theGardenPages: About me, Wallpaper, Plant Links and Gardening Info

* We are in sunny southern California, USDA zone 10

* Heavy, clay adobe, alkaline soil. I use a pitchfork, elbow grease and compost to improve my soil.

* One compost pile in a container from a cool LA County Water Conservation program

* Average 7 inches of rainfall a year. Not big on watering either!

This is what it's all about

theGardenPages was started by a single mom trying to keep the fridge full for The Teenager.

I love gardening and that's how my
gardening site was born.

Drop by my Southern California Gardening BLOG

Keep up on what's blooming in the garden and
ask questions about the articles or plants you've read about here

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Visit my new garden and collectibles store on eCrater

Home, Garden and Plant Store

My new store is open under my MomsRetro brand banner.
It goes with my retro art and cooking website, MomsRetro.com

Use coupon code THANKSMOM to take $1 off anything!
For a LIMITED TIME I have cuttings from the plants
you've read about on my web pages and blog!

What is eCrater? A selling venue where people like me can sell their plants, collectibles, books or other treasures to kind people like you. Nicer, safer, better than you-know-where!

Visit my AngelCityArt store on CafePress
to find all the NEW gardening art I create for theGardenPages

Garden art, plant humor sayings, botanicals, antique reproductions,
new retro designs and more at my CafePress store AngelCityArt

What is CafePress? A lovely company based in Kentucky, USA who handles all the printing, payments and shipping of my artwork on all kinds of cool products.

Follow Me on Twitter (I'm AngelCityArt)

Angels Needed!

Please help me promote my stores by posting my Coupon Page

Visit my Secret Coupon Page with discounts at all my stores!
Please print and post freely!

Other Stuff I've Been Doing

I'm getting addicted to this new Squidoo thingy and you can get a lot of info and resources all on one page. Please drop by and leave me a note!

Rosemary Squidoo Page
Haworthia Plant Cult Page
My Lovely Lavender Page
My Squidoo Lensmaster Page (AngelCityArt)

Questions, need graphics for your eCrater store or an article?
Ask me
take out REMOVECAPS in the address to defeat my high-tech spam filter

View All My Syndicated Home and Gardening Articles

Link to Me at theGardenPages

All content ©LauraZinkan 2009

Thanks to a few bad apples stealing my bandwidth and getting me in trouble,
I am now forced to put up this bitchy disclaimer:

These images are intended for use as wallpaper on personal computers ONLY. I wanted people to have a nice image on their desktop to look at while their boss is screaming at them.
You are not allowed to reproduce images without permission (and a licensing agreement). You are NOT ALLOWED to link to these images. Doing so will subject you to bad karma and ill wishes from all the innocent gardeners who have to wade through this paragraph just to get to the good haworthia bits.

A Garden For Your Desktop

Relax with a nice garden photo wallpaper on your computer.
These plants are happy in my garden so I thought I'd share them with you. Read more about these and other succulents plants and water saving shrubs on my Succulents and Native Plant page.

PLEASE DO NOT HOTLINK TO MY IMAGES

Click on the image to see wallpaper size - 1024 x 768

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera (Aloe vera) is a succulent whose fleshly leaves grow up to 2 feet long and as wide. Mine is in a pot with another little succulent called rosary plant.

Aloe plants get bright orange flowers on long stalks in the spring. It does best in light shade. Dark brown or reddish spots on the leaves is a sign of sunburn. They need water about once a month, or when the stalks look shriveled. USDA Zones 9-10.

Aloe is famous for its healing properties. Cut off the skin and use the pulp on sunburns or other skin irritations. It worked like a charm on my baby's diaper rash. Read more on the Aloe Vera page...

French Lavender

French lavender (Lavandula dentata) blooms almost all year and is drought tolerant. It takes full sun to partial shade.

In my garden, it gets compost for fertilizer and to keep the moisture in. I give it a little water during the hottest part of summer. USDA Zones 5-9.

It reaches 3 to 4 tall and 4 to 6 feet wide with narrow green or gray green leaves. The purple flowers are 1-1 1/2" long. The flowers are great in fresh arrangements, or can be dried just by hanging.

Lavender is a great insect repellent. Wrap up a few blossoms in a piece of fabric and place in your drawers. I tuck sprigs into my woodpile to keep out bugs. Lavender has been used in love potions for centuries. It is also worn to attract love and elevate mood. Read more about these fragrant plants on my Lavender Growing Tips Page...

Haworthia Correcta

I just love these little gems. And they are growing a cult following. Their leafs are translucent, so they seem to glow from the inside when the sun hits them just right. They are deep emerald green to light lime green. The tips of their leaves are like windows looking into the green jelly inside.

Outdoors, succulent Haworthia plants like shade from the hottest sun or they get orange and burned. Indoors, try them on a bright windowsill out of direct sunlight. If you are lucky they will reward you with a single white flower on top of a 12” stalk in the winter. The flower has just two trumpet shaped petals. Exquisite. USDA Zones 10-11. Read more about Haworthia on my Succulents and Native Plant Page...

grow your mind bookmark for gardeners and teachers

Encourage Reading with a Fun Free Bookmark!

Here's a little bookmark for you to print out. At first glance, it looks like a topiary plant in a pot. Look closer and you notice it reads;

Grow
Your
Mind.
Read a book.

You can drag it to your desktop and copy it into a Word document.

Teachers; this will look fine if you want to print it in greyscale.

Print a few on card stock and pass them out to the class!

Links to Western Native
Plant Nurseries & Organizations

A few seed and plant sites I've discovered over time. They either have great info on western US natives, drought tolerant plants or succulents & cacti. I don't get paid for their links, I'm just happy to spread the good word. Some sites have information about current threats to native plant environments and what you can do to help!

Since you're feeling plant-y, I encourage you to join and support the local native plant society for your state or region. You can find a plant society in your area by searching on 'native plant society + your state name' in Google.

California Native Plant Society (CNPS)

California TreeLink The Community Forestry Resource

Far West Bulb Farm (California Native Bulb growers) Home Page

GardenWitchery - Cute page with info on 'planting by the moon' and an illustrated Moon Phase Calendar

J. L. Hudson, Seedsman - my absolute favorite 'underground' seed company now has an online site! (Relax, he still doesn't have a phone and typsets his seed catalogue without computers.) Unique flowers, desert vegetables traded on treks into Indian territory, heirloom tomatoes from frozen Siberia, info on sustainable living, seed saving & germination research

Las Pilitas Nursery - Cool nursery and amazing information on natives. Here's a page on California native plants used by California butterflies with pictures!

Plants of the Southwest

Redwood City Seed Company

Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants

Urban Bee Gardens - Find out how you can help save the bees!

US Arboretum's Online USDA Zone Map.

US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service - Database on how plants are effected by fire, which are good for fire resistance and info on invasive species

US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Concervation Service, Plants Database - Database on US plants, temperatures and endangered species information

Western Native Seed - Western wildflowers and grass seed

**Thanks for dropping by! Find Gardening Art and Sayings at my AngelCityArt Online Store**
Shop all my gardener slogans and art at my AngelCityArt store	It's All About the Trees One of my most popular totes!	Gardening Sayings and Humor Composters to veggie gardeners	Wall and Kitchen Clocks Retro, modern, floral or plain