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

theGardenPages Home

California Plants and Gardens

California Plants: Toyon

Care of Succulent Plants

Acacia Trees

Aloe Vera Care

Composting

Container Gardening

Crassula Capitella: Campfire

Crassula Ovata: Jade Plants

Crassula Portulacea: Gollum

Crassula Rupestris: Rosary Plant

Crassula Tetragona

Desert Willow: Chilopsis

Flower Meanings

Geraniums

Haworthia: Window Plant

Herbs: Bay Laurel

How to Root Succulent Plants

Kalanchoe Plants

Opuntia: Prickly Pear Cactus

Organic Gardening

Pomegranate Trees

Portulacaria: Baby Jade

Screen Plants

The Emerald Isle

The Garden Art Page

Water Woes

Wisteria

Wallpaper . Links . About

Free Wallpapers
Free Bookmark
Links

Winners and Thank Yous

theGardenPages Blog

Gardening T-shirts, totes and more at
my online store:

Personalized Gardener Saying floral t-shirt

Personalized Gardener Saying With Bright Floral Art T-shirt

Heirloom Gardens Green Saying, reads: Seeds of Yesterday Feeding the Future

Trust Me I'm A Rosarian Gardener Saying Tee shirt

Trust Me I'm A Rosarian Funny Gardener Saying Tee for Rose Growers

Organic Green Slogan Tote Bag with Oak Leavs and Tiny Acorns

I Dig Plants Gardener Slogan in messy letters

theGardenPages About Us

* 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 to date on what's blooming in the garden and
ask questions about the articles or plants you've read about here!

Gardening Art Newsflash: My designs are moving!

For years my art has been found on CafePress under my AngelCityArt brand. Now, we're being transplanted to a new gardening art store on Zazzle! What does this mean for you? You can now personalize any design! Zazzle makes it easy; just click on the Customize It button and add your name or personal message to any of my designs. And all my designs now come on more totes, more T-shirts, art cards, business cards, new travel mugs and other fun products plus you are helping to support this site and keep it growing. Drop by say hello!

Visit my 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

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, better than you-know-where!

Follow Me on Twitter (I'm AngelCityArt)

Other Stuff I've Been Doing:

I love cooking, collecting , retro and kitchen art, so I've mixed them together and cooked up my other site, MomsRetro...

Photos, hidden gems, history, gossip and lore from LA and California, plus new & vintage artwork, western sunsets and funny slogans all inspired by my hometown, The City of the Angels, Los Angeles at AngelCityArt...

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

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 snippy 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 plant 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 and Garden 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

Find Gardening Art and Funny Sayings You Can Personalize at My Zazzle Store