In the last few years, I have discovered that November is the best possible month of the year to rid my garden of weeds. The last days of autumn captured …

Zone 1

Sow wildflower seeds
Water to winterize trees and shrubs
Clean up vegetable and perennial gardens
Plant spring-blooming bulbs
Apply winterizing formula lawn fertilizer (with high potassium)
Clean out greenhouse and sterilize bench tops
Sow salad greens and make or buy a cold frame for frost [...]

Fresh-cut, home-grown flowers transform a house into a home! Cutting armfuls of flowers you grew, and then making arrangements, drying them or giving them away is a true country pleasure. For years, I resisted harvesting flowers from my gardens, afraid I would ruin the wonderful display. The perfect solution was to start a cutting garden.
This [...]

Monterey cypress
Cupressus macrocarpa Hartw.                                     
Cypress family (Cupressaceae)
Post-Cook introduction
Medium-sized to large introduced aromatic evergreen
tree with small scalelike leaves. Trunk straight, to 110 ft
(34 m) high and commonly 21⁄2 ft (0.8 m) in diameter,
with conical or spreading crown. Bark dark gray, rough,
thick, furrowed into flat ridges. Inner bark light brown
with outer dark brown layer, slightly bitter, resinous.
Twigs [...]

Description: “Medium-sized tree (sometimes very large in cultivation), pyramidal at first, with broad crown when mature. Bark thick, reddish brown beneath, often becoming whitish on surface. Adult foliage in dense, dark green masses, aromatic when bruised; branchlets systems not flattened. 1-3-year shoots terete, reddish brown, with leaves appressed except [...]