Taking cues from several African countries, the City of Los Angeles passed a law on July 23, 2008 banning all plastic grocery and take out bags as of 2010. Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania have also passed laws banning or restricting the use of plastic bags. In Kenya, where only about 10% of waste makes it [...]

My trip to Lake Dillon and Breckenridge this week was beautiful, and thought I’d share some photos. Particularly beautiful are the California Poppies and native Columbine. The arid climate with extreme heat and extreme cold isn’t easy for most plants, but those that are native are certainly beautiful. Pine beetles have left much of the [...]

In my perusing of numerous online blogs and news stories, I ran into this interesting site: Locavore Nation. Locavore Nation a website dedicated to a year-long experiment in which 15 folks from across the US try to base at least 80% of their diet from local food sources. You can read about their struggles and [...]

The pink guara (Onagraceae Guara lindheimen), a native of Texas, is a great perennial for a butterfly garden. Hardy and drought tolerant, this bushy shrub has small pink flowers shaped like butterflies. The one shown below was about 2 feet tall at the time of planting (March 2008). Now, it’s taller than me! This plant [...]