What Does Tara Make? @taramakes - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Still learning about the freakin COOLEST East Bay native plants at work even if I haven't done a #plantpost in a while! 🌱🙊🌱 Sooo… This is black twinberry! And I've never seen anything like it! Each flower is actually TWO flowers and when the flowers turn to berries you get, yup, two. twin. berries! 🙈 I love it! I mean I'd freakin expect this thing to grow in the Amazon or something, not in my suburban backyard. But something was there before the suburbs were, something that was wild and cool and awesome and provided habitat and… maybe you could even eat? Yeah I don't know if this is edible I'll have to go find out. Birds will eat it though! There's that providing habitat for ya! 🥦 Lately I've been thinking about why not make your garden a restoration project? Why not make every garden a restoration project? With local plants you don't transport them as far so you're not adding to climate change and you know that whatever creatures remain around you are already able to eat these plants, they co-evolved with them! Sure you could put in another "butterfly bush" from Home Depot, but if that's not what grows natively where you are, will it only help out the adult butterflies? Can the caterpillars safely eat the leaves? Can other insects survive eating that plant, too? So that there is food for baby songbirds? Unintentionally humans have been building gardens that might look pretty to us but don't provide habitat for what already lived there. 🌱 On the other hand, intentionally getting insect resistant plants or using pesticides to wipe out every bug in your garden might prevent a few chomped leaves, but your "perfect" plants will be surrounded by a lifeless sterile void. Is that really what a garden should be about? Keeping nature out? Intentionally or unintentionally? I sure don't think so. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Anyways that's a lot of philosophy for one lil twinberry. Maybe that's why I don't post much anymore. I have lots of opinions and I'm afraid people will hate me for them (even if they're uh… backed up by both science and lived experience!) 😬 #LoniceraInvolucrata #LoniceraInvolucrataLedebourii #BlackTwinberry #BayAreaGardening #BayAreaGardens #CaliforniaNativePlants (at Native Here Nursery) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvPm8IbFsJz/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wlle6l9zlbrc

#plantpost #lonicerainvolucrata #lonicerainvolucrataledebourii #blacktwinberry #bayareagardening #bayareagardens #californianativeplants

A couple screenshot fragments from an interesting @washingtonpost article. ✂️ I wonder who or what will finally pull people in a consistent, united, direction. Or maybe that will not happen at all. Some people are very united, other still have their heads in the sand, la-la-la-ing away. 🤔 Full article here https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/everything-is-not-going-to-be-okay-how-to-live-with-constant-reminders-that-the-earth-is-in-trouble/2019/01/24/9dd9d6e6-1e53-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html https://www.instagram.com/p/BtnPgmoFYwC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=55yqgwz8jni9

I helped out at #SkylineGardens again yesterday. We picked up trash and weeded invasive plants to give the really beautiful natives like lupine and poppy a better chance. EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Utilities District) has also started clearing some eucalyptus near the trail head, which is great because euc's are highly flammable and do not provide any food for our local animals. It occurred to me that maybe people don't know how the Bay area ended up with so many Eucalyptus and Monterey Pines/Monterey Cypress. Here's what I've learned: The euc's where apparently brought in to be used as fast-growing lumber after all the native redwoods had been killed off by hyper-intesive logging (i.e. cut down once, and then cut down again & dug up when they resprouted from their stumps in the wake of the many fires that destroyed the various early iterations of San Francisco and left people very desperate for building materials and firewood.) However, as the story goes, they imported the wrong species of eucalyptus, one that only makes for decent wood after many decades of growth, and so with that failed plan, the trees were left alone and have since grown all over the Bay Area. As for the Monterey Pines & Cypress, these were brought in during the suburban building booms of 40's & 50's with the thought that "people like trees and want to live in forests" — however these two tree species have shallow root systems and live for about 70 years, which means most of them are now dying off, dropping limbs or tearing straight out of the ground after a drought or big storm. My parents had a gigantuan branch nearly come through their kitchen window two years ago, after which the city of Oakland finally removed most of the Monterey Pines on the city lot across from their house 😰 So that's how we got these neat looking but pretty dangerous giant plants in this region. Thankfully things like Coast Live Oak have deep roots and live much longer, in addition to being native trees that feed & shelter local wildlife, so I do encourage Bay Area folks who want to replace their trees to select the coast live oak to do the job, cause it does a great one! 😊 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsg4qDmFfJU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ifulgictzuc3

#skylinegardens

I think I love this photo almost as much as I miss my eldest auntie. She's in the center, my mom is on the left, and my remaining auntie P is on the right. Sigh.😞 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsccgoVFMu9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vduqxmfmtzpc

Day 2 🥀 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsUt3eAlB35/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ivipqcrbxt69

Day 1 in Tahoe for @krissygirl4321's memorial/would-be birthday celebration. Brews with cousins, building tiny snowmen with the lil ones, finding goose tracks in the fresh 'pow, and getting vengeance on my cousin Todd for snowballing me in the face when I was 10ish… makes me nearly forget why we're here. But I can't. I'll miss you forever dearest auntie. Sigh… ❤️ https://www.instagram.com/p/BsSE1Jpls7_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=14indj0p3llj1

I had Such A Good Day today! 😍 First I visited my aunt Patty and cousin Laura (home from Japan!) in Oakley and got to try out the new BART extension through Antioch to travel there! In the afternoon I volunteered at #SkylineGardens, a restoration project on EBMUD watershed land. Check out those sunset photos! But seriously, I saw (and planted!) some very good native plants (soaproot! silver lupine! CA poppies!) and amazing lichen covered rocks, and the best part of all was watching the sunset from the peak of Barberry Hill, eating trail mix, dried plums, and chocolate, with a view of BOTH Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamalpias and literally everything in-between! I have to post some of those panoramas eeeeeee! Oh and yeah, that second photo is TOTALLY me gloating about doing all this, not being stuck in rush hour traffic in the caldecot tunnel. Heck yeahhhhh! 🙌 💪 #mentalhealth #depressionrecovery #gohike #bayarea #MtDiablo #sunset #traffic #EastBay #nativeplants #environment #plantsmakepeoplehappy #happy #greenthumbs #sustainability #gardens #gardening #sunsets #lichen #rocks #natureiscool #IHadAGoodDay https://www.instagram.com/p/BsNEvH1lXJd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1htv2scehzr2n

I had Such A Good Day today! 😍 First I visited my aunt Patty and cousin Laura (home from Japan!) in Oakley and got to try out the new BART extension through Antioch to travel there! In the afternoon I volunteered at #SkylineGardens, a restoration project on EBMUD watershed land. Check out those sunset photos! But seriously, I saw (and planted!) some very good native plants (soaproot! silver lupine! CA poppies!) and amazing lichen covered rocks, and the best part of all was watching the sunset from the peak of Barberry Hill, eating trail mix, dried plums, and chocolate, with a view of BOTH Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamalpias and literally everything in-between! I have to post some of those panoramas eeeeeee! Oh and yeah, that second photo is TOTALLY me gloating about doing all this, not being stuck in rush hour traffic in the caldecot tunnel. Heck yeahhhhh! 🙌 💪 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsND2-3l4K0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5kmz8lw3oduo

#skylinegardens

I recently got some feedback that apparently people actually ✨like✨ my enthusing about plants so that really nice to hear! 😳🙊🙈 🌱 Anyways new year new plant post (but seriously why isn't new year's day on the solstice? How did humanity fuck this one up?) and this time it is about Coast Live Oak: 🌳 Coast Live Oak is "live" because it does not drop its leaves in winter! (Plants that do loose their leaves are known as deciduous!) It is the oak that can be found throughout the Oakland CA hills and IMO really should be the leaf shape the city references in it's logo! (See my valley oak post for more on that flub up!) 🌱 Speaking of leaf shape, something I have noticed about this Oak IS that the amount of points on the leaf have to do with if the plant has ever been cut or bitten — my father pruned the lower limbs of an oak in our back yard once and the leaves returned so siky afterwards that I thought the tree was a holly! However the upper leaves where nothing had ever touched or eaten the tree are generally perfectly round little ovals, no spikes to speak of! 🌳 One of my favorite things about these trees is the number of birds they attract — between the acorns and the lichen on its bark (and the bugs hiding IN the lichen, too) these trees provide a lot of food to a huge variety of birds. I've seen 20 birds of 5 species in 15-20 minutes of sitting on my parents' tree-height back porch before! 🌱 Speaking of bugs, did you know that if birds can't find bugs they have nothing to feed their babies? This is part of why we can't naïvely pull out native plants and just put up feeders, baby birds need PROTEIN to grow, and bugs provide that, but bugs can only eat plants they have co-evolved with. "Exotic" plants from other regions of the world have different chemicals that kill off bugs if they bite, so they don't. So why your princess tree looks so perfect without a single nibbled leaf is… it's actually a f*cking Food Desert for the animals. Yikes. 🌱 Anyway, I guess I have a lot to say about these trees! Oaks are my favorite! :3 They've got a silhouette I can now recognize in an instant. 💚 #CoastLiveOak #Oakland #OakTree #Oak #Quercus #QuercusAgrifolia https://www.instagram.com/p/BsHwByPlkQc/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qoacdehg45sf

#coastliveoak #oakland #oaktree #oak #quercus #quercusagrifolia

Having a prism hanging in your kitchen is a very wise thing to do. #rainbow #prism #🌈 #🏳️‍🌈 https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5yJy7lKVf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vmmnxckjkidp

#rainbow #prism #🌈#🏳️‍🌈

Hello I have another plant to talk about! 🔜 Swipe to see more photos! 🌳 Valley Oak, aka Quercus lobata is a truly enormous tree. It lives up to about 600 years old and, as you can see in the second photo, can clearly grow twice the size of a three-story house. 🌱 Very amusing to me, as a person from Oakland, is that the Oakland city logo features the leaves of this tree — however put 2 & 2 together notice its common name, 👉Valley👈 oak. Yup! They don't naturally grow in Oakland! In fact, I have a little one in a big pot at my parents' home and it stuggles with the moisture from the Bay fog. These are Central Valley trees, with deep, deep roots to survive dry summers. Clearly someone who knew little about oaks did the city's branding, eh? 🌳 Anyways, across from my current apartment in Davis is this truly enormous tree. It is likely older than the University of California system, let alone the campus it sits near. I am very fearful that the (currently) empty lot it sits on will be thoughtlessly "developed" and this magnificent and historic tree will be destroyed or damaged. It has been hiding in plain sight for centuries, growing slowly larger and larger. I wonder if Davis has any laws available to help protect historic trees like this? I want to enquire but I'm not sure how to start and worry that something negative would happen if I drew official attention to the tree. 🌱 Anyways, thanks for reading, check out the teeny leaf I found! Makes sense that a "lobed" leaf would get the name lobata, yes? The leaves can be much larger than this, as well, but this lil one is just too cute. 🌳 I think I will post about Coast live oaks soon, as a comparison to Valley oaks. They do not have the "classic oak leaf look" of the valley oak, so I think many Bay Area residents have no idea they've got an oak on the corner or in the yard. It would be a good comparison to do! 🌱 #QuercusLobata #ValleyOak #ilovetrees #green #garden #growing #plantsmakepeoplehappy #environment #environmental #sustainability #OaklandCA #DavisCA #oaktree #leaf #leaves #beautiful #fall #Autumn #nature #thegreatoutdoors #trees #plants #tree #happy #earth #earthfirst #greenthumb #greenthumbs #🌱 #🌳 https://www.instagram.com/p/BrjDEtgFoN1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jlepv3yiqrlm

These pretty mutlicolored leaves belong to Pink-flowering currant aka Winter-flowering currant and I'm looking forward to them blooming! 🌸 Which reminds me, the manzanitas are all starting to bloom, too! I should definitely post photos of that! They're so amazing! 🌸 #nativeplants #californianativeplants #currant #pinkfloweringcurrant #winterfloweringcurrant #greenthumb #gardening #gardeninglife #nature #ribes #ribessanguineum #ribessanguineumglutinosum #restoration #ecology #berkeley #oakland #eastbay #naturelovers #eastbayregionalparks #pink #green #yellow #orange #gold #leaves #thegreatoutdoors (at Native Here Nursery) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrgAVXPl6kU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ae3xbx00qri0

Today's #PlantSpotlight is the BEE PLANT! aka California Figwort aka Scrophularia californica! 🐝🌱 Those these photos are of little seedlings, it can grow quite tall, and has pink/orange/red flowers that attract tiny native Californian bees! 🌸 It does well out in the sun or in incomplete shade, and I think it looks quite dandy with its Lacy edges and red stems! 🌿 It also has some medicinal properties but I forgot to take a photo of the sign that lists them so I forget what they are besides anti-inflammatory. Still, that's neat! 🐝 Yay plants! (at Native Here Nursery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Brb_g6FF__t/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5kppxcwq1fjb

#plantspotlight

Here's a thing: This article in @newyorkermag is supposed to be joking about passé "dating rules" but it's got this little joke about people under 40 and phone calls tucked in there. . What the hell is wrong with people these days? Yeah, I myself used to think it was social faux-pas to call people, then I realized that was a Massive Amount Of Anxiety making me fear social rejection and that actually hearing someone's voice and their intonation and their expressiveness is SO nice and SO much more human and wtf are we doing avoiding phone calls? . ??? Are we really all so afraid of each other that someone who makes phone calls is compared to a murderer? How utterly unhealthy. Utterly. Unhealthy. Unhuman. Uck! . Disclaimers: Some people like video calls, I think that's a pretty good thing. Some people have phone call anxiety, I do not in any way intend to shame anyone for their mental health! https://www.instagram.com/p/BrY5w_8lzvi/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=sur0ee4r8ylg

The wonderful @violet_eeee sent me some old photos and videos she'd taken of Bernard back in spring 2017 and I am so grateful. #BernardBartholomew 💛 https://www.instagram.com/p/BrUXtb8FFns/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=a2sltzvic0s4

#bernardbartholomew

There's literally no reason to have a lawn. It's a decorative thing that isn't even pretty. To maintain this useless space creates pollution of many kinds - sound pollution, water pollution, air pollution. The guy cutting the lawn at my current apartment right now is wearing one of those N-95 masks that were being given out during the days Davis was swamped with smoke from the Camp Creek fire. He's smart. . Letting a lawn go wild is a great first step. (I saw amazing and unique and totally new-to-me insects and birds and flowers the one spring I got away with letting the lawn of my rental house grow tall.) Tearing out the turf and replacing it with native plants is even better. . Then you barely ever have to water or upkeep the thing. . People don't realize this because we're now *so* used to caring for non-native plants that aren't supposed to grow in our region that we don't connect the dots and realize that all plants grow wild somewhere, without any human assistance. . Anyways I'm incredibly depressed today and noise of the lawn mower and leaf blower outside this apartment is driving me up the wall so here is a rant for you. https://www.instagram.com/p/BrQo6lul3g5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1d1kjl3z6z29p

Got to hang out with my cousins tonight, love you guys 💕 You are all as cute as these fuzzy lil caterpillars, munchin' a madrone leaf. 🌱🐛 (at Native Here Nursery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq1xatHF7sR/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1987pm9v6ihri

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

What Does Tara Make?