Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). This female hummingbird has a dull green crown and an iridescent red gorget (the band over the throat and chest). In comparison, the male has a crimson red crown and gorget. Both have pale bellies. This photo shows the bird feeding from the inflorescence of a showy banksia (Banksia speciosa). The evergreen shrub or tree is an Australian native and a member of the protea family (Proteaceae). (Credit — Brad Lewis)

Cootamundra wattle (Acacia baileyana). This shrub or tree grows to a height of 10 feet and produces racemes of bright yellow to golden flowers from June to September. It is a New Zealand native, naturalized in Australia, and a member of the legume plant family (Fabaceae). (Credit — Bill Bishoff)

Candle cranberry (Styphelia foliosa). This flowering plant, a member of the heath family (Ericaceae), occurs near Perth, Western Australia. This evergreen shrub grows to 5 feet tall and is characterized by conifer-like foliage, small, needle-like leaves and showy flowers that bloom in shades of pink, red and white. It is used for its ornamental value and as a food source for wildlife. (Credit — Bill Bishoff)

Australian fuchsia (Correa reflexa ‘Cape Nelson’). This shrub, endemic to Australia, grows either prostrate or up to 5 feet tall. It produces groups of one to three pendant, tubular flowers up to 2 inches long, with four flaring, triangular tips that vary in color. It is a member of the rue plant family (Rutaceae). (Credit — Bill Bishoff)

Rock thryptomene (Thryptomene saxicola ‘Mingenew’). This spreading shrub has small, oval or egg-shaped leaves and, from February to November, produces pale pink flowers. It typically grows to 5 feet tall. This plant, endemic to Western Australia, is a member of the myrtle plant family (Myrtaceae). (Credit — Bill Bishoff)

One of nature’s fascinating aspects in the garden is the flight of hummingbirds.

The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden is featuring these avian phenomena during Hummingbird Month, which started Sunday.

Brief notes on hummingbirds

The Hummingbird Month schedule includes presentations by experts and skilled photographers.

Here are info bits about these unique birds, drawn from an exceptionally long article on Wikipedia, and other sources.

Hummingbirds are native to the Americas and comprise the biological family trochilidae, which includes 375 species and 113 genera.

Fifteen species of North American hummingbirds inhabit the United States and Canada. The prominent hummingbird species seen at the arboretum and the Monterey Bay area are Anna’s (Calypte anna) and Allen’s (Selasphorus sasin).

The generic name for Anna’s hummingbird might come from the Ancient Greek word for “headdress,” and the specific name honors Anna d’Essling, the wife of ornithologist François Masséna.

Anna’s are native to western North America. While other North American species migrate from Mexico to Canada, Anna’s hummingbird is acclimated to colder winter temperatures and has a year-round residence in the Pacific Northwest. During cold weather, they might remain in torpor for extended periods.

Anna’s, like other hummingbird species, feed on nectar from flowers, small insects and other arthropods (invertebrates).

In flight, hummingbirds beat their wings in a figure-eight pattern, allowing them to suspend above the flowers on which they are feeding. Most flowers do not provide a feeding perch. Their flying ability allows flying forward, backward and even upside-down. They beat their wings 80-90 times per second. This unique flying action burns a lot of energy, requiring the birds to perch high in trees between meals.

Visiting the arboretum

The UCSC Arboretum & Botanic Garden provides an exceptional regional resource for observing and learning about Mediterranean climate plants, a place to convene with nature and escape from daily pressures, and an opportunity for volunteers to help maintain a diverse plant collection.

Another arboretum focus is Norrie’s Gift and Garden Shop, an excellent source of garden plants and more. Recognizing Hummingbird Month, Norrie’s will feature plants that will attract and nourish hummingbirds in your garden!

The arboretum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission (helps to support a noteworthy garden) is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors 65-plus; $5 for youth 4-17; and free to kids under 4. Admission is free to current members of the arboretum, current UCSC students and shoppers at Norrie’s.

Browse arboretum.ucsc.edu and click on Get Involved.

Arboretum’s special events for Hummingbird Month

The following special events require routine admission to the arboretum and do not include an additional attendance fee. For details of Hummingbird Month presentations, visit arboretum.ucsc.edu, click on Visit and scroll to Events.

• March 7, 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: First Saturday Garden Tour: Hummingbirds and some of their favorite plants at the arboretum.

• March 8, 10 a.m. to noon: Bilingual Bird Tour No. 1 with the Bird School Project (beginner, family-friendly).

• March 8, 1-2:30 p.m.: “Jewels in the garden – A Darwinian Natural History of Hummingbirds” with Bruce Lyon.

• March 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: UC Master Gardener’s Pop-Up “Planting for Hummingbirds.”

• March 14, 1-2:30 p.m.: “Wildlife photography from Hummingbirds to Elephants” slide presentation with Kevin Lohman.

• March 21, 7-9 a.m.: Early Bird Members Hours (members only) — a great time of day for practicing bird photography.

• March 28, 9-11 a.m.: Hummingbird Photography Workshop with Kevin Lohman.

• March 29, 10 a.m. to noon: Bilingual Bird Tour No. 2 with the Bird School Project (beginner and family-friendly).

Advance your gardening knowledge

Dedicated gardeners have a significant opportunity to learn about California’s unique ecology, gain certification as California Naturalists and engage in the stewardship of the state’s natural communities.

The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanical Garden is hosting the University of California’s annual California Naturalist Program, which will be held from March to June. The program consists of 14 lectures in the arboretum’s meeting room and nine field trips. Program coordinators Linda Anderson and Joel McKelvey, and additional specialists in aspects of California’s ecology, bring considerable expertise to the program.

The class fee is $500 (scholarship funds may be available). Certified Naturalists are asked to provide 40 hours of volunteer work over the year following the class.

For more details of the California Naturalist Program, browse the arboretum’s website (arboretum.ucsc.edu), click on About and scroll to Programs. That web page includes an application form for the California Naturalist Program. The application deadline is Monday.

This week in the garden

Our recent column included an annual calendar for propagating perennials from stem cuttings. While that calendar is not inaccurate, our view is that propagating with stem cuttings is done most successfully during the peak softwood window: May-June. Gardeners now have the opportunity, well before this window, to list the plants they select to propagate, gather propagation supplies and plan where to support the growth of the cuttings. If needing a guide for the process, search the internet for “how to propagate plants from stem cuttings.”

Enjoy your garden!

Tom Karwin can be reached at gardening@karwin.com. 

I’m currently dusting off my seed-starting supplies and sorting through seed packets from years past. Seed starting is an annual ritual for many gardeners, but if you’re new to the party, it would be helpful to know that not all seeds should be treated the same way.

Many seeds only require soil and water to sprout. Others, however, have a harder coating that makes germination a bit difficult. That’s because in the wild, they rely on birds and other wildlife that eat them to carry them far distances before dropping them.

It’s a good plan: The journey ensures biodiversity by introducing the species to another location. And the seed’s tough outer coating ensures its survival through an animal’s digestive tract, which erodes only enough of the protective layer to allow water to enter. The remaining coating prevents the seed from waking up too early, which would otherwise spell death for tender sprouts in cold temperatures.

But nature’s survival plan creates a bit of a challenge for home gardeners because the hard coating prevents those seeds from sprouting easily. So it’s up to us to mimic the effects of stomach acid to expose the seed’s inner layer so that moisture can penetrate.

This is called scarification, and there are a few ways to do it, all of which are simple.

Sanding

Rub each seed lightly against medium-grit sandpaper, an emery board or a nail file until you see a hint of its paler inner layer. This method works best with larger seeds, but you can also tuck several small ones between two sheets of sandpaper and gently rub the sheets together. Just a little friction should do the trick.

Nicking

Sometimes I use small nail clippers intended for babies to snip a tiny sliver off the edge of the seed’s coat.

Soaking

If you have more time than wherewithal, this is the easiest method: Place the seeds in a bowl, cover them with warm water, and let them sit for a few hours or overnight. They’ll swell slightly as they take in moisture, which is exactly what you want.

Some tips

Never use hot water; cooked seeds won’t grow. Keep the temperature below 150 degrees Fahrenheit. And whatever method you choose, do it right before planting. Once the seed’s inner tissue is exposed, it will begin to dry out.

Is scarification absolutely required? No. Seeds will often sprout without it, but it could take much longer, and you’ll likely end up with far fewer seedlings. Scarified seeds don’t have to wait around for their coats to break down under soil, which is a real advantage if your growing season is short, your elevation is high or you’re a procrastinator.

Some common annuals and perennials that benefit from the practice include Indian mallow (Abutilon), columbine (Aquilegia), hollyhock (Alcea), sweet alyssum (Alyssum), milkweed (Asclepias), wild indigo (Baptisia), beautyberry (Callicarpa), bellflower (Campanula), Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), bluebonnet (Lupine), mallow (Malva), poppy (Papaver), beardtongue (Penstemon) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum).

Edibles to scarify include all bean types, luffa, spinach, strawberry and winter squash.

Some of the really stubborn seeds — chickpeas, lima beans, nasturtiums — respond well to a one-two approach: a little nick or sanding, followed by a soak.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

The butterfly rose (Rosa chinensis var. ‘Mutabilis’). This old garden rose, a native of China, grows to 3 feet tall and features clusters of 3-inch-wide flowers in May and into the fall. The blooms open yellow and as they mature, mutate to orange, pink and deep pinkish-red, thereby earning the variety name. The common name suggests the flowers’ resemblance to butterflies. (Credit — Geolima1673 via Wikimedia Commons)

Graham Thomas rose (Rosa ‘Graham Thomas’). This popular English rose, bred by David Austin and named for a highly regarded botanist, has won many prestigious awards. This climber reaches 10 feet tall and features clusters of red and yellow buds that open into rich, pure yellow flowers with gold overtones. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Upright rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Tuscan Blue’). Also known as salvia rosmarinus, this rounded, evergreen shrub has needle-like leaves and tiny, pale blue to white flowers. The plant’s fragrant foliage has culinary value and its structure has ornamental value. The plant is native to dry, rocky places in the Mediterranean area. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Pork and beans (Sedum rubrotinctum). This succulent plant, native to Mexico, has banana- shaped glossy green leaves with red tips. In midspring, it produces small, star-shaped yellow flowers in clusters at the tips of the stems. This plant grows easily and is popular for its attractive appearance in rock gardens or containers. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Red velvet sage (Salvia confertiflora). This broadleaf deciduous, evergreen perennial has bright green new foliage that matures to dark green and reddish-purple stems. In the late summer and fall, the plant displays 6-to-10-inch spikes of fuzzy, rusty red flowers that rise above foliage. It grows 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The plant is native to Brazil. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

While rainy days benefit gardens and keep gardeners indoors, they also offer an opportunity to plan plant propagation, an ideal way to expand your plant collection. You can reproduce favored plants to develop landscape swaths, share with gardening friends or even sell them locally or online.

Propagation is a broad gardening topic that covers all categories of garden plants and several both sexual and asexual methods. Growing plants from seed is sexual reproduction, a natural process that works well. The seeds from a hybridized plant, however, can revert to a mix of their genetic lineage, producing unpredictable results.

Asexual propagation methods produce plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant. These methods include dividing mature plants, separating offsets, layering stems, rooting stem cuttings and multiplying plants with tissue culture.

Our column focuses on propagating herbaceous and woody perennials through stem cuttings. The process uses simple actions, requires few tools, takes little time or space and can generate many new plants. The propagation process typically results in the gardener’s enjoyment and satisfaction and qualifies as real gardening.

The bottom line: plant propagation involves very low expenses and produces substantial returns on the gardener’s investment.

Annual calendar

I prompted ChatGPT to generate an annual propagation calendar and edited the output for brevity and readability. The result clarifies the necessity to coordinate the stem cutting with the plant’s growth stage. It also supports the gardener’s future scheduling of propagation priorities.

Note that each window includes only a few examples of herbaceous perennials, and the January-February window also includes examples of woody perennial cuttings. Many additional plants could be propagated in each window. To determine when to make cuttings of specific plants of your interest, see “Advance your gardening knowledge” (below).

• January-February: Dormant and early-push window for hardwood cuttings of rose, lavender, rosemary and hydrangea, and herbaceous cuttings of pelargonium and salvia (woody types).

• March: Early spring softwood window: salvia (woody types), nepeta, heuchera and penstemon.

• April: Post-bloom and vigorous growth window: salvia, penstemon, golden shrub daisy (Euryops) and verbena.

• May-June: Peak softwood window: santolina, artemisia, salvia (shrubby hybrids) and pelargonium.

• July-August: Stress-management window: rosemary (semi-firm tips), lavender (nonflowering firm tips) and salvia.

• September-October: Prime semi-hardwood window: lavender, rosemary, germander (Teucrium) and santolina.

• November-December: Transition to dormancy: rose, hydrangea and fuchsia (semi-hardwood).

Propagation projects

I have taken advantage of this season’s opportunities to take cuttings from perennials in my garden. The January-February window is the time to propagate woody perennials, but cuttings take more time to establish roots than they would during the growing season.

Here are my current projects. I will write later about the results.

Butterfly rose (Rosa chinensis var. ‘Mutabilis’). My plant’s main stem was growing awkwardly, nearly horizontal, before rising normally, so I made a severe renovation pruning, hoping for a new upright stem from the roots. As a backup plan, I first made several stem cuttings. Online advice recommended planting rose cuttings in the ground near the mother plant, where the soil biota and micro-environment are familiar to the cutting, reducing stress and boosting survival rates. That makes sense. Still, rose stem cuttings should include some leaves, but my rose had few leaves at this season, so I have limited optimism for my cuttings.

Graham Thomas rose (Rosa ‘Graham Thomas’). This rose has been quite healthy, so I took cuttings from it as a trial for propagating roses. I have not planned what to do with well-rooted cuttings.

Upright rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Tuscan Blue’). I recently removed an old rosemary shrub that had become woody and misshapen, creating space to install well-rooted cuttings.

Pork and beans (Sedum rubrotinctum). Succulent plants are easy to propagate, possibly during several different windows, so I anticipate that stem cuttings from this plant will root successfully.

Red velvet sage (Salvia confertiflora). Most of my salvias are herbaceous types, but this woody species is suitable for propagation during the January-February window. If these cuttings do not succeed, I can try taking cuttings from young, flexible shoots during the May-June window.

Advance your gardening knowledge

To determine how and when to make cuttings of one of your plants, enter your question into your computer. You can use an artificial intelligence chatbot (ChatGPT) or a web browser with a built-in chatbot (e.g., Google Chrome, search for Copilot or Bing; different names for Microsoft’s chatbot, which is based on ChatGPT).

Presenting a simple prompt returns limited information, while a well-developed prompt provides more useful, detailed support for your propagation project.

To demonstrate the difference, try a simple example (“How to propagate perennials?”) and compare the result from a better example (“How and when to take cuttings of a Salvia convertiflora for a garden on California’s Central Coast?”).

A prompt in Google Chrome generates a brief report, along with links to the websites on which it was based. Click on those links for more information, if needed.

AI continues to develop rapidly, offering greater capabilities and raising many questions among concerned skeptics. Sending garden-related prompts to a chatbot may still yield incorrect information, so users should carefully review the report on a trusted website. Still, even when using a chatbot for a garden issue, don’t enter important personal facts.

This week in the garden

Unless you are already propagating selected plants, consider adding stem cutting propagation to your gardening activities. Many gardeners find creating rather than buying plants to be rewarding for horticultural satisfaction and substantial cost reduction.

Enjoy your garden!

Tom Karwin can be reached at gardening@karwin.com. 

Seed-starting time is right around the corner, and that means it’s time to think about tomatoes.

I can think of no better summer meal than a thick slice of a homegrown Oxheart between two slices of white bread, adorned only with salt, pepper and maybe a couple of basil leaves.

I’m also partial to Beefsteak, Porterhouse, Brandywine, Big Zac and Big Boy, all delicious — and all red, the way many of us have been conditioned to believe tomatoes should be. But there’s a whole kaleidoscope of tomatoes you can grow in your garden.

So this year, as you’re dog-earring catalog pages and dreaming of July, look past the usual suspects. One of these oddballs just might be the tomato you love the most.

Cherokee Purple

It was the first other-colored tomato I grew. I didn’t particularly find the heirloom’s grayish-brown skin or matching flesh appetizing, and my 8-foot-tall (2.5-meter-tall) indeterminate plant didn’t produce as prolifically as most other varieties I’d grown. But its sweet, earthy and somewhat smoky flavor and juicy consistency made for a delicious sandwich.

Black Krim

This old, indeterminate Crimean heirloom introduced to North American home gardeners in 1990 is slightly easier on the eyes. Its sweet, salty, tangy flavor intensifies when allowed to ripen fully on the vine, so resist the urge to harvest prematurely. And if its unusual reddish-gray color turns you off, take a bite and you’ll get over it.

Black Beauty

A few steps up on the aesthetics trellis, Black Beauty lives up to its name. With skin the color of blackberries and deep red, meaty flesh, it’s considered the darkest tomato in the world and has the antioxidant content to prove it. Although it’s a hybrid variety, Black Beauty has been stabilized through selective breeding, so its seeds will grow true to type. And it makes an impressive Caprese salad.

Ananas Noire

Also known by its English translation of Black Pineapple, this tomato variety is the happiest-looking of the bunch. Almost tie-dyed in appearance, the green, red and yellow tricolored hybrid popped up naturally in 1990s Belgium when a pineapple tomato crossed with a black tomato growing nearby. Developed further and stabilized by the Belgian horticulturist Pascal Moreau, and made available to home gardeners in 2005, the indeterminate plants are heavy producers of sweet, juicy, citrusy fruits.

Yellow Pear

This indeterminate heirloom plant produces an abundance of small, vibrant yellow, pear-shaped fruits. According to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, which collects and sells historic seeds, the indeterminate plant dates at least to the early 1600s. Early Americans are said to have preserved and pickled its fruit later on. We can still do that, of course, as well as eat them out of hand or use them in salads.

Voyager

Voyager tomatoes are true weirdos. The heirloom variety is said to have gotten its name because its fruits are comprised of individual segments that can be pulled apart without disturbing the others, making for good travel snacks. They also reveal an interesting shape when sliced horizontally through the whole fruit. In my garden, Voyagers were quick to ripen. And in my kitchen, they were tangy — enjoyed with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Green Zebra

This green-and-yellow striped tomato variety has bright green interior flesh and a sweet, tangy flavor. Its cultivation spanned four decades, as Everett, Washington, plant breeder Tom Wagner worked to cross several heirloom varieties to create a tomato that would remain green when ripe. The indeterminate plants, made available in 1983, produce crack-resistant fruit with exceptional heat and drought tolerance.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

Low: Ice plant (Delosperma cooperi). This mat-forming succulent spreads vigorously to form an evergreen ground cover. A South African native, it grows to 4-8 inches tall, and 24 inches wide, or more, and, from June to September, creates an abundance of 2-inch-wide, daisy-like red-purple flowers. (Credit — Tournasol7 via Wikimedia Commons)

Low: Reblooming dwarf daylily (Hemerocallis). This plant was developed from a genus that includes 15 species, native to Asia and central Europe. This cultivar, classified as a miniature, grows up to 1 foot tall and, from May to August, produces 2.75-inch-wide yellow flowers with ruffled edges and deeper yellow throats. This award-winning variety is popular for its compact size, vigorous growth, profuse bloom and very long bloom period. (Credit — David J. Stang via Wikimedia Commons)

Mid: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). This durable, easy-to-grow, rhizomatous perennial reaches 3 feet tall and 1 1/2 feet wide. The plant has fern-like, aromatic, medium-green foliage. From June to September, it produces tiny, long-lasting, white flowers in dense, flattened, compound, corymb-like, 4-inch-wide arrays. The flowers attract bees, butterflies and other insects. (Credit — Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons)

Mid: Dwarf Mexican marigold (Tagetes lemmonii x patula ‘Gold Medal’). This shrub-like perennial grows to 2 feet tall with aromatic, dissected, medium green foliage and lightly fragrant, gold-yellow daisy flowers that bloom heaviest from fall through late spring, and can stay in bloom much longer. This plant is a hybrid of Mexican marigold (T. lemmonii), which can reach 6 feet tall, and the 12-inch-high French marigold (T. patula). (Credit — Jim Evans via Wikimedia Commons)

Upper: Whirling butterfly (Oenothera lindheimer or Gaura lindheimer). This native to Texas is a clump-forming perennial with arching red stems, pink flower buds and 1-inch wide, four-petaled snow white flowers on long, terminal, wand-like panicles rising above the foliage. The plant grows 4 feet tall and wide, and produces blossoms from May to September. (Credit — Didier Descouens via Wikimedia Commons)

Upper: Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia or Salvia yangii). This woody-based perennial of the mint plant family (Lamiaceae) develops tall, airy spires of lavender-blue color on highly textured silver-gray foliage. From July to October, it produces whorls of two-lipped, tubular, light blue flowers tiered in branched, terminal panicles (12-15 inches high). The overall height reaches 4 feet, and occasionally 5 feet. Despite its common name, this plant is native to the Himalayas and western China. (Credit — Jonathan Billinger via Wikimedia Commons)

The current cold, rainy days provide time to develop the spring landscape.

Gardeners can pursue a variety of landscaping objectives. This column assumes an established garden and addresses the gardener’s landscaping objectives, focusing on floral displays for spring, summer and fall.

Trees and shrubs

The classic strategy for developing the landscape of an undeveloped parcel begins with hardscape, followed by the installation of trees and shrubs. Landscaping with trees or shrubs yields structure to the garden and requires substantial planning, cost and maintenance. We can explore these landscaping options in the future.

Annuals

Many gardeners enjoy the flowers of annual plants. Once planted, they germinate and grow quickly, produce a wide range of flower colors and require minimal maintenance. Seedlings cost little, and growing from seed requires less upfront investment and provides greater satisfaction. Popular annuals like petunias, marigolds and zinnias bloom for several months when given adequate exposure and irrigation. As an added benefit, most annuals reseed freely, providing next season’s flowers without the gardener’s effort.

There are a few disadvantages to annuals. For example, establishing a new annual bed each year requires time and the cost of buying and planting seeds or seedlings. Irrigating and fertilizing involve regular activities, especially for containerized annuals. Controlling aphids, snails, slugs and other pests and diseases can keep the gardener busy. Some annuals look best only when the gardener prefers to remove seedheads after blooms fade, and trim when foliage fades and becomes unsightly.

Perennials

Compared with annuals, perennials offer long-term beauty, require minimal maintenance and provide a foundational landscape that evolves over time. The disadvantages of perennials include higher initial cost, extensive soil preparation (depending on existing conditions), relatively slow establishment and annual maintenance.

In landscape design with perennials for a specific site, the gardener’s primary selection criteria should focus on the plant’s compatibility with the site’s climate, soil quality and sun exposure.

Next, the designer considers the plant’s mature size, flowering period and blossom color.

For a detailed landscape, the designer also considers foliage texture, branching structure and clustering similar and compatible plants.

For this column, our focus is on the mature sizes of perennial plants with relatively long bloom periods. We can also enjoy short-blooming perennials, such as irises, peonies, poppies and many others. Our current emphasis on longer-blooming perennials prioritizes longer color displays in the garden.

We have also selected plants for review that are compatible with the Monterey Bay area’s summer-dry climate and full sun exposure. When designing a perennial landscape for a specific site, the gardener should consider the site’s conditions and exposure.

Sample list of perennials

To present a list of perennial plants compatible with the Monterey Bay area, we compiled plant information from several sources and organized it into three height layers: lower, middle and upper. These layers are relevant while planning a landscape.

Garden designers can search through the many available perennials that meet our broad criteria and select plants that meet their aesthetic criteria.

Given those factors, here is a sample list of perennials, organized by height and with notes for mature size and bloom period.

Lower layer

• Homestead purple verbena (Verbena canadensis): 1/2-1 1/2 feet, May to August.

• California fuchsia (Epilobium canum): 3-18 inches, summer to fall.

• Ice plant (Delosperma cooperi): 4-8 inches, June to September.

• Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus): 6-12 inches, spring to fall.

• Sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum): 6-12 inches, summer to fall.

• Reblooming dwarf daylily (Hemerocallis): .7-1 foot, May to August.

• English snake flower (Bulbine frutescens): 12-18 inches, April to June.

• Pincushion flower (Scabiosa columbaria): 12-18 inches, May to September.

Middle layer

• Autumn sage (Salvia greggii): 2-3 feet, June to October.

• Blanket flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora): 2-3 feet, June to September.

• Catmint (Nepeta): 2-3 feet, April to Sept. 6.

• Foothill penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus): 1 1/2-2 1/2 feet, May to July.

• French marigold (Tagetes ‘Gold Medal’): 2 feet, June to November.

• Littleleaf sage (Salvia microphylla): 2-3 feet, spring to summer to fall.

• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea): 2-3 feet, June to August.

• Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum): 2-3 feet, July to September.

• Threadleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata): 2-3 feet, June to September.

• Wallflower (Erysimum linifolium): 2-3 feet, May to August.

• Wood sage (Salvia x sylvestris): 1 1/2-2 feet, March to June.

• Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): 2-3 feet, June to September.

Upper layer

• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia/Salvia yangii): 3-5 feet, July to October.

• Whirling butterflies, gaura (Oenothera lindheimeri): 3-4 feet, May to September.

Landscaping with long-blooming perennials

To plan for a landscape bed of longer-blooming perennials, the designer clearly considers the bed’s size. The following example applies to a 500-square-foot planting bed.

Our very basic strategy for designing a landscape is “taller plants in back.” We have seen some designers suggest placing taller plants in the foreground, especially when using plants with open branching. This alternative approach to our basic strategy could offer a “peekaboo” view of the lower plants. It might work with some perennials, such as Russian sage.

For a 500-square-foot planting bed, the designer would need about this number of plants:

• Lower layer: 30 plants, spaced 18-24 inches apart.

• Middle layer: 17 plants, spaced 2-3 feet apart.

• Upper layer: eight plants, spaced 3-5 feet apart.

The cost of this collection of 55 plants depends on the sizes of the plants. Purchasing plants in one-gallon containers at a convenient estimate of $10 each would total $550. A landscape contractor can acquire plants from a wholesale nursery at lower rates.

The bed’s shape affects the layout of the plants. For a 500-square-foot circular bed (about 20 feet by 25 feet) with access from all sides, the usual layout places the upper layer plants in the middle, surrounds them with the middle layer plants and installs the lower layer plants on the bed’s perimeter.

For a 500-square-foot linear bed (about 5 feet wide and 100 feet long) along a wall or fence, the same plant list can apply, although the result depends on the designer’s assessment of the layout. My visualization of this imaginary bed suggests that the overall effect may require more upper layer plants to establish a satisfying background.

Advance your gardening knowledge

Gardeners can discover many compatible plants of various sizes by observing fully grown plants in gardens, searching for plant names online or using artificial intelligence to list plants in a specific size category. For example, ask an AI (such as ChatGPT) to generate a list of tall, red-flowered plants.

This week in the garden

This week would be a good time for enthusiastic gardeners to dive into developing a bed of long-blooming perennials. Depending on the plant selection, the sequential bloom periods could begin in May.

Enjoy your garden!

Tom Karwin can be reached at gardening@karwin.com. 

With record cold gripping much of North America this winter, many who find themselves with an abundance of fireplace ashes are wondering whether they can use them in the garden.

Wood ashes from burned untreated wood can be beneficial for your plants — but with a few caveats.

Ashes contain nutrients like potassium, which supports the overall health of plants, phosphorus, which promotes strong root systems, and calcium, which facilitates plants’ absorption of other soil nutrients.

They also raise soil pH, making it more alkaline. That could be beneficial for folks with naturally acidic soil wanting to grow plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, but it could spell disaster for gardeners who want to grow acid-loving plants like rhododendrons, azaleas or blueberries.

And if your soil is already alkaline — with a pH of 7 or higher — raising it further with ashes would risk interfering with many plants’ ability to thrive.

Despite the alkalinizing properties of wood ashes, they should not be relied on as the sole pH-raising amendment for very acidic soils. Although they can be helpful for borderline soils, it would take a tremendous amount of ash to change soil pH from too low to neutral.

The only way to know your soil’s pH level is to test it either with an at-home kit, which you can buy at garden centers or online, or by bringing a soil sample to your county’s cooperative extension office or master gardener clinic for testing and amendment recommendations.

Armed with this information, you can make an educated decision about whether ashes will benefit your soil and plants.

Here are a few more tips to get you on your way.

Know your wood

Whatever the wood contains will be absorbed by your soil and, in turn, your plants. Avoid using ashes from treated wood or from trees grown in polluted areas, which may contain chemicals and contaminants, such as heavy metals.

Coal ash and charcoal briquette ash should never be incorporated into garden soil because they contain toxins.

Make necessary preparations

Before spreading, ensure ashes have cooled completely. This can take a week or more.

Sift the ashes through a compost sifter to remove pieces of burned wood and debris. If you don’t have a sifter, you can use an old window screen or make your own by affixing 1/2- or 1/4-inch hardware cloth to a large art frame (or make a wood frame yourself).

Don’t overdo it

If you obtained dosing recommendations with your soil test, follow them precisely. Otherwise, apply no more than one 5-gallon bucket of ash, roughly 20 pounds, to a 1,000-square-foot area of garden per year. This limit should allow plants to reap the nutritive benefits of ash without adversely raising the soil’s pH. Retest annually before reapplying.

You can also sprinkle similar proportions of ash over the lawn or add it to compost.

Leave time between application and planting

In winter, apply ashes to bare soil (without snow cover) on a windless day. Moisten well with a gentle shower stream to facilitate absorption and prevent ashes from blowing around.

Springtime applications to prepared beds should be made no less than two weeks before planting time. Work ashes 4-6 inches deep with a stiff-tined metal garden rake.

Dispose of the excess cautiously

Avoid disposing of an abundance of ashes by dumping them in a corner of the yard. Large amounts can severely damage your soil, pollute groundwater, and lower the pH of nearby water sources, harming fish and other wildlife.

Instead, allow ashes to cool in the fireplace or stove for several days before collecting them into a metal bucket. Buried embers may still be burning, so take care and wear gloves.

Cover the bucket and place it outdoors, away from the house, porch, deck and other structures, for about a week. When you are certain they are completely cooled, bag the ashes and place them in the trash.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

If you want healthy food, experts say to eat what’s local, organic and in-season. Those foods benefit the planet too, because they are less taxing on the soil and they don’t travel as far.

It doesn’t get more local, organic and in-season than a backyard vegetable garden.

At this time of year, many backyards across the country are still covered in snow. But it’s the perfect time to start planning for a garden because you’ll want to have supplies ready to start planting just after the last frost date in your area.

Below are some tips on how to plan a backyard garden and reasons why you should do it.

Homegrown vegetables have fewer emissions

Vegetable gardens benefit the surrounding ecosystem by adding diverse plant life, especially where they replace grass or cover a deck or patio. They also can provide flowering plants for pollinators.

The plants capture and store carbon in the soil, promote healthy soil by preventing compaction and can make the air cooler on rooftops and patios, according to Ellen Comeau, who chairs the advisory council for the Cuyahoga County Master Gardener Volunteers with the Ohio State University Extension program.

Homegrown vegetables and fruits are responsible for fewer emissions than their store-bought counterparts because grocery store produce typically travels long distances on trucks.

“There’s this whole idea of a zero-kilometer meal, that I don’t have to travel anywhere, except my backyard, to make food. That certainly helps the climate,” said Carol Connare, editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Gardening has health benefits

The health benefits from gardening are multifaceted, “social, emotional, nutritional, physical,” said Katherine Alaimo, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition at Michigan State University.

Gardening promotes physical health because it requires a lot of movement. The food is typically picked at the height of ripeness and eaten fresh so it tends to have more nutrients than grocery store produce.

Alaimo said most gardeners don’t use pesticides and grow their food organically. And of course, when you grow more produce, you eat more produce.

“That’s going to reinforce people eating more fruits and vegetables even in the off season when they’re not growing food. So they try new foods, they potentially increase creativity and their cooking skills,” she said.

Alaimo said gardening also connects people with nature, provides a sense of responsibility and accomplishment and encourages sharing harvests with friends. All of that can contribute to reduced stress, lower blood pressure and higher energy, she said.

Picking the right spot and budgeting

Sunlight is the biggest factor in choosing where to put your garden. Most produce wants at least six hours of sunlight per day. If sunny spots are few, save them for fruiting plants because leafy greens can tolerate more shade.

It also helps to have a nearby water source because you’ll get more food for less effort if you’re not lugging buckets of water a long way.

If you’re growing in the ground, Comeau said to start with a soil test to determine its acidity and nutrient makeup. Soil samples, once bagged or boxed, can typically be sent to a cooperative extension office at a university. The Old Farmer’s Almanac offers a list of extension offices by state. The results will give you an idea of what to grow and whether you need fertilizer or other amendments.

If you have barren soil or a concrete patio, you can buy or build raised beds with purchased soil. Connare said raised beds have advantages such as controlling the soil, but the disadvantages include the cost and the likelihood of compacting soil and eventually needing to replace it.

After finding the right spot, Comeau said the next step is figuring out how much you have to spend. That determines how big the garden is, whether you sow seeds or buy baby plants known as starts and how many supplies you can afford.

Another major investment: fencing for pests. That means digging fences into the soil to stop burrowing animals like groundhogs, making them tall to deter deer or installing netting for climbing critters.

Choosing what to grow and when to start

What you can grow depends on what falls into your region’s plant hardiness zone. Californians can grow olives more easily than Ohioans, for example.

Connare recommends finding out what plants are working for your neighbors.

“They might be able to tell you, ‘I can’t grow a Cherokee tomato here to save my life, but these tie-dye ones do great,’” she said.

Once you’ve narrowed down what can grow, pick what appeals to you. Kevin Espiritu, founder of Epic Gardening, said he used to advise people to focus on what grows the fastest and easiest, but now he also emphasizes choosing what you like to eat.

Connare also recommends adding flowers to attract pollinators. Local garden centers are good sources of knowledge about what native plants will attract beneficial insects.

Espiritu said to figure out the last frost date in your area and plan around that. Many fruits and vegetables are best planted after the frost threat has passed, but some can go in earlier. Cool-season crops like leafy vegetables can tolerate slightly colder temperatures. Seeds can get started indoors weeks before the last frost date.

Comeau said seed packet labels often provide instructions.

“The label will tell you when you can start it and when it can go into the ground. Some obviously go right into the ground and some can be started ahead of time,” she said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Soap aloe (Aloe maculata). This South African native is a popular garden plant in California. It grows rosettes of 20-inch-long, 4-inch-wide leaves. The species name “maculata” means the speckled markings on the leaves, which are attractive until summer, when the plants produce flat-topped racemes of bright red to yellow flowers. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Firecracker plant (Cuphea ignea). This rounded, densely branched, bushy, evergreen sub-shrub grows to 30 inches tall and wide. The stems are crowded with pointed, lance-shaped to ovate, dark green leaves about 1 1/2 inches long. From late spring to frost, the plant generates small, tubular, bright red flowers attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies. This plant is native to Mexico and Jamaica. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Orchid frost deadnettle (Lamium maculatum ‘Orchid Frost’). Native to the Mediterranean basin, this showy, repeat-blooming ground cover has large orchid-pink flowers and frosty variegated foliage. It grows in shady areas, reaching 6 inches tall and 18 inches wide. Its foliage is evergreen in mild-winter regions like the Monterey Bay area. Common dead nettles have small white flowers, and this cultivar produces large orchid pink flowers from late spring to early summer. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Chiapas sage (Salvia chiapensis). This Chiapas, Mexico, native plant’s natural habitat is a cloud forest; it grows in full sun or partial shade and reaches up to 4 feet high and wide. When grown in a large container, it will be limited to 3 feet high and wide. From late summer through winter, it develops bright rose-fuchsia-colored flowers with green calyces in well-spaced whorls of three to six flowers on erect, 1-foot-tall stems. As with many salvias, this plant should be cut back hard in late winter or early spring to encourage fresh new growth. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Stonecrop (Sedum oaxacanum). Stonecrops include about 600 species of succulent herbs. The genus name is based on a Latin term meaning “to sit,” referring to the plant’s slow-spreading habit. This species carries the name of its native habitat in Oaxaca, Mexico. It has creeping, 6-inch-long reddish stems bearing small green leaves with dusted white caps. Star-shaped yellow flowers appear solitary or in small terminal clusters. They generally bloom in summer, but are blooming now, in late winter, possibly because of our unexpected springlike days. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)

Now is the appropriate time to plant seeds for spring blooms in the garden.

Growing plants from seeds requires minimal time and effort and provides the satisfaction of real gardening as you watch plants emerge naturally.

This column provides an overview of the topic without a tutorial on the details of seed planting. If needed, see “Advance your gardening knowledge” below for practical aspects of this form of gardening.

The last frost generally occurs around April 15, so gardeners can plant seeds outdoors after that date. Start earlier by planting indoors.

Benefits of seed planting

Practical reasons for planting seeds include planting at a very low cost, avoiding potential diseases and pests from purchased plants, broadening your garden’s range, trying new varieties and flavors and the satisfaction of real gardening.

In addition, by planting seeds with care, gardeners can help to preserve the cultural heritage of hands-on gardening and support plant diversity and resilience during climate change.

Planning for planting seeds

An important consideration is to focus on plants that will grow from seeds planted soon or now, and that you want or need for your garden.

Here’s a list of spring or warm-season flower crops: asters, cosmos, nigella, scabiosa, statice, stock, strawflower, sunflowers, tithonia, zinnias. This list is from “Spring into Seeds” (below), which also has a list of veggies to plant for spring growth.

Seed sources

Local garden centers typically display a wide range of popular plants in small packets, along with essential information on how and when to plant the seeds.

Online sources provide access to both common and unusual plants. Here are particularly interesting online sources of seeds:

• Renee’s Seeds (reneesgarden.com) offers “a selection of the best heirloom and organic gourmet vegetable, herb, and flower seeds from around the world.”

• Amazon posts 400 pages of selected plant seeds and packets of seed collections. To browse these pages for seeds of your interest, start by visiting Amazon.com and searching for “seeds.” To narrow the range to 11 pages, select your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone (9 for Santa Cruz and Monterey counties) and Planting Period (choose spring for the present).

• The Theodore Payne Foundation focuses on the beauty and ecological benefits of California native plant landscapes. Visit theodorepayne.org.

• The Wildflower Seed & Tool Co. (wildflower-seed.com) specializes in quality wildflower seeds and mixtures.

• AfroPlants (afroplants.net/index.php) offers plants and seeds from Africa, Arabia and the Indian Ocean. When visiting the website, select “seeds.”

• Chileflora (chileflora.com) is a resource for learning about the nutritional and medicinal properties of Chilean plants, identifying them and purchasing seeds.

• Seed of Italy (seedsofitaly.com) is the importer for the Franchi Seeds brand, the oldest family-run seed company in the world.

• Botanical Interests (botanicalinterests.com) offers “beginner-friendly seed bundles” and seed starting essentials.

• The Pacific Bulb Society has posted an interesting article, “How to Grow Bulbs from Seed.” To read the article, visit tinyurl.com/mzfd5wfp.

Advance your gardening knowledge

For online learning about seed gardening, visit “Spring into Seeds,” 69 pages of slides on the subject. The lesson begins with an introduction to seed gardening, followed by sections: Spring Garden Planning, Seed Storage, Sowing Techniques, Pricking-Out Technique, Sowing Mix, Light, Seedling Diseases & Pests, Hardening Off, Transplanting and a Hands-On Exercise. The Master Gardeners of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties authored and posted this thorough introduction to seed gardening. The University of California Cooperative Extension sponsors master gardener programs across the state.

“Spring into Seeds” will help you prepare to be a successful seed gardener. It is available at tinyurl.com/3a2uas2a without cost.

This week in the garden

The Master Gardeners of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties also posted the article, “What to do in the Garden – February,” with notes on food gardening, California natives, flowers and ornamentals, fruit trees, miscellaneous and evergreen tips. The article includes links to extensive information on key gardening topics, such as planting bare-root roses, pruning roses and pruning fruit trees.

View this article by browsing tinyurl.com/7xr5fujh.

Tom Karwin can be reached at gardening@karwin.com.

Have you dreamed of creating a calm and cozy spot at home to relax and recharge, but don’t think you can spare the space?

You don’t need a “man cave,” “she shed” or even a whole room to retreat to. Just one corner will do.

One corner, warm lighting, a cozy chair and some plants, says interior and plant stylist Hilton Carter, who specializes in “nature nooks” — tiny wellness sanctuaries that calm the mind, body and spirit.

Carter has hosted plant-forward specials for HBO and PBS, launched a plant and accessories line with Target and authored six books (his most recent is “Unfurled: Designing a Living Home.”)

Nature nooks, he says, improve a home emotionally as well as aesthetically.

Carter, 48, found himself leaning toward plants a decade ago. “I was feeling overwhelmed by the hustle and grind working as a freelance filmmaker in Los Angeles when a project took me to Glen Mills, Pennsylvania,” he said.

There, he popped into a garden-themed café.

“I was all knotted up, and I walked in there and felt a change. It felt like a vacation,” he said.

Not long after, Carter moved to New Orleans and bought a fiddle-leaf fig tree he named Frank. “I was at a crossroads in life, which all of us face, and I faced it with this plant,” he said, adding that he made a vow to love it and keep it alive. “Everything I’ve accomplished since then was all due to that moment.”

A nature nook doesn’t need a lot of plants

Today, Carter, who lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children, has roughly 150 plants at home and another 200 or so in his studio, including Frank, now 14 feet tall. But creating a nature nook with as few as five plants can reap emotional benefits, he said.

Before buying any plants, choose your site, Carter said.

“There is no minimum or maximum size” for a nature-nook corner, he says. The important thing is “how lush you decide to make it.”

Next, assess lighting. “If one side of the corner has a nice-size window and it gets southern-facing light for eight hours of the day, there are particular plants that you could go wild with that could thrive in that light,” Carter said.

“But let’s say you have a north-facing window on one wall and it’s a standard-size window. You probably will want to bring in artificial light.”

Don’t get just any grow lights, though.

“Find those companies that make beautiful grow bulbs. Some have two-color tones, some (replicate) daylight and others make warmer lights” that make the space inviting but still help plants thrive, Carter said.

If relying on natural light, consider the seasons. “It may be brighter in the winter because all the leaves on the trees are gone, but in summer that’s a whole different situation.”

Assess your light and bring that information to a plant shop for guidance.

A comfortable place to sit

Bring in “some sort of accent chair facing whatever direction is going to provide you with joy: facing out the window, where the joy is having that sun caress your face, or facing in if you’re reading,” Carter said.

Select plants realistically.

“Be self-aware about your ability to care for plants,” Carter said. Your nook might start out looking lush and beautiful, but if you don’t take the time to care for the plants, it will look terrible and uninviting within weeks.

Personalize your nature nook

When creating nature nooks for clients, Carter asks them about their favorite vacations or where they spent honeymoons or anniversaries, because bringing in plants from those places can trigger happy memories.

“Think about your happy place,” Carter advised. “Get a sense of what you want to replicate and where you want to be transported to.”

A nature nook is an “escape from the chaos of the world,” he said.

When choosing plants, consider their foliage and how they look together. The glossiness of a burgundy Ficus elastica next to a Monstera ‘Thai Constellation,’ for instance, is striking, he says.

“But if you met your wife in the Pacific Northwest and you’re looking to create a look that’s similar to that, you’re going to get your more shaded plants — ferns, Norfolk pines, things that refer back to that space,” he said.

And don’t overlook pots. A beautiful terracotta planter that fits the space’s vibe will evoke emotion and set the mood of the nook.

Some practical concerns

Consider how tall plants will grow, and how high the ceilings and windows are.

Carter also advises being mindful of the type of flooring. “Use planters that will protect the floor” in case water drains out.

Toxicity is another important matter. “Do you have pets? Do you have kids? What kinds of plants will thrive and keep them safe?” he said.

Enjoying your nook

Once your nature nook is in place, create a routine. Maybe drink your morning coffee there or read there in the evenings. Using the space regularly can be transformative, Carter said.

“I’m much more patient, more kind, considerate and I’m a better listener because of plants,” he said. “I think I’m entirely a more loving individual than before.”

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

With a scarf dangling from your coat pocket and those gloves left behind at the coffee shop, there are simply more things to lose in winter. That’s not counting your misplaced keys at home or those exasperated moments looking for your phone when you say, “I just had it!”

Try not to beat yourself up. Even Mark McDaniel, who has been studying human memory and learning for almost 50 years, left a hat under his chair recently at a restaurant. He doesn’t usually wear hats, so he forgot it.

“I should know how to remember to remember, but at the moment, you don’t think you’re going to forget,” said McDaniel, professor emeritus of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Luckily, there are strategies. If you can remember to implement them, here’s how to stop losing things.

A breakdown in the brain

Daniel L. Schacter, a Harvard University psychology professor and author of “The Seven Sins of Memory,” said losing things is something everyone is prone to, to varying degrees. It depends on life circumstances that pull the mind away from the present.

Rather than having a bad memory, it might be “a breakdown at the interface of memory and attention,” Schacter said. “That’s what’s responsible, based on research, based on personal experience, for a lot of the memory failures that would result in losing things.”

Memory occurs in three phases in the brain: encoding, storage and retrieval. Schacter likened losing your keys to drivers who arrive at their destination safely without remembering how they got there.

In both cases, the memory of the action is not encoded because people were thinking of something else, which makes it harder to retrieve the memory later.

“You have to do a little bit of cognitive work,” Schacter said. “At the time of encoding, you have to focus your attention.”

For things you use regularly

It helps to not have to remember where some things are.

Schacter suggested identifying problem items such as your phone, wallet or keys and creating a structure that becomes automatic with practice. He always leaves his reading glasses in a specific spot in the kitchen. When he goes golfing, his phone always goes into the same pocket in his golf bag.

“Maybe not always, but, you know, a very high percentage of the time,” he said.

If there is a noticeable increase in losing things compared to the recent past, accompanied by other memory problems that interfere with your normal function, it might be time to see a doctor, Schacter said.

For things you don’t use regularly

McDaniel said that the brain does a better job at remembering things when it receives several bits of information that can later be connected. Among memory researchers, it’s known as elaboration.

One way to stop losing objects you don’t habitually use — but often lose, like a hat — is to say out loud where you put it when you put it down. Verbalizing does two things that help with retrieval.

“Saying it out loud creates a better encoding because it makes you pay attention, and the verbalization creates a richer memory,” McDaniel said.

The more detailed the elaboration, the more connections in the brain there will be to help you remember.

An extreme version of elaboration is the “memory palace” that memory competitors use during championships. To remember a series of numbers and other challenges, they visualize a familiar, structured environment like a house or route, imagining the numbers in particular places.

For something like your hat, imagine it in the location and connect it to a reason and a consequence: “I put my hat under the chair because I didn’t want to get it dirty on the table, but I left it behind last time.”

You might not remember to grab it when you leave, but you’ll probably remember where you left it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Stumm writes about wellness, food and travel. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

For more AP wellness stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/be-well.