Native Plant Workshops All Month (October is the Perfect Time to Plant Natives)  October 5, 12, 14 and 26th 12 noon to 1:30 pm Fall is the right time to install native plants in the garden.  Native plants use less water and and support local ecologies of animals and insects we depend upon for a…

A big Thank You to Pacific Home and Garden for a huge donation of pottery.  Come on in and check out the giant Grecian style pottery they sent us and take advantage of equally big savings.   Remember if you visit the website linked above we can probably order in any of the pottery you…

Gomphocarpus physocarpus is an African Milkweed loved by monarchs for feeding and reproduction.  Expect 3-4ft of upright growth consisting of pinnate leaves in lush profusion.  Small clusters of white and pink flowers give way to interesting seed capsules whose appearance invites comparisons ranging from alien eggs to male anatomy depending on the ambient giggle factor.  …

An explosion of color and texture in small packages, perfect plants for busy people seeking beauty for their gardens: 2″ pots $2.89 each 4″ pots $4.99

Coastal Redwood is our choice for California Heritage Plant for July 2018 There is no other tree which defines California history better and there is no way a paragraph on a small nursery website can do justice to the scope and majesty of the worlds fastest and tallest growing tree.     They simply dominate the environment…

‘Yacon’ is our choice for Unusual Edible for July 2018 ‘Yacon’ or ‘Peruvian Ground Apple’ comes to us from the Andes, offering sweet jicama-apple flavor/texture in a potato like storage root attached to subsurface rhizomes.   Drought or frost kills surface foliage ….. surface foliage which resembles Yacon’s close relative the Sunflower.   Plant spring or early…

     Papa the Cat Recommended Reading Papa is a self taught garden guru. Here for your perusal is a list of some of his favorite reading material, environment, gardening and horticulture related: click image for link The Botany Coloring Book         Dirt The Erosion of Civilizations           …

June 2018 Saturday and Sunday 6-23 and 6-24 it’s the  Papa and Half Tail Two for One Sale Papa Cat and his apprentice Half-Tail grew out a bunch of these plants so you can save big on the Summer Garden! Buy one of these and get another of the same size free!  While supplies last,…

See you when we open again Saturday 6-23 at 10am

Join Ploughshares at the Alameda Mini-Maker Faire July 8th at the Alameda Point Naval Station.  Ploughshares will be showing off our mobile-vertical-edible-gardens and helping kids make seed bombs. ‘I don’t like seed bombs’ said nobody ever.  And it’s true that if nobody showed up it would still be fun, because  lots of folks from all…

Lets visit an old friend for Pollinator Power Plant for June 2018:  Erigeron glaucus ‘Seaside Daisy’ This native of California grows along coastal bluff regions from Oregon to San Diego.  Reaches 4″ to 8″ inches height and accepts sandy or clay soil and spreads via rhizomes, so expect relatively fast growth as it’s rhizome mass…

Giant Katsura Pickling Melon is our pick for Unusual Edible for May 2018 Why? Because ‘salt-pressed pickles’, that’s why. Giant Katsura Melon grows on a vine and you can expect fruit 5″ in diameter and 14″ long give or take.  You might need to hand pollinate the flowers for heavy production.  The fruit tastes like…

Romneya coulteri or ‘Matilija Poppy’ is our pick for ‘California Heritage Plant for June 2018 I have always found it ironic that these plants are forever frozen in botanical records with names given them by invaders from other parts of the world who ‘discover’ them …. when in fact most native plants have centuries or…

Choosing Natives to Benefit Pollinators Saturday June 9th 12-1:30 FREE WORKSHOP Ploughshare’s Nursery Manager Jeff Bridge will discuss which native plants best serve our native bees, hummingbirds and butterflies and why choosing natives to feed pollinator populations is better than choosing non-natives.

Lacy Leaf Phacelia or Phacelia tanacetifolia is a California Native which is the BOMB of native bee friendly and pollinator friendly plants IMHO.   Super fast growth to 3-4ft is followed by a month or two of blue blooms which are irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.  She also attracts populations of beneficial predator flies (flies…

Mulberries are quite simply a world heritage plant with a food production lineage almost as old as figs.  Originating in China, these trees were introduced into Europe and the United States in the hope of fostering silk worms for silk production.  But it has always been the berries us common folk loved throughout history and…