Nature | Gardens For Goldens

Perspective

April 5, 2020 by Ogee

A carrier pigeon arrived in the garden in late February. It spent the better part of the day just watching. It was not carrying a written message on its banded leg, but perhaps it foretold what was about to unfold. The ducks and geese mock us now. Public use areas have been closed due to COVID during the remainder of hunting season. The birds have found plenty of places to feast and fly – unmolested. We envy their togetherness. The […]

Categories: Dog Fostering, Dog Rescue, Dogs, Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue, Humanity, Nature • Tags: COVID VIrus, Solitude

Nature Will Improvise

October 20, 2019 by Ogee

We need new descriptors for gardening in our valley now. Thanks to climate change, “full sun” should be relabeled “scorch-resistant.” Beyond “drought tolerant” should be a new category: “desert-like.” Everything I thought I knew about the garden has changed. “Despite the gardener’s best intentions, Nature will improvise.” ~Michael P. Garofalo Nature will improvise. But our gardens, as we have known them may be forever altered. Plants that once sought daylong sun now shrink from the blazing afternoon heat and require […]

Categories: Gardening, Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: Adapting, gardening, Gardening Climate Change

Live in Each Season

September 29, 2019 by Ogee

“Live in each season as it passes.” ~ Henry David Thoreau Having lived through the wet of winter, the erratic fits of spring, and the scorching heat of summer, it is time to rejoice in the mosaic of fall. I love the chaos of the fall garden. All the little starts and shoots have grown tall and wild. Their well-defined contours are now a tangle of color and cascading form. They lay all over each other like summer camp friends […]

Categories: Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: Asters, Bluebeard, Fall Garden, Garden Photography, In Its Season Henry David Thoreau, Sunflowers

Absence

June 16, 2019 by Ogee

Often, the absence of something is felt as tangibly as its presence. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one—two-legged or four—knows this. The silence when returning home or the space in a room previously occupied by their being feels loud and hollow. The empty void as weighty as their once physical presence—leaving regret for ever having taken our time with them for granted. This spring, the garden was filled with swallowtails, painted ladies and cabbage butterflies. Now, there are […]

Categories: Gardening, Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: butterfly disappearance, Climate Change, hummingbird disapperance, nature change

Nature’s Call: Effie Yeaw

January 16, 2019 by Ogee

In pursuit of new adventures, you sometimes lose sight of the jewels in your own backyard. Effie Yeaw Nature Center sits inside Ancil Hoffman Park in Carmichael, CA – a treasure embedded among 100 acres of oak woodland along the American River. It was named for Effie Yeaw, a teacher, conservationist and environmental educator who led natural and cultural history walks in the area once known as Deterding Woods. The Deterding family has a long history in the area dating […]

Categories: Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: American River, American River Parkway, Bucks, California Towhee, Deer, Effie Yeaw Nature Center, Egret, Nature Photography, Red-headed woodpecker, Wild Turkeys

Unity

January 6, 2019 by Ogee

When a group of gardeners first answered the call to help create the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, the design included a dozen or so beds, each devoted to a specific species or type of plant. There were planned beds for iris, viburnum, daylilies, white roses, ornamental grasses, succulents, perennials, and even a one devoted to container plants. It was a design born of the individual interests of the volunteer gardens who would be dedicating their time but lacked something essential: […]

Categories: Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: California Native Plants in Garden, Garden design, Gardening Unity, Homeward Bound Memorial Garden Sacramento, Unity

Choose Your Garden

November 4, 2018 by Ogee

You can create whatever man-made environment you want – just as you can build false societies. But these artificial landscapes require strict restraints, constant oversight, and continuous, often heavy-handed, feeding to maintain control. Without it, they eventually return to their natural state – often in bullying or survival-of-the-fittest ways. Natural gardens spring from what was always intended to be there. True to their nature, they find paths of peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation. And they thrive. Their success supports future […]

Categories: Humanity, Nature, Thought • Tags: Choosing our Future, Vote

Fall Garden Project Number One

October 7, 2018 by Ogee

No, really, there are no remains in the Memorial Garden…although you might suspect otherwise if you saw this. While we were away, fall signaled its arrival. Just hints so far, but the creatures know. And with cooler days come a mountain of projects. First on the list: a complete demolition and re-do of the raised bed area of the garden. Once, these housed a mountain of overgrown and deadly blackberry brambles. They spread their spikes throughout the garden, so they […]

Categories: Gardening, Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, Nature • Tags: Fall Garden Project, gardening, Homeward Bound Memorial Garden Sacramento, new garden bed

Yellowstone

September 30, 2018 by Ogee

The Native Americans called it “Burning Mountains.” They thought an evil spirit lived among the meadows, rivers, forests, and towering mountains. If you witnessed the geysers or stepped into one of the scalding pools – you might think so too. But good spirits live here. Animal spirits. Nature spirits. I have just returned from my first (long overdue) trip to Yellowstone National Park. It is magnificent. I traveled with my friend and fellow gardener, Maria, and her son. There were […]

Categories: Nature, Nature Photography • Tags: Nature Photography, Yellowstone Bear, Yellowstone Bison, Yellowstone Elk, Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone pronghorn, Yellowstone sheep, Yellowstone Steamboat