Autumn Meets Winter

 

Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the comic strip "Peanuts", lived in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years and died here in February 2000. Therefore it's no wonder that many Christmas decorations in my neighborhood depict one or more of his characters, the most popular among them Snoopy and Woodstock. 

Winter has arrived here with heavy rain which, of course, is very welcome. In the higher elevations of the county there are warnings we might see snow on top of the mountains, however, I do think it is not cold enough for that. I'm thankful for the rain, and am enjoying the spots where autumn meets winter.

This is the time when the Geek and I often have a cup of hot chocolate in the evening, which is my ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday this week.

This is only a short post and I hope to be back by Thursday with some German Christmas cookies.

The Last Two Weeks

 

I wish I could come up with something exciting this week, but I don't. Two weeks ago I started PT for my left knee and the sciatica on the right side; I go twice a week and do my exercises religiously because I really want an end to the pain and most of all, I want to take long walks again. While I see some improvement when it comes to the sciatica, I unfortunately cannot say the same for the knee. Some days are okay, but there were moments when I had just started my walk down the street to the mailbox when I had to turn around after only 50 meters or so because the pain was so bad that I knew I wouldn't get to the mailbox (a 12 minute walk one way), not to mention back home. It's frustrating, but I'm determined not to let these things get me down.

Despite the evil knee, I was able to do a few short walks - I walked at the lake (please note that I wrote "at", not "around" because that's not possible right now) on a cloudy morning and enjoyed the view of the still water and the leaves in the parking lot.

I especially liked the stunning color of these oak leaves as well as the beautiful seeds of the Horse Weed (Conyza bonariensis).

In my neighborhood I enjoyed a few leaves withstanding the autumn winds while others swirled through the air, sometimes doing crazy somersaults.

The Japanese Maple in front of my kitchen window radiated in beautiful autumn colors and I loved the reflection in the bird bath.

My native California vine "Roger's Red" (Vitis californica x 'Roger's Red') was twisting along my clothesline. Soon I will have to cut it back, when all the leaves will be gone.

My Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana) was heavy with fruit this year, so I decided to share with the neighborhood.

In my opinion, winter sunrises and sunsets are more spectacular than the ones in summer. Maybe it's because the sun is so much lower in the sky or the air is colder - I don't know. This was the sunrise seen from my bedroom window a few days ago, followed below by pink clouds at sunset.

The nightsky during a full moon was pretty dramatic as well.

We had some rain - always welcome - and also some pretty frosty nights. Perfect for staying inside and knitting some cat and bird ornaments for our German School's winter fundraiser.

While knitting, reading, grading papers and preparing classes I enjoyed my café au lait out of this wolf mug that I bought years ago in Yellowstone (still one of my most favorite places on earth).

This, of course, is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday - grab a drink and join us!

The Autumn Garden

 

Despite our long dry summer and some extremely hot days in September, we have had a glorious autumn so far. This season is not so much about "putting the garden to bed", but still enjoy its richness and abundance of color.

While California does not have the rich fall colors like the Northeastern US, there are some trees that delight us with their brilliant colors every year. One of them is the Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) in my garden. Since I planted it 9 years ago it has doubled in size and its fall color seems to get more stunning year after year. Chinese Pistache is a popular street tree in my area and when you see its colors you understand why. It also needs no additional water in the summer.

Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) is a late season bloomer that puts up a real show with Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) as a backdrop. Both need very little water, are great pollinator plants and very popular with our birds.

One of my favorite late season plants that are native to California is the California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum). It is very low in maintenance, doesn't need much summer water and blooms in rich orange and red shades. Hummingbirds love it. It is often overlooked since it is not a showy spring or summer plant with its green-greyish foliage color. But come autumn - it's a show stopper.

Late summer into fall brings the Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) into my garden. This year I saw more than usual. For some reason I love these little guys.

My entire garden is a low water garden. In the summer it usually goes for two weeks between watering, except for very hot periods. This doesn't mean it's a bland, colorless garden or a desert garden - on the contrary. I constantly get compliments about the lushness of my plants and all the activity by insects and birds that is going on here. It just depends on planting the right plants in the right location. Therefore, it is utterly surprising that the Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) is thriving in this setting. I planted it years ago at a very weak moment when I was enticed by its showy yellow flowers. It is neither native to California nor drought tolerant. It doesn't get any special treatment. Still, every autumn it displays its splendid flowers for about two weeks. It loves to mingle with the Verbena bonariensis next to it (which is super drought tolerant).

The following was a mystery for me for quite some time, until I found out that these are seeds of Iris foetidissima. This iris is native to Britain and its natural range is Western Europe. I have no idea how it appeared in my garden. I didn't plant it - I don't even particularly like irises. I assume birds might be the culprits since I see these seedheads in other gardens in the neighborhood as well. The seeds are very showy, but still I wonder. The other plant that turns up uninvited early every spring is African Flag (Chasmanthe floribunda) which is native to the Cape Province of South Africa, but has naturalized in California. These are the little surprises in my garden.

A very fall-colorful California native is the "Roger's Red" grape (Vitis californica) which is a great habitat plant. It grows vigorously, its grapes are very small but sweet and tasty. The autumn color is simply stunning.

We are very fortunate to have had some very needed rain. Here you can see how the water steams off in the morning sun:

I have a Pineapple Guave tree (Feijoa sellowiana) in my garden that came with the house. This year I had so much fruit that we couldn't eat it all on our own, so I gave loads away.

In October and even at the beginning of November there were still tomatoes on the vines.

This leads me right to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. A couple days ago I brought in my last big harvest of tomatoes and I decided to make tomato sauce and freeze it, so that we can still enjoy some summery flavors later in the year. I cook my tomatoes with their skins, just add lots of basil, some red pepper flakes as well as salt and black pepper. 

And since I had a colorful trio of bell peppers (not from the garden), I decided to braise them with a big yellow onion, garlic, a generous amount of cumin plus two bay leaves and some salt and pepper. After about 30 minutes I let it cool completely and then put it in the freezer.

A trip to the farmers market today resulted in some wonderful fresh vegetables. Oh I do love where I live.

The Autumn Garden

 

"Autumn is a time of sweet disorder and permissible procrastination" - Allen Lacy

Often, autumn is seen as a time in the garden full of chores - raking the leaves, tidying up the perennial beds, cutting back annuals, planting bulbs for spring, taking care of the tools and putting everything away. In short, bringing the gardening year to an end.

Luckily, in this part of the country fall still fills the garden with a lot of life. After a couple light rain falls the garden seems to wake up after the summer heat, taking a deep breath and pushing all its glory that autumn is famous for.

"Roger's Red", a California native grape pictured above, displays brilliant shades of red, winding through our old windmill and being reflected in the water left from the rain in our fire pit. It is a stunning show that takes my breath away every time I look at it.

The last tomatoes need to be harvested. It wasn't a good tomato year for me and most of my tomatoes I ate right from the bush. The few sunflowers I had are gone, but I had cut off the seed heads and attached them to the now orphaned tomato cages for the birds to enjoy. 

Fall is our major planting season, when perennials, shrubs and trees are put in the ground so that they can get etsablished over the winter. Bulbs for spring flowering plants will go in the ground in December. I don't have many this year - just a few tulips and a big bag of daffodils. I hope that some of this year's tulips will come back next spring, but it is not a given because we don't have very cold winters and tulips need quite a chill. If we do get a lot of frosty nights chances are much better.

Most of my perennials were planted in the fall and many of them come back reliably year after year. Like these sages in the front - pineapple sage and Mexican bush sage - that make up one of my favorite color combinations, red and purple. They are joined by salvia "Indigo Spires" and in the background you can see the loaded Pendolino olive tree. All of these sages are cut back to the ground in the winter.

The yellow of the swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) is glowing for about two weeks in the autumn garden until it fades again. It's like a light that has been switched on. After our very dry spring and summer I was surprised how well it performed in October. The chrysanthemum is still flowering in all its beauty and such a delightful spot.

Almost two weeks ago we had torrential rain - much needed, but so much water came down that some areas were flooded (thankfully not in our corner). Within 24 hours we received almost 8 inches of rain. Since then it has rained on and off with sunny balmy days in between. While the rain did help the garden a lot, it unfortunately hasn't put a dent in the drought - for the drought to end we need a lot more rain and the prognosis for that is not very good. It's a La Niña year which means more rain for the Northern part and less rain for the Southern part. While officially being Northern, we're kind of in the middle when it comes to these weather patterns, and I hope we will get more of the rain that is supposed to fall in the North. Fingers crossed - we need it.

The most stunning plant in my garden at the moment - beside the "Roger's Red" vine - is the Chinese pistache that I planted seven or eight years ago. Every year its show is more brilliant than the year before - or perhaps this is only my imagination. I love love love this tree.

The leaves of the elderberry - Sambucus mexicana, a California native - are already gone, but the birds love the berries. They will be a good food source for them during the winter.

I shouldn't forget who actually rules the garden - it's these two. Somehow they have decided that this garden is the place where they like to be. They follow me around when I make my rounds through the garden and love to soak up the sun on the warm soil.