Homeownership is within reach.

Buying a home can sometimes seem like an unreachable goal. When you work with Tri Counties Bank, your local Home Mortgage Loan Specialist will walk you through products and resources designed for aspiring homeowners. It’s part of our commitment to helping our local communities grow and thrive through the power of homeownership.

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Once planting and irrigation are complete, apply 2 to 3 inches of organic mulch. Wood chips and bagged bark are common.

Consider installing or replacing concrete pathways with permeable paths. Permeable surfaces include decomposed granite, flagstone, pavers with sand joints, or bark. The goal is a surface that allows water to soak through rather than run off.

Time for some sobering news. Right behind large areas of lawn, those magnificent coast redwoods that dot Sacramento neighborhoods are among the worst landscape choices.

“The United States Forest Service determined that the average redwood in the Central Valley requires 500 gallons of water a day to remain healthy,” Reid says. “That is just mind-boggling. They are terribly difficult to grow anything under because the roots are so extensive and so efficient at guzzling the water around them.”

According to Reid, many of Sacramento’s coast redwoods are in poor health because of drought years. She recommends more water-efficient conifers that adapt to dry, hot summers.

Other poor choices are magnolia trees and big mophead hydrangeas.

“They both suffer without a steady diet of heavy water during our summers,” Reid says. “Better to select trees that are not native to humid, wet summer areas and replace those hydrangeas species with the oak leaf varieties that bloom beautifully but perform well on low water in part shade.”

Research a modern Sacramento landscape online by searching these sites: UC Davis California Center for Urban Horticulture, Sacramento Tree Foundation and Sacramento County Master Gardeners. Not only will you discover in-depth information, but plant lists and recommendations for our region.

Dan Vierria is a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener for Sacramento County. He can be reached at masterg29@ gmail.com. For answers to gardening questions, contact the UCCE Master Gardeners at (916) 876-5338, email mgsacramento@ucanr.edu or visit sacmg.ucanr.edu. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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Bookie Butch was on trial twice in the Equipoise raid. Both ended with hung juries. He reopened and was arrested again in 1937. This time, his defense attorney Clifford Russell called one witness, Equipoise bartender Ray Keating.

The bartender was asked who he worked for and who signed his paychecks. He answered twice, “I don’t know.” The jury deliberated 15 minutes. Not guilty.

Convicting a bookmaker was impossible. But Bookie Butch needed a new environment. He moved to L.A., opened shop and was bankrupted by a race-fixing syndicate that included jockeys.

He came home, briefly invested in Alhambra Bowl—Butch was a remarkable bowler, especially when people bet against him—and retired to Santa Cruz County. He died at Aptos in 1975, age 89, amused to the end.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n