Gerhard Bock

After a few weeks of truly beautiful early-spring weather, we’re in for a week of rain and periods of high winds with gusts of up to 40 mph. The rain is much needed because our precipitation totals for the season have fallen below normal now—we had...

This past weekend I was busy cutting down most of our tropical plants that had gone dormant for the winter. I like to keep the dried up foliage through early spring because it provides extra protection for the crown of the plant, or its rhizomes or cor...

Happy Sunday, everybody. No blog post today but I’ll be back tomorrow.

The century plant (Agave americana) is the most common and one of the largest agave species. A fast grower and prolific producer of suckers, it forms huge colonies over time. In California’s Central Valley where I live, it’s frequently seen at the ...

A few people have asked me what the cacti were that I bought the other day at Lowe’s. Luckily, they were all labeled, so it was quite easy to throw together this gallery of beauty shots. Ball cactus (Parodia magnifica), native to Brazil, flowers...

I went to Lowe’s in West Sacramento over lunch today to see what they have on clearance. After finding a very large golden barrel cactus last month, I didn’t expect to have much luck today. I’m happy to say that I was mistaken. Right now, they h...

We’re planning a trip to Joshua Tree National Park and the Salton Sea for the end of February when the kids have a week off. My wife and I used to do a lot of camping in that area, but that was before kids. We’re specifically looking for recommenda...

For the last 24 hours, high winds with gusts up to 40 miles per hour have been whipping through the Sacramento Valley. Last night, the wind was so loud that I ended up sleeping with the pillow over my ears to block out the sound. This morning, our news...

One of the 11 projects I set out to complete in 2011 was to create a display stand for my succulents. Until now, they were in pots on our front porch, severely limiting the floor space we had available for other things—like hanging out, having drinks...

Last month I found a large golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) on the clearance rack at Lowe’s. It was in a 7 gallon container and measured 13 inches across. Since it was filling the nursery container with no room to spare, I knew I would ha...