been lulled into thinking we were out of the woods. But all that is about to change as an arctic front is headed our way. The lows forecast by the various weather services vary wildly between 24°F and 28°F. 24°F seems unlikely, but even 28°F isn't good news for our flowering aloes. I'm not worried about the plants themselves—the majority of them are perfectly hardy—but the emerging flowers could be damaged to the point where they stop developing. I'm not covering aloes that are in full bloom, hoping that the flowers are hardy enough to deal with the cold weather. Taking a cue from what gardeners do in Arizona to protect the growing points of their cacti, I put Styrofoam cups over any emerging aloe flowers and covered the largest aloe with unopened flowers ('Erik the Red') with a frost blanket. I'll remove the foam cups (and blankets) as soon as this cold sn...

I love the ocean and I love the mountains, but nothing has a stronger pull on me than the desert. I've long tried to figure out why, and I think it has to do with getting away from people, being in the middle of a vast, empty landscape, and hearing nothing but silence.  It's only fitting then that the first destination on my recent San Diego trip was Anza-Borrego Desert State Park  (ABDSP). Located northeast of San Diego (see map) in the Colorado Desert , it's enormous: almost 600,000 acres. That makes it the largest state park in California. The park is named after 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza  and the Spanish word for bighorn sheep, borrego .  I spent the night in the small community of Borrego Springs , which is completely surrounded by ABDSP. As small as it is, Borrego Springs has quite a variety of places to stay and eat; not surprising, given that the area is a popular weekend destination for people from San Diego and Palm Springs. It is...