By MAUREEN GILMER, Scripps Howard News Service

In states with mild climates, a garden doesn't go to bed for the winter, it simply changes character. By Thanksgiving, the beds and borders are filled with plants that crave cooler temperatures. Try to grow these same plants in summer and they'll promptly wilt or become infested with wooly aphids.

I awoke in the dark of night to the sound of flapping wings and something sizable flying around and around my bedroom. "There's a bat in here," my husband said in a half-muffled voice from the bathroom. I recalled I'd gotten up earlier to let the dog out and left the front door ajar. One of our resident bats had come calling.

As a horticulture student, learning to identify trees was a real challenge. Sure, some were easy to spot, like the ginkgo with its unique fan-shaped leaves. But whole groups of trees, such as needled evergreens, can differ by such minute, subtle variations that they're particularly tough to point out.

Old trees can transform a neighborhood into glorious woodland. However, those who live in our country's wonderful older suburbs know mature trees make growing bulbs like tulips basically impossible. Rather than lament this fact, consider a different approach to bulbs that is compatible with street trees, tree groves, natural woodlands and even wild-land forest.

Over a century ago, the Industrial Revolution changed the American landscape. The rise of our great manufacturing empire lured poor, struggling farmers to the city to take jobs in factories. In coming to the city, they carried with them the knowledge of how to grow their own food, and many of them began tiny gardens filled with basil and tomatoes and oregano.

I now know you can't judge a book by its cover. I almost managed to overlook my review copy of "Backyard Medicine" by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009); however, one evening I sat down to give it a look and was pleasantly surprised to discover a first-class read.

In the driest years in the California foothills, western-redbud leaves change late in the summer. Their beautiful rounded leaves take on tones of a smoky sunset, much like the color of evening skies during fire season. These small trees with their many trunks become vivid fountains of the wild, the only bright spot in seas of gray-green chaparral.

Ornamental grasses are the gateway to a fabulous garden, and they make you see the world in terms of color, form and texture. That is why landscape designers are so addicted to ornamental grasses, which are outstanding in all three of these aspects.

When I purchased this odd, 1940s bungalow in Palm Springs, Calif., it was painted a stark white and sat amid a barren field of rocks and a few citrus trees. The entry looked like a glorified trailer. But as I began to work on the garden, the whole place changed. Today, just seven years later, it is a veritable oasis. The impact of coming through the front gate is profound.

Pueblo Indian pots start at $1,000 and can rise to six figures, according to "Antiques Roadshow" experts. I know I can never afford the real thing, but I can get the same look free or nearly free with gourds -- and the proof sits all over my budget-decorated home.