Recognized at Last – Healing Clays

Interesting post discussing the benefits and healing factors of good, natural clay. Read more about their initial findings and what qualifies, as well as the scientific study (at end of article)...Recognized at Last – Healing Clays

16 Tips for Wildlife Gardening with Kids

Found via Twitter, this is a great article with ideas for making gardening safe and fun for the WHOLE family (see previous post!). Wildlife gardening has many benefits like helping native wildlife survive habitat fragmentation, providing spontaneous and natural learning opportunities for your child, wildlife watching, and raising awareness for the value of our connection to nature.

"One of the best things you may ever cultivate in your yard is a gardener; share your love of nature with a child" read more here: 16 Tips for Wildlife Gardening with Kids - National Wildlife Federation - StumbleUpon

The Secret Garden

The Family Garden
Spring is upon us and many gardeners are harvesting their spring gardens and beginning to prep the soil for summer garden delights. Establishing a family garden is a great way to get your children and even nearby grandparents, or aunts and uncles into the experience of a family garden. If extended family is too far away, consider planting their personal seasonal favorites and have your child keep in touch with family members through updates on their “crops.” At harvest time you can plan a fun dinner by inviting family over for a visit with a special meal that is made with everyone’s garden contributions. Or you can prepare food like salsa, preserves, nuts, baked and seasoned sunflower seeds, or muffins that use your family member’s favorite garden veggie or fruit as the main ingredient that can be sent to them to enjoy!

The Secret Garden
When I was a child I was encouraged to try a few different gardens, from veggies to flowers, all of which failed. It could’ve been that I was not consistent with watering and also that I was quite frequently distracted by other activities such as “planting” other items in my carefully raked garden patches; like Smurfs, cars, stick tepees, tiny plastic animals, and bark houses for my Sunshine family dolls. I also decorated the area with collected rocks and shells. I did this for hours and hours on end. If I would have thought to water my seeds as much as I played, I might have had a flourishing flower or spaghetti squash garden. At least the birds benefitted from the seeds.

The Secret Family Garden
My point to this post is to encourage you to try gardening with your child, possibly making it an extended family garden—if you haven’t already! It’s the perfect activity for even the youngest in your family. I would also encourage you to establish a secret garden for your little ones to "plant" their plastic dinosaurs, favorite rocks, collected shells, or to build fairy houses…anything they wish to carefully place just so, that will inspire them to be outside, in the garden, in the soil and water, and simply in nature to express theirs. This special garden can be in and around the sprouting family garden or in a designated area within or next to the garden. I like the idea of keeping them close or intertwined as cultivating healthy food and healthy imaginations are equally important.

Maybe you had your own secret garden when you were young? If so, please tell us about it! We’d love to hear what made it most special to you. A secret garden never fails to cultivate the seeds of creativity, and always allows imagination to blossom :)


Fairy house photo from www.spokaneoutdoors.com
more fairy houses

Hummingbird Nest Cam

We can't stop watching this precious and beautiful little Channel Island Allen hummingbird nesting in Orange County! Click the following link to watch the nest with egg(s), read the stream to see what's happened--she's been defending her nest against a lizard!

Follow this link to the hummingbird webcam--come back to share your comments!
Hummingbird Nest Cam on USTREAM: Phoebe is a Channel Island Allen (S.s. sedentarius) hummingbird in Orange County, California. She has been laying 4 to 5 c...

Innovative Rubber Sidewalk Saves Trees and More

Have you heard of this new alternative to concrete? Easy on the knees yet strong enough for skaters, cyclists and cars. These 100% recyclable panels give tree roots room to grow, keep tires out of the landfill, save money by cutting down on labor (no constant repairs), and even reduce the sound of pedestrian traffic <--now that particularly sounds good to me :)
Check out this Green Blogger/InventorSpot post and let us know what you think: Innovative Rubber Sidewalk Saves Trees and More

Protected Natural Area? Please Don’t Pick the Flowers :)

Yay, wildflower season is upon us here in the Coachella Valley desert! Temperatures have warmed, we received another smattering of rain and our wildflower season is starting to blossom in “hot spots” around the valley floor.

You know where to find me—in the canyons, on the dunes, in the hills, on the desert floor. I’ll be the wildflower geek showing my son how to lay on his stomach to discover all of those tiny, happy “belly flowers.”

One other place I might be…at your local library or historical society sharing my wildflower love with others. One particular demonstration everyone takes part in is the “petal pick.” We pass around a store-bought sunflower and ask each person to remove one petal. As it gets to the other side of the room, the flower is picked clean, often leaving about half the group without a petal to claim, and more importantly without any resemblance of a flower to enjoy. The whole flower represents a protected natural area, each petal represents a wildflower in that area. As you can imagine, it helps get the message across that with hundreds of visitors enjoying our wildflowers, if we each justify to ourselves, I’m just picking ONE flower, it can significantly alter the ecology by removing the resource and the beauty for future enjoyment.

If you see Caliso “wildflowering,” watch where you step (belly flowers) and come over to say, “Hello,” I would love to meet you! Yes, I will also be the mom teaching my son not to pick the wildflowers—a challenge indeed as he always grabs for flowers to give to mommy and daddy :)

We must preserve the natural world; for without nature, there would be no beauty to inspire us. ~Hap Hagood

Meet Taco, the Desert Tortoise!

It’s nearing the end of February, which means our desert tortoises (Taco, Rufus, and Guacamole) are expected to come out of hibernation any time now. Here in the southern California desert, we experienced a cooler winter this year, but spring is beginning to nudge its way in with recent warm spells over the last few weeks, alternating with cooler temperatures (meaning down in the 70’s/low 40’s for our day/night time highs).

Rufus and Guacamole are 8 year old sibling desert tortoises adopted in 2005. They have each stepped in for Taco a few times for public talks and programs.

Taco is Caliso Learning's own ambassador. He is a lifelong resident of the Coachella Valley, hatched in captivity in La Quinta, CA. During his 33 years, he has visited thousands of students and adults to teach the importance of habitat conservation and species protection, as well as animal adaptation to the desert environment, and the handling and care of non-releasable desert tortoises. You could say Taco is a tortoise of action as he’s helped spread these important messages in the trenches by: visiting classrooms, libraries, youth centers, museums, and even through a personal interview for the Los Angeles Times. All this work has kept Taco busy, but he still finds time for hibernation. His best advice: "Slow down in life. Take the time to stop and smell the flowers. Then eat them."

*     *     *

True to their scientific name--Gopherus agassizii, gopherus meaning "burrower"--Taco, Rufus, and Guacamole typically hibernate on their own in winter burrows they’ve dugged themselves by extending their existing burrows even deeper. However this year, Rufus and Guacamole are spending the second half of their hibernation in a pet carrier in a non-insulated room, due to the threat of flooding from this season’s storms. Taco’s yard and burrow were not threatened by flooding. The three typically enter hibernation in early October and emerge for spring (often mid-February); Taco usually wakes up a good three weeks after Rufus and Guacs have come out. But no one has become active yet!

Any guesses on when these hardy desert critters will emege from their burrows in search of their favorite spring meal (wildflowers) and a looong drink of water?