Under the Solano Sun

Walking around my neighborhood, I noticed that quite a few of my neighbors have gone all-out decorating for Halloween giant skeletons and spiders, fake cobwebs, plastic pumpkins, witches and ghouls. And as always, I started looking at the plants. One that I am seeing more of is Datura.

No, this blog is not about Scarborough Fair, it is about herbs! Our summer veggies did not do that well this season and it is that time of the year to let them go. However, we still wanted to keep some life and beauty in the garden.

I had moved into a new house in the country and in the early spring a fascinating plant emerged, it was an Arum palaestinum, common name is the Black Calla and is native to Israel, according to the Sunset Western Garden Book.

We all know carnivorous plants exist like the Venus Fly trap exist. But Hollywood likes to take the concept of the killer plant to the extreme. Since Halloween is just around the corner, it's a good time to recap movies with killer or menacing plants.

Mother Nature is making this generous offer. Many of my neighbors or their mow n' blow gardeners invest hours of toil cleaning fallen leaves out of their yards, and for years I have been observing city crews blowing leaves out of Suisun City landscaping beds and hauling away great bags of them.