A surfer slides past Lighthouse Point on a recent morning as purple ice plant flowers hang from the cliff. The ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) is a coastal succulent shrub native to South Africa, where ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... As a frequent visitor to West Cliff Drive, I have developed a preference for public landscaping. Stephen Kessler’s recent column praising the ice plant on ...

Fruits and vegetables need plenty of nutrients and water to thrive in a garden. California native plants prefer unamended soils and need little water once they’re established. Separation is the key to ...

Keith Hambrecht vividly recalls his first experience with the bane of American wetlands, a tall, dense reed called phragmites. "I didn't know what it was at the time," he says, remembering working on ...

Many gardeners understand the ecological importance of native plants, which are those plants that occur naturally in a geographic area, and have evolved over thousands of years, shaped by local ...

Happy October, dear readers! I am in deep disbelief that we’re somehow nearing the end of 2025, but orb-weaver spiders — those great harbingers of fall — are already out in force in my Ventura yard, ...