GardenBook

 It's my habit every Thanksgiving to go out with my camera as close to sunrise as I can mange and take some shots of the vineyards in their fall finery. They were a bit 'gone over' this year , but I enjoyed the tradition never the less. I hope you enjoy whatever tradition is yours this holiday!

 Gardeners are prone to exclaim the current years weather as the craziest ever seem, ominously strange, the most unique in decades..etc. I am no exception to this attribute. Every year brings new challenges , new first frost/last frost dates, new rainfall totals, new wind events and for those who live outside of the mild bubble of my zone 9 climate, snow accumulations, ice storms, and actual frozen ground.  This fall might actually qualify as a real deviation.  2 frosts in October. Caryopoteris 'Summer Sorbet' shed it's finery, now in November it is growing it's spring foliage. Verbena bonariensis views it's winter nap with disdain.  Daylilies die back, grow new folige, send up scapes. I often have the odd rose blooming in November, but Sun Flare  is favoring me with a full mid-summer blast. Plectranthus shrugged off the frost and keeps blooming.  Wendys Wish is usually a few sticks with blobs of black leaves by now. ...

A review of the blogging year thus far indicates that I have rarely posted about my own garden in 2012. This seems logical to me, as I started out the spring removing several mature shrubs (or more accurately I hired out the removal ) and while I enjoyed my garden this summer it seemed somewhat barren, with little worth sharing.  It's enervating to start over in a garden; there's nothing that has as much promise for a gardener as a nice patch of emptiness. My spring demolition was only the beginning, I have since removed several dayliles, 4 rosebushes, a very mature 'dwarf' muhgo pine, and a couple miles worth of Geranium sanguineum. Attempts are ongoing to hoik Pennisetum 'Bunny Tails' but I fear this may have to be penciled on to  the expanding 'hired-hand' list. In addition, I have tree issues that need to be addressed -these invariably strain the budget , but less so than having an old deteriorating tree fall on the roof.  No frost yet , so all is...

 One would think that after 20 plus years in the same garden , the fall regimen would be, if not carved in stone, at least proceeduraly consistant. And yet , every single year as mid-Sept comes around I stare at the gardens indeciseively, as if I'd never considered or performed a 'fall clean-up.'  There are plenty of overgrown, bloomed out and floppy plants here but I've come to appreciate seed heads and brown stuff more than I ever did in the past , and find it harder to bring myself to start wantonly chopping and slashing away. So here is the balance: No frost for another month , maybe two, so the tender stuff still prevails, yet I still need to find space for all the cool plants bought at the fall sales , also leaving room to dig holes for the bulbs before it starts to rain every other day and the garden turns into a gigantic water feature.Still have several mature shrubs that I want to remove --mature enough to require (yet unscheduled) hired hands . Grasses must ...

 A friend in Iowa remarked to me upon viewing some fall images I shared, that she never thought of California as a place that had much fall color. In some parts of this state, she would be accurate. California is big, and remarkably diverse, with places that get hideously hot in summer i.e. Death Valley , and frigid  snow bound mountain towns like Truckee . Here in the wine valley, the vineyards start to turn on the heels of the grape harvest. Fruit trees, walnuts, japanese maples, gingkos, chinese pistache, all widely planted , add vertical color. It's not New England, but it's not LA either.

 I was out on the coast for just a little more than 24 hours, but managed to fit in the olive bar at Harvest Market , and a visit to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens along with my shopping stop at Digging Dog. Assorted olives, leftover cold BBQ chicken and Pinot Grigio make a nice meal on a road trip, especially when consumed on a little balcony overlooking the pacific. A nice finale for what will likely be the end of my travels for 2011. Unless I get restless.  Wouldn't it be splendid if every parking lot had plantings like this ?  Verbena bonariensis  looks fine hanging out with Salvia 'Waverly' Grasses , Angelica, Salvia ugilinosa and some manner of Coreopsis make a pleasing fall vignette. Fading Eucomis. Drama with their last gasp.   I have a crush on the Heather Garden here; it's beautiful in every season-sunny, foggy, raining --doesn't matter. The tufts of Ericas and Callunas meld gracefully like a tapestry of colored muffins....

Here in northern California, the temperatures of October can be some of the nicest of the year, and the slanty fall sunlight creates a pleasant glow in the garden. This same slant also plunges wide swaths of my garden into shadows, and mildew follows without fail. At least the disfiguring disease forces my hand for garden clean up. The dahlia foliage look dreadful, but there are still a few flowers soldiering on,  providing me with something to put in a vase.  The roses look more respectable now that blackspot is only a memory..this is Fair Bianca, a scrawny bush, but earns it's keep with these flowers . Phygelius, kept under semi-control by diligent shoot-pulling.  Love my Chasmanthium. Quality time will be spent this evening perusing other entries over yonder at  May Dreams Gardens where Carol lets us come and play every month.

 There are no absence of good reasons to head out to the north coast in October. Less fog, less wind, fewer tourists, maybe even a day or two above 65 degrees. A fall visit for me always wraps around Digging Dog Nursery's annual plant sale. Not just a buying opportunity (though there is that) but the yearly stroll though the fabulous borders decked out in their fall ensembles. This isn't just about autumn leaves. The gardens are allowed to age gracefully, the wonderful grasses and seed heads punctuate the late Salvias, Ancontiums,and Heleniums . The borders here are deep and imposing, with large architectural plants anchoring the design. It's something I can never hope to replicate; I will never have the space. But in accepting that , I've learned that  color palettes can be emulated , textural groupings can be mimicked..all on a smaller scale. Deadheading here in my garden  has become more selective in late summer-are the faded browned out flowers attractive in shape ...

 In Ginny Davises' garden plants are incidental, providing calm green relief from the the color blast . Nothing is subdued here-starting with the house .    Not sure I've seen so many cool birdhouses in one place .. A very restrained vignette. Heading up the stairs.