C.M.Pettitt

@cmpettitt

Californian. Interests: history, especially military history; journalism/politics/muckraking; technology; books; growing aggressive native plants to combat aggressive non-native plants. Also: fuck the gender police.

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C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· 21d

Squirrel-planted Valley Oak in Sacramento Valley. About 50 years old.

An enormous oak tree curbside towering over a dark blue craftman style house.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· 25d

Ears of corn all over the place. #corn 🌱

A small patch (about 14) of 6-foot-tall corn plants. Stems, ears, and tassels are slightly burgundy in color while leaves and corn silk are bright green. Corn variety is "Martian Jewels" and was grown from seed.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 12

Gaura in the neighborhood (Gaura lindheimeri). 🌱 #nativeplants

A large clump of the Guara plant, about five feet high and wide. Long thin tightly packed stems topped with small white and pink flowers. Leaves are small, green, and lance-shaped.

Close up of a white and pink Gaura flower cluster. Blurry Gaura foliage in the background.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 11

First ear of Martian Jewels corn appears! 🌱 #corn #maize

Close up of corn silk on a corn stalk in morning sunlight. Stalk is tinged burgundy while corn leaves are bright green. In the fuzzy background is a white sage, hummingbird sage, and invasive privet.

Distance shot of 14 corn plants in morning sunlight. Corn stalks and tassels are burgundy, leaves bright green.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 6

Allowing a single Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana, to grow as large as it likes. It has passed 7 feet. 🌱 #nativeplants

An over seven foot tall Pokeweed plant with large green leaves and red-tinged stems. Usually in July the plant would have numerous poisonous berry clusters but it has none because I pinch them out to keep the pokeweed from spreading. That way I only have to pull up a few hundred Pokeweed seedlings a year instead of a few thousand. Behind the Pokeweed is a 7 foot tall wooden fence stained sage green. To the right are old milk crates and old plastic plant pots saved for re-use. To the left is a glimpse of a worn bench used to hold bags of compost. A pile of Matilija poppy prunings is on the ground before the Pokeweed.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 4

"Martian Jewels" corn is doing good. 🌱🌽

Several corn plants in bright sunlight with one plant prominent in the foreground. Leaves are the usual spring green but tassle and stalk are tinged burgundy. In the background is a Matilija poppy shrub and a wooden fence stained sage green.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 1

Two penstemon plants I patiently grew from seed, potted up, then planted out, turn out to be Tree of Heaven. 🤡 🌱 A house down the street has a TofH forest so there is no escape. Following the Giant Buckwheat celebration, the garden spirits wished to remind me gardening is a mixed bag. Like life.

A sprightly green seedling with long slender leaves in brown amended soil. Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima, looks like many other seedlings but its leaves have a unique terrible odor some people describe as rancid nuts. A sniff test revealed the plant species.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jul 1

Planting out yarrow and just hit 30-year-old weedcloth. 😭 🌱

A jagged hole in the ground reveals ancient but still intact plastic weed cloth in clay soil riddled with English ivy roots. A muddy pair of shears used to cut ivy roots lies next to the hole.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 29

The Plant Foundry, a great source for #CaliforniaNativePlants, is open at its new location on Broadway between 4th Ave. and 37th St. 🌱 The main building is still in-progress but a shaded retail area has been set up. Unlike the old location, there's an on-site parking lot. #Sacramento

Rows of wooden tables holding plants for sale extend into the distance. A metal-frame arbor supports shadecloth over all. In the background are homes in Sacramento's Oak Park residential neighborhhod.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 28

#californianativeplants 🌱

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 28

Pollinator frenzy on the Giant Buckwheat, Eriogonum giganteum.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 28

Best get well wishes from a fellow hyperthroid kitty.

A longhaired tabby and white kitty snuggling under and upon cat blankets.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 25

The puny white sage planted last fall has its first blooms. 🌱 #californianativeplants

A modest gray-green shrub with 4 tall white-flowered spires. In the background is a healthy matilija poppy shrub and thigh-high corn. To the left of the white sage there's a glimpse of a lacey rose globe mallow. A heavy-duty orange garden hose snakes along the ground. In the far background is a wooden fence stained a sage-green.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 24

The Giant Buckwheat (Eriogonum giganteum) banquet has begun. 🌱 #californianativeplants

Dense white umbrel flower clusters against a deep green background of a Virginia Creeper covered fence.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 18

Five-story-tall mural celebrating Tower Records history on new apartment building at former site of the first Tower Record stores. #sacramento #towerrecords #mural

A five-story tall mural about 16 feet/5 meters wide on the exterior of a modern industrial-style apartment building. The mural is in the colorful poster style used to promote musical acts in the 1960s and 1970s. Prominent figures include a white woman singer with dark hair adorned with a pink flower matching her dress, a Black man playing a saxophone, a portable record player, a cassette tape, and the tall tower of the nearby Tower Theater. Text describes music genres including rock, funk, soul, and jazz.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 15

In memorium.

A sticker on a 2015 Toshiba silver laptop. The sticker portrays a cartoony tabby cat clinging to a brown and tan swirled planet.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 7

My tiny cornfield is on its way. First time trying to grow a food crop in the yard. Planting area is a former English ivy infestation. 🌱🌽

Fourteen small corn plants in a rough block shape. In the midst of it is a tall nonfunctioning sprinkler. A soaker garden hose weaves among the corn. Rest of soil is bare. To the left is a sliver of a Matilija Poppy. In the middle background is a lone 5-foot Pokeweed which I regularly deadhead; curious to see how big it gets. In the right background is a severely pruned cherry plum. In the far background is a wooden fence stained sage green and an old cement pad (site of former garage) where I struggle with plant pots and bags of compost. Through a wide-slatted gate is a glimpse of a paved alley. Beyond the fences are garage and house roofs plus treetops.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Jun 5

Was going to divide this up and plant it out today, but the extra dark blue agapanthus I purchased two days ago was so root bound I had to cut it out of the pot. Re-planted it in a larger pot to recuperate until October/November. 🌱

A cut-open dark plastic plant pot revealing a solid mass of fleshy roots. Around five leaf clusters, long floppy green leaves like onion tops, rise from the minimal soil. The pot sits on a soil-stained patio table. In the background is a wheelbarrow handle, a worn wooden fence, and a magnolia tree trunk.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 31

Matilija Poppy, aka the fried egg plant, has its first giant blooms. Planted out as a 3 inch plug in Fall 2025, now 4 feet tall and about 2x3 feet in width/depth. 🌱 #californianativeplants

Two huge flowers with single white petals and a large yellow center made of stamens. Plant foliage is grey-green and lobed almost like gingko leaves. Background is soil recently cleared of fading phacelia plants and a green-stained wooden fence

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 28

I saw one of these amazing orange creatures in the backyard. Hooray for wildlife gardening! 🌱 Photo from 10000thingsofthepnw.com/2022/08/28/l...

A large orange-red dragonfly known as a Flame Skimmer perched on a twig surrounded by bright green grasses.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 21

Electric company SMUD announced vegetation control would happen in the neighborhood. Guess it's done now as top of pole, electric power area, is free of Virginia Creeper. AT&T can do its own damn pruning I guess.

An aged wooden utility pole with at least 10 electric and phone line connections against a blue sky. Utility pole covered with lush Virginia Creeper vine (planted long ago in the depths of time) growing past and partially onto phone lines. Top section with electric power lines and hookups free of vegetation.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 13

Some people gamble. Others skydive. I try to grow Purple Coneflower from seed for the third time. 🌱

About fifty small plant pots atop 1970s milkcrates. The pots have colorful heart-shaped plant markers in them. Green is corn, pink is nasturtiums, light blue is delphinium and penstemon, multicolor is rainbow quinoa, yellow is yarrow and calendula.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 13

Gardening friends: Mourning Doves are always around raising offspring. It's rewarding watching them enjoy the yard's transformation from a Privet and English Ivy wasteland to food-providing native plants. 🌱🕊

A pair of Mourning Doves perched atop a green-stained fence observe the photographer. Just below them a Trumpet vine grows on a trellis attached to the fence. To the left is a flowering Pomegranate tree with intense orange blossoms. Over the fence in the background are a neighbor's tree fern, rooftops with HVAC units, California Sycamore tree tops, and a tall fir tree.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 11

The bird bath station. 🌱 🕊 Used by all, but the Mourning Doves feel a special sense of ownership. Bird bath is extra high to discourage a neighbor's huge cat who formerly could reach the shorter bird bath. Legacy elm leaf blackberry which used to be the size of a house provides cover for birds.

An extra-high bird bath constructed of six concrete blocks and an old terracotta plant pot saucer. Slightly visible: a pile of small stones in the bird bath to give insects safe water access. Behind and to the right of the birdbath is a large dense elm leaf blackberry shrub. In the background is a disintegrating wooden fence and the neighbor's freshly painted blue-grey house.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 10

Going to eat outside for the first time this year. 🌱

In the foreground, tall white sage and hummingbird sage flower spikes. Two grey resin adironrack chairs on right along a sand-gravel path. In the center distance, a round dining table covered with a floral tablecloth. Four grey resin chairs are pulled up to the table. The table and chairs are on a ramshackle 65 year old stone patio. Privet, magnolia, and orange tree trunks in background, plus a disintegrating wooden fence. Ivy tendrils on fence work to destroy it further. To the left of the magnolia tree trunk is an exuberant Early Figwort plant. A small metal female garden ornament prances in ground ivy to the right.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 8

The California Giant Buckwheat is going to bloom its pants off this year. 🌱 #californianativeplants

A gray-green shrub, about 6x6 feet, with numerous umbrel flower spikes emerging. It's a Giant Buckwheat, aka Eriogonum giganteum, aka St. Catherine's Lace. In the foreground are purple flower spikes of the cultivar Mystic Spires. In the background is a fence completely covered with lush Virginia Creeper vine. There are a few orange California poppies. A young Pitcher Sage, about a foot tall, is on the right. In the far background is the roof of a neighbor's garage, their mature gingko tree behind it.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· May 1

At the John Moss Federal Building. Maya's tacos is here. 🌮

A large street painting on Capitol Ave. in Sacramento by the California state capitol. The painting is letter N shaped. Among colorful butterflies, rainbows, and melting ice is the text "Norcal Resist."

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Apr 26

Phacelia mini-field update. 🌱 #californianativeplants

A small field of light purple phacelia flowers with green ferny foliage. To the right a Matilija Poppy planted out in fall has surpassed the phacelia in height. To the left is a legacy trumpet vine finally convinced to attach itself to a fence arbor. In the background is a wooden fence stained sage green.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Apr 23

Getting chicken-flavored liquid methimazole twice a day.

A long-haired tabby and white cat enjoying the sun and also a lap.

C.M.Pettitt@cmpettitt· Apr 20

I avoid toxic plants, but maybe I could make it work... A blooming Sacred Datura. Photo from: www.reddit.com/media?url=ht...