Sunny California
Oh, the rain, the delicious rain! The cleansed earth, moist and dark, sends up the most amazing scent after a rain. Everything in the garden seems refreshed, bathed in pure waters. Huge droplets sit on the soft, grey leaves of Lamb's Ears, and cling to the drooping wands of my blooming Lavender. The sun peeks through briefly, and I spy an iridescent Hummingbird, searching for nectar, flitting among the Rosemary blossoms.

What a treat for my eyes as I work on this month's column. Snug and warm inside, with such a wondrous nature show right outside my window. The variegated ivy is fat and plump from the summer sun and will remain green through the winter, snuggled up around the barren Redbud tree and Butterfly bushes.

This is great downtime from the garden work; actually my husband, Tim, does all the hard work. I revel in seeing what's blooming and snapping close-ups of the garden beauties. The only thing that rivals the beauty of flower photographs for me are the splendid photos of garden produce, close-ups that make your eyes smile. Winter is a good time to design your garden, or redesign, or perhaps just decide what new varieties to add next year. It is fascinating and such fun once you start looking through the enticing garden catalogs. They are free for the asking, mailed directly to you. Several have simple, savory recipes to use the 2008 garden harvest; many to make now with produce from your local grocery store.

The second week in December my lawn was covered in white ice, looking almost like snow. It was so still and cold; my petite red roses frozen overnight with perfect petals. The third week was sunny and very cold. Now I sit here finishing this column, and the rain has started again. Be sure to have tough plants in your gardens; they have to be flexible for our changeable weather patterns here in sunny California! Back to Top
 

Winter Wonderland
Each winter in West Point, the snow piled up outside, the fire logs glowed in the fireplace, scenting the cold, winter air and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous! Now that we live in Sutter Creek we only expect snow in March! Last year we had lovely drifts and it was so romantic...maybe because it melted by the next day! I remember using the garden downtime to check out seed and plant catalogs; many had recipes using their herbs and it was a really fun time for me. I would look outside at the trees' branches, covered in shimmering layers of pure white snow, festooned with sparkling ice crystals that caught the light and glinted brilliantly in the afternoon light.

My fireplace danced merrily and it made for cozy, Saturdays. This is November in Sutter Creek and I am still enjoying blooms on the roses, lavender, pansies, and jaunty Gaura. For extra color on these winter days, bring Amaryllis into your home, it is a cheery addition to keep you company while you enjoy your magazines.

There are some lovely, hardy plants that are happy in West Point or Sutter Creek. Carnations are truly carefree flowers. Once planted, they bloom all the way through summer. Fragrant, with a clean, clove-spice scent, they have double flowers and blue-green, spiky leaves, and grow to about 12 inches in height. They over- winter very well. Anemones, in shades of violet, pink, and white, are charming 'windflowers', with softly ruffled blooms, and come in various heights. Sarah Bernhardt is a beautiful, herbaceous peony that is cold hardy and so spectacular. Candytuft, Dogwood trees, St. John's Wort, Ajuga, fragrant wild violets, Blue Fescue, Aaron's Beard --great choices. Gardens are a part of our lives, a living tapestry. I look forward to each winter as eagerly as I look forward to spring, summer and fall. Gardening is good for your heart's health. Happy gardening!  Back to Top

Photo left: The Editor behind a stand of daisies in her yard

This is a wonderful time of year in the gardens. Things have slowed down, the colors are muted, golden and rosy, and the plants seem to have come together in a cohesive picture, complementing each other. The grasses are a nice addition in our garden; they glow in the light of the setting sun and they are always treats for the many birds looking for a meal this time of year. Rain has already fallen and oh, didn't it smell good! The plants are happy, refreshed, shimmering with droplets. Gaura, with tall, willowy stems, is not as happy. They have fallen over and now kiss the earth. But tomorrow will come, they will dry and once more lift their white blooms towards the sun. Now is the time to plant Mums (lovely yellow, russet, gold and white), some ruffly leaved primrose, and fragrant stock. I am looking forward to the seasonal changes. The trees are beginning their colors, and are quite spectacular. The aspens on the way to Sorensen's Resort in Hope Valley on Highway 88 are absolutely gorgeous this time of year!

It is snowing at the higher elevations now, and mornings are becoming quite nippy. Not much time left to put the gardens to bed and tidy up. It's time also to plant spring bulbs. But once that is done, we can take off on a day trip up to Markleeville to the hot springs. It is amazing to sit in mineral hot springs soaking tired joints while surrounded by white, snowy mountains, and meadows with a blue sky overhead. This is so good for the body and soul. A cool swimming pool is just on the other side to dive in and cool off afterwards. What a lovely afternoon trip this will be; we will take a lunch and enjoy it after the hot springs.

I still have color in my gardens; zinnias are happy and blooming wildly; deep violet morning glories still reaching out and embracing the nearby tomato plant we sunk in a wooden half barrel so it would be closer to the back door (see photo below). My pink and white Four O'clock will bloom until frost and this morning I saw the Kaleidoscope Rose; it had changed from a tannish pink to a rosy pink! Perhaps the influence of the nippy weather we are having lately. Zucchini plants are still forming flowers, but no fruit, which is ok...the flowers are good to eat. Torn into salads for color and flavor, or battered and sautéed. Choose those that look fresh, with closed buds. Squash blossoms are sometimes stuffed with soft cheese before being batter-dipped and fried. They have vitamins A, C, and calcium.

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Have you noticed the cooler evenings, the shorter days? Autumn has arrived! It's pleasant spending time in the garden, taking out the spent summer flowers, seeing the Four O'clock, Snap Dragons, and pansies happy and bright. It's time to plant for fall! The best months to plant most California native plants. Warm soil and cooler nights promote good root growth, and lessens transplant stress. Fall planting gives plants that needed cool time to dig deep so they can survive hot, dry summers.

Lovely flowers to plant now are mums, stock, poppies, sweet peas (get the fragrant ones), verbena, cyclamen, and ferns are always nice to plant. Winter veggies are now available; spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, Brussels sprouts, onions, chard, Romaine lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots. It is also a good time for weeds, so keep an eye out and keep pulling. Our tomatoes are doing one last fling, red and bright in the sunshine, their taste deliciously fragrant...nothing like a tomato fresh from the garden! Marigolds and petunias are still busy pumping out the color and I am still getting some strawberries.

Vegetable seedlings are in great supply at your local nurseries. The fall bulbs are in--Alliums, anemone, crocus, daffodil, freesia (so fragrant!). Our Crepe Myrtle is putting on her show now, since the end of August. Frilly flowers in rose wine grace the branches and entice honey bees. I am still enjoying alyssum, white and fragrant. This is time for Asters, lovely lavender colors that come back each year and are a strong presence in the perennial bed.

I have beautiful, yellow fox gloves which are just starting their second bloom! The nights have definitely gotten cooler. One even begins to think about turning on the heater in the house! But then, the next day comes and it is hot and still, the cool, crisp evenings a mere memory. This has quite an effect on my gardens! My Pansies bloom and stop, the cannas gets taller and taller but show no flowers, and my Impatiens become very thirsty. A real trooper in the garden is Gaura, always delicate and lovely, blooming still.

The Pyracantha has berries that are slowly turning from green to orange, and by December, will be bright red and will give the birds great delight. Beneath her, the Blue Fescue is a wonderful counterpart in ice blue. Pyracantha makes a nice centerpiece for the holiday table, bright red berries, glossy green leaves look like Christmas. Oh my, can you believe the blooming season is almost gone?

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These plants can endure the elements this season. Check out local nurseries for more drought-tolerant plants such as Zinnias, Verbena, Cana (photo left), Petunias, Butterfly Bush, Lantana, Hollyhocks, Vinca and Geraniums; Google 'hot summer plants' for endless suggestions online. Strive for an all season garden, and don't forget the color for the hot, August dog days of summer.
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Plant flowers at your feet, strewn alongside the pathways in your garden. Treat yourself with something special. Try Scaevola, it blooms profusely on every branch and petals are on one side of the flower; or Johnny Jump-Ups. Have Lemon Verbena share space with other plants in your beds, right where you walk past and touch them. The light lemony scent is delightful. You can use the leaves in tea, scones, or even baked in bread.

Purple coneflower is a favorite of butterflies as is the Butterfly bush that attracts dozens of butterflies to its fragrant, lilac-like blossoms. Plan for a continuous show of flowers in your garden; prolong their blooming season by dead-heading faded flowers. It is important for butterflies to have nectar well into fall; an especially important time for migrating monarchs and hummingbirds, too, in need of energy for the long flights south.
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A good garden takes time to develop, and then can be made and remade, over the course of a lifetime and even into succeeding generations. The late May Sarton, whose intimate journals are full of wisdom about life in the garden, wrote: "Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow cycles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace."

There is a rich relationship between the gardener and the garden. It is ironic that when the garden we dreamed of creating finally seems finished, the picture keeps changing. Therein lies the fun. Gardens are memories, experience, and knowledge that we gleaned from it, all of which we carry with us in our hearts and souls. Join us at one of our garden sites soon. Visit www.dunnfarm.com and www.ovrthegardengate.com.
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Blue skies, warm temperatures, narcissus blooming everywhere -- is it spring already? The green hills were a refreshing sight after all those dry weeks in January. Then snow in lower elevations blanketed blooms on fruit trees, and we snuggled in for more of winter. Snow covered everything again in Sutter Hill in Feb for one day, blanketing the blooming rosemary, daffodils, pansies, candytuft and the budding lilacs. We all know the tenacity of the pansy so no worry. My peach tree was just budding too; last year we had no fruit after the March snow. We will wait and see this year.

It is a perfect time to finish your summer garden plans by visiting local nurseries; so many plants are in bloom and are great visuals for color and form of the plants you have only seen in your garden catalogs. Because most people shop only in the spring and buy only what is in bloom, many gardens lack the glorious colors and textures of the late bloomers. Plants such as Monkshood--not used in gardens enough, a close cousin to Delphiniums with the same lovely deep blue. Japanese Anemone has single and double white and pink flower varieties; planted along with summer bloomers, they look like swans in the garden.

Plant in protected areas, or beneath large shrubs; plant in pots and urns on your deck or porch, or by doorways, to be able to use less hardy plants. Push the limits. Tired of stepping through mud in springtime and after watering in our West Point garden, especially our straw-berry patch, we laid down a brick path of 4 brick across, and decided on a design. We scraped a level path, free of grass, stones and twigs, with a flat spade and laid the bricks down, spacing a 1/2 inch in-between. We then laid a bed of sand and smoothed it, checking it with a level.

Then we swept sand in-between the bricks, followed by mortar mix, hosing it down for a few days until it set. Then another sweeping of sand on top and we had a brick pathway that wound past daisies, daylilies, strawberries, Jasmine, Peonies, and roses. This created a carefree, cottage garden feel. We set a blue garden bench just off the walkway, right under fragrant white roses and next to beautiful, glistening purple Boysenberries for tasty treats during the summer. Put some-thing to enchant your nose everywhere you walk and where you stop and sit. Use dianthus, heliotrope, or scented geraniums. For moonlight dazzle, use moonflower or nicotiana. Then relax and enjoy the fragrance on a summer night.

The evergreens that surrounded our property stood like billowy green privacy walls, forming a framework for our garden. By experimenting, we found out that many blooming plants actually thrive in part shade, such as Foxgloves, astilbes, yarrow and peonies. Snapdragons, Delphiniums, butterfly bush, and alyssum, usually known as full sun bloomers, also love part shade and perk up those shadowy corners with their beautiful form and colors. For special evening fragrance, plant Sweet Olive-- evergreen with tiny white flowers that smell divine at dusk. Asiatic Lilies' fragrance is heavenly. Daylilies, iris, daisies, carnations, peonies, and like varying amounts of shade.

Mix up your plants; develop a lovely jumble that highlight their neighbors' colors, or contrast and complement. Plant with an artist's eye. Try chocolate cosmos; it actually smells like chocolate! Use it close by in pots on your porch or deck. Plant with a cook's nose--plant chocolate dahlia, chocolate sunflower and Calla lily. Mmm! Enjoy gardening!
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Violets, a Fragrant Veil

Violets have a beguiling aroma, haunting, so wonderful you want to linger there. Replicated scents in cologne, creams, and soaps are just not the same, although Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries do a fair job. That's why I love when they come into bloom, like now. My West Point home's lawn was swathed in wild violets, almost replacing the grass in several areas. The scent that carried to the front door on warm mornings was incredible. At our Sutter Hills home, we have just a few areas where they now grow, transplanted years ago. I have searched for these intensely fragrant flowers with no luck; I have found some mildly aromatic, but none like these. They had been planted decades ago at our West Point home by Mrs. Dan Farmer who gardened on the site as the previous owner. Wherever I go, I shall take some of these with me to replant.

She also planted a lovely lavender Bearded Iris that smelled exactly like grape cool-aid. Honest! No one believed it until they smelled it for themselves. I also cannot find this variety anywhere, so have brought 2 plants with me to Sutter Hill and I look forward to her blooms every spring. Delightful planted next to these beauties is Cleome, a seldom-used perennial. She looks regal, spidery, and very interesting, raising the elegance bar.
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Frost damaged plants

Recent freezing temperatures in many parts of California have injured some citrus trees and other frost-sensitive subtropical plants. But since the full extent of injury won’t be known for a couple of months, horticulture advisor Ed Perry suggests gardeners wait until spring before pruning and removing damaged trees and plants.

The frost injury to plants depends upon a number of factors, including species, age, health, soil moisture and location. Frost injures plants by causing ice crystals to form in plant cells, making water unavailable to plant tissues and disrupting the movement of fluids. Frost-damaged leaves appear water-soaked, wither, and turn dark brown or black. Unprotected, sensitive young trees may be killed, but frost rarely kills mature trees in California.

"While you may be tempted to prune out damaged branches right away, it’s best to wait until spring when new growth will show you the extent of the injury," said Perry of Stanislaus County. "Always allow plenty of time for new growth to take place, so that the damage is clearly defined.
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On weekend mornings, coffee cup in hand, I have a 'walk-about' through the gardens. The air is fresh and cool, the heavenly smell of the new day lingers in the air. A breeze stirs up the fragrant wild violets, deep purple spurs looking so dainty against the deep green of its leaves. Their scent is just delicious! The morning light gently awakens the gardens, peering around the Sweet Olive tree, its warmth piercing the dew drops, shades of green reflected in their orbs. Now that winter is on the way, the gardens are turning colors, the foliage becoming luscious shades of russet, burgundy, and yellow. Each turn of the path reveals new wonders. Light plays among the trees, highlighting a singular beauty. Autumn arrived in a blaze of glory-- gold, russet, burgundy and brilliant reds charging the fall air, electrifying! Winter will soon slip in, freezing autumn's glory in a strong, icy grasp, blanketing all, quietly, with her soft, white shawl at higher elevations. And so the seasons will play out, each one bringing its own delights and struggles.

Fall nights are nippy, the clear, night skies studded with a zillion stars and you can smell winter coming! Pansies of all colors bloom again with the cooler temperatures, their faces sporting various, colorful markings. Few perennials bloom this late, but make up for that with their brilliant fall colors. The mums have burst out in their fall dress, yellows, gold's, orange, and some lovely little white ones. They will bloom until frost. In my planter on the front porch, they snuggle up to purple Asters, another fall beauty. Along the edge of the Garden are the daylilies, still blooming. November rains have not daunted their perky blooms, bright yellow against grey skies. These hardy, tough plants come in a vast array of colors. Calendula, its orange spheres brilliant in the sun, bloom well into winter and are care-free.

Purple Petunias seem to never stop blooming, white and purple Alyssum, so fragrant and dainty, revel in the coolness of the days and continue to add color to the gardens. Many of our potted plants spend the winter indoors; Bird of Paradise, Umbrella plant, Jade plant, Spider plants, Fichus, lemon tree, and my Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow plant, with lovely lavender blooms. The Christmas Cactus will be amazing with its crimson flowers very soon. Keep these indoor plants moist, as heated winter homes can dry plants out quickly. Mist frequently, and group them together. You can even force bulbs after January, for wonderful indoor color.

The soul is a garden enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored. - Thomas Moore

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The Gold Country Times
P.O. Box 897
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
(209) 267-9886
editor@goldcountrytimes.com

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