Amgen Tour of California

The fourth running of Amgen's Tour of California will introduce San Diego County, and especially Escondido, to world class cycling on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009. We will host the eighth and final stage of the race.

Racers will begin that day's 98 mile course on Bernardo Center Dr. in Rancho Bernardo and wind through San Pasqual, past the Wild Animal Park, up Bear Valley Parkway past the Mayflower Dog Park, up the grade to Harrah's Rincon Casino, continue to Lake Henshaw, and even to Palomar Mountain. They will continue down the south grade road, rejoining highway 76, go to Cole Grade Road, and over to Valley Center Road and back down Valley Parkway. The race ends at the intersection of Grand Ave. and Broadway in Escondido.

A recently announced list of competitors included Lance Armstrong.

Planting the right plant in the right season

It's been cold and wet the last week. Roof leaks have shown up where there have never been leaks before. This is no doubt a good time to plant pansies, agapanthus, and tulips. Check it out on the Demesne Planting Calendar. But are those plants hardy enough to thrive in our fair city?

In a previous post, The Sunset New Western Garden Book was described as a must read. The bulk of the book is an encyclopedia of plants and each entry mentions in which climate zones the plant does best. Escondido is both a Climate Zone 20 and 21 depending on where you are. A very good site to help you select a tree for our climate zone is Cal Poly SLO's Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute's Selectree.

The USDA categorizes "hardiness zones" according to the mean of the lowest temperature recorded each winter. We are a USDA hardiness zone 9. This is for areas which get no colder that 20 degrees fahrenheit. A great site to help you select a plant for our hardiness zone is NC State University Urban Horticulture Department's Plant Fact Sheets.