Great Makeover Story: From Barren to Beauty (1)
This story is about an amazing transformation from barren to beauty. When the owners moved into the house, the first thing they wanted to change was the front and back yards. It was barren, utterly unattractive. The main part of the front yard was this hard surface covered with sand. It had been used as a parking space for years.
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Bees love them, they are planted heavily around the Apple campus
Last year, 5 years after Apple’s legendary co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the “spaceship” design for the new Apple campus, the project finally finished and the new campus started its use. While the huge spaceship is undoubtedly the most striking element of the campus, there is another equally important yet less known feature.
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Capture Every Raindrop In Your Garden
After a long dry winter rains finally came! For three days the rains just came down heavily. This garden was completed right before the rains. During the rain, raindrops can be seen coming down from the two down spouts, going right into the the soil of the garden. The plants waved gently in the rain, as if saying: “Thank you!”
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Apple Park – a Spaceship and 9000 Trees
On Sept 12, Apple announced the launch of iPhone 8 and other products at its new Steve Jobs theater, which is part of the brand new campus Apple Park. While the world finally got to see the next generation of iPhone and other hotly-anticipated products, it also got a glimpse of the near complete Apple park, a project that has been in the works since 2014.
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Birds At an Aquatic Habitat: What Changes Could You See After Storms?
In Santa Clara county where the Silicon Valley is located, Los Gatos Creek is one of the few urban streams that remains relatively intact throughout countless developments in the area during the last 200 years. The stream originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains, flows into the Vasona Reservoir, winds through a small valley, and clears into the Guadalupe river that finally empties into the San Francisco Bay. It is one of the many steams and creeks in the vast Guadalupe River watershed, and a habitat for many wetland species.
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A Purple Dream – From Start to Bloom
When this garden was transformed from a weedy turf to a water efficient garden, not only would it save water, but a seed of a purple dream was also planted. When the garden was being planned, the idea was to have this dream place with the purple splendor. Lavenders lined two complete sides of the garden, as well as the parking strip. When the garden was finished, everyone was eager to find out: when will the purple walk come into life?
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How Does Tokyo Make Its Space Green
We all know how important it is to have trees and plants in the cities. They absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, filter harmful particles from the air, lower temperatures – just to name a few. With population growth and climate change, it is more important than ever to have more trees and greenery in the city. Tokyo, with a population of over 9 million, is one of the most populous cities in the world.
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A California Native Garden: How Long Does It Take to Bloom?
When a garden is installed, naturally, everyone hope all the plants will establish and grow. Specifically, everyone wonder: how long will it take to bloom? Last fall, in the blog post “From Brown to California Native Charm” we talked about how a brown lawn was transformed into a charming garden with many California native plants. It looked great when finished, but when will it become a garden full of flowers?
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A Tale of Two California Flowers
Everywhere you go, flowers are blossoming! In the mountains, on the plains, around the corners of our neighborhood, they offer so much beauty and charm of the nature. Among them, these two flowers probably catch your eyes quite a lot: the tall Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri), and the splendid, golden California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Together, they are a tale of two flowers.
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Drinking Water: a Vital Part of Our Life
We all know how important water is to us – drinking, washing, cooking, showering, watering – all part of the things we do with it every day. Water, and clean drinking water, is essential to all of us. For most of us, when we turn on the tap, water will flow – it comes so natural that we rarely think about where the water comes from, and how they came here. To have access to clean drinking water is central part of human activities since the ancient time.
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