Winter Comes to the North Bay

You know it's Fall when the grape vines change from green to gold.

As a native New Englander and life-long Yankee, I'm used to seasons marked by dramatic changes in both weather and landscape.  Not so where we live now in the Napa Valley area of the North Bay.  The area is famous for its Mediterranean climate, perfect growing the grapes that make this the countries most famous wine growing region.  

Spring, Summer, and Fall the weather is so stable, except for the occasional hot summer days that push into the 90's, the average daytime temperature is in the 70's to low 80's and it quickly drops into the 60's once the sun sets in the evening. Humidity is rare, as is rain.
 

On December 9th, this tree still had plenty of green leaves.

Since the Fall temperatures both last year and this year were unseasonably warm, the only way I could tell it was Fall (except for checking the calendar) was when the luscious green foliage in the vineyards changed to burnt orange and gold.

The glorious red and orange colors of New England are rare here, although sugar maples and other trees that provide brilliant fall colors have found their way to nurseries here and do pop up here and there.

Still, while deciduous trees do turn color and shed their leaves, the prevailing color here is gold with occasional pops of orange.

Late into November, this tree was still mostly green.  It finally dropped its leaves just before Christmas.

I love the orange colors on some of the trees.  When the sun is shining, it almost seems as though the trees are on fire!

 

The other striking difference between New England and the Napa Valley is that while things are turning brown in the Northeast's winter landscape, the rains turn the hills green as fresh new growth replaces the brown grass and brush that gradually dried out and went dormant over the dry summer.

Looking out at the hills behind our apartment, the golden swaths of grapevines in the vineyards contrast with the fresh grass in the bright green fields and pastureland.

The hills behind our apartment...  starting to green up with the recent rain.

 

The rains gradually increase through the Fall  but Winter is the rainy season and we get roughly 85% of the annual 20'1/2 inches of average rainfall between November and March.  Both rainwater and melting snow from the snow packs in the mountains refill the aquifers and provide the groundwater used for irrigation during the growing season.

For the last four years, the winter rain has been abysmally low  resulting in a lengthy and worrisome drought.  Last year was exceedingly dry but the December 2014 rainfall at 11.03 inches (almost 3 times our usual December rainfall) helped to avert disaster when the January rains, usually the highest amount of rainfall for the year, simply never came.

But we are off to a better start this year.  Ordinarily, we get about 2.5 inches of rain in November and 3.8 inches of rain in December.  So far this winter, we have received a decent amount of rain: almost 2 inches for November and a respectable 2.8 inches to date this month.

But even better for the long term outlook is that many of the recent storms skidded past us, leaving a scant half inch or less of rain behind and instead carrying the water inland where it was deposited in the form of snow in the mountains.

The Sierra Nevadas now boast a 10 foot snow pack, double what is usually accumulated this early in the season.  In fact, ski resorts opened weeks ahead of schedule with natural, not man-made snow.   With a strong  el nino predicted to give us an exceptional amount of rain over the next two months, we may reach our annual average and make up some of the deficit of the previous three years.  And if the snow pack in the mountains continues to benefit from Mother Nature's munificence, we may be in good shape when the rains roll out and April rolls in.

But I'm still having some trouble getting used to "Winter" in the valley, where Christmas lights are draped over a blooming lemon tree and snake through window boxes full of blooming annuals that would have long since perished in the hard New England frosts.

The lemons are ripe and the lemon tree is in full bloom, as are the snapdragons in the window box.

The coleus were pulled two weeks ago after they became leggy and went to seed (neglect on my part) and were replaced with pansies which thrive in the cooler temperatures.  But the calibrachoa is thriving and still has a couple of blossoms.  

Chanukah, 2015 with a Boston Fern thriving outdoors -- not in Boston!

Chanukah lights weaving through blooming annuals and the lemon tree.

Watching the storms move in across the hills and up from San Pablo Bay is fascinating.  In early November, I tuned into the mid-day news one day and heard that we would be having severe weather by 2 PM.

Outside, the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining, and the temperature was a balmy 66 degrees. 

I waited patiently but the promised rain didn't materialize and so just shy of 4 PM I got ready to walk the dogs over to the park where we usually get our afternoon exercise.  As I was getting a sweater and leashes, I heard what sounded like thunder claps and then the living room suddenly became dark.

When I looked out, I was shocked to see a fast-moving storm had blown in.  Lightening joined the thunder and torrential rain broke through the clouds and gave way to pelting hail.  The storm barely lasted an hour but dropped just over a half inch of new rain on the sun parched earth. It moved out as quickly as it moved in and when the sun finally poked back through the clouds, the temperature was a brisk 51 degrees F.

 

The storm moved in quickly and the blue sky disappeared under the roiling gray clouds.

This was the angriest cloud and the backdrop for much of the lightening.

Just as quickly as the clouds rolled in, they blew out and to the east.

 

 

 

We are finally registering the typical winter temperatures usually seen in this climate for this time of year.  Mid to high 30's into the low 40's at night, high 50's into the low 60's during the day.  We've had rain on and off throughout the last 8 weeks but rarely more than several hours at a time. Many of those days, it rained heavily overnight but the sun rose to clear skies.

We close out 2015 with blue skies, brisk temperatures in the mid-50's, and the prospect of generous rainfall over the next 8 weeks from an enthusiastic el nino.  That would indeed be a Happy New Year.

The Garden in November

Foliage at Peak, October 31, 2010

For most people, autumn in New England means bright, vivid colors, falling leaves and jack o' lanterns, crisp temperatures, and Thanksgiving. For me it means that my garden has to be put to bed for the winter. I don't mind telling you that winter is not my favorite season, but the disruption in the normal cycling of the seasons has left my garden somewhat confused.

For the past three years our weather pattern has been very atypical. Back to back winter Nor'easters doused us with serious and sometimes catastrophic flooding and hurricane force winds sustained at 70-90 mph caused severe tree damage. Spring has come early and winter has skittered in at the last possible minute with frigid temperatures. Ice storms have been plentiful but snow, which is the best insulator for our gardens, has been scant and when we did get a substantial snowfall, rapidly rising temperatures melted it away quickly.

The summer drought has had a tremendous affect on our garden and on New England foliage overall. The fall colors were not as vibrant and the peak where we are on Cape Ann was three weeks later than usual.

Nothing takes a  toll on bulbs and perennials like the cyclical freezing and thawing that happens when daily temperatures rise into the 40's and 50's and bright sunshine heats the gardens but night time temperatures crash into the teens or twenties. Roots get torn and damaged and bulbs get pushed toward the surface. If they survive that indignity and the floods don't leave them exposed to freeze or wash them away completely, voles and squirrels may feed on them.

Buds ready to bloom cover the saucer magnolia

Saucer Magnolia ready to bloom

With a very early and long spring, tremendous flooding, and early budding followed by a deep freeze, our saucer magnolias did not bloom well this spring. That was followed by a severe summer drought. I was totally flabbergasted today to see that both our yellow Elizabeth and our burgundy and cream saucer are fully and heavily budded. I don't know to what degree they have taxed themselves and whether or not if will affect their ability to survive the winter. I also wonder if they will bloom in the next few days, given the chilly temperatures we are expecting, and if  they bloom now, will we have a poor showing of spring blooms again, (that is, if they survive the winter).

Elizabeth (yellow) Magnolia fully budded

Malva zebrina still blooming

 




Other surprises in the garden today include salvia, malva zebrina, and several roses still blooming.  The mock orange shrub has fresh blossoms as well.





 

Lavender L. augustifolia Munstead blooming in November

Alas, the season is over for the lavender. As recently as a week ago I was still picking fresh lavender bouquets and wood violets were blooming, also completely out of season. Today, I found a couple of  flower spikes with a few lavender blossoms still showing beautiful color. All of the rest are brown but pruning will wait until spring. The remaining wood violets have given in to the very cold night time temperatures and killing frosts.

Rave petunias are still blooming in the hypertufa trough

A surprise was the clump of  rave petunias still blooming along with some vinca in the trough in the tree grove. All of the vinca in our urns is still green and thriving and I am going to transplant it into the pot with the hydrangea tree which we are bringing in for the winter this weekend.

Seafoam in bloom with Social Climber blooming in the background

Climbing Blaze is another surprise bloomer

Paul McCartney Rose

 

 McCartney rose bud - beautiful carmine pink

Most of the perennials are dormant but a few are showing new growth, even blooming

 

The koi are sluggish and ready for winter

This year we winterized the koi pond much later than usual. Although we could keep the waterfall running all winter, if we have a particularly harsh ice storm, we get severe ice dams that totally obstruct the flow and this can develop overnight. Because it can be a nightmare during a Nor'easter, we have opted to have the experts at our favorite water garden store, Country Gardens, prepare the pond for winter. They  remove the pump and ozone light, and clear the pipes and spillway.

We use a bubbler with an air stone to aerate the water to meet the oxygen needs of the fish through the winter and early spring, which is minimal during hibernation. Once the water temperature drops below 55 degrees, the fish begin to get sluggish and when it goes below 50, they no longer digest food, so we stop feeding. We resume feeding once the water temperature remains steadily above 50-55 degrees in spring. They won't starve. They are plump from a summer of dining on koi pellets and algae and their nutritional needs are minimal during their hibernation. They will feed on algae in the spring until we resume their regular feedings.

Our koi, feeding in June, 2010

Our koi are seven years old, range from a 1.25 to 1.75 feet in length, and are quite socialized (for fish). They school and immediately surface and follow us if we walk around the pond. To us, they are like any other pet, each with his/her own unique personality and name.

The pond will freeze over except for a small area where we will place a small heating ring next to the bubbler. Our water garden occupies a foot wide shelf that is sculpted into the wall of the pond two feet below the surface of the water.  During the winter, we lower the pots to the bottom of the pond. This year, the plants are so large, we could not fit them all in the bottom of the pond and since the reeds, iris, and rushes have traditionally done poorly under five feet of water in the spring, we left them on the shelf, hoping they will winter over well.