East Bay Home and Gardens

Garden Variety: Plants That Turn the Tables

By Ron Sullivan
Friday March 14, 2008
A nepenthes trap-a leaf part, not a flower-welcomes little bugses in with gently smiling jaws.
Coming up on 35 years, our relationship gets ever more harmonious. I have a stapelia—a starfish flower that attracts flies to pollinate it—on the office windowsill, and Joe has a collection of carnivorous plants on the front porch. When my stapelia blooms, I cope with its decidedly rank fragrance by putting it on the porch with the Venus’ flytrap and the sundews and the various sarracenias and they all have a party. -more-

About the House: Don’t Let Your Plumber or Electrician Be a Cut-Up

By Matt Cantor
Friday March 14, 2008
Avoid cutting up your walls such as this if you want them to stay standing.
I’m a Sci-Fi buff from way back and one of my favorite writers was always Robert Heinlein. Robert said the following: -more-

Wild Neighbors: Mourning Cloak Mysteries: The Butterfly that Hibernates

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 11, 2008
An elderly mourning cloak basks in the late winter sun.
We were out at Lafayette Reservoir a couple of weeks ago, looking for the bald eagle that wasn’t there. But there was a fair amount of butterfly action: a probable echo blue, some small hyperactive orange jobs, and three or four mourning cloaks, sparring or courting—it’s hard to tell with butterflies. -more-