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.