Our Newest Gardening Adventure: Building a California Garden

I’m excited to report that two months ago, we moved from our apartment in the Lodge complex to a house where we have been given carte blanche by the landlord to create a garden after he saw our patio garden and this blog.  I am realizing my dream of building one more beautiful garden with my husband.  While we are currently renting this home, it’s our plan to eventually purchase it, but even if we don’t, our legacy will be a stunning display of color and beauty.

Currently, we have something of a blank slate with a few dead/dying plants in the back and a porch, an as yet unidentified medium sized tree, and some perennials in the front.  As we did in Massachusetts, we are going about this thoughtfully to be able to enjoy garden color throughout the extended season.

We started by planting some … you guessed it! … roses.  We planted a newly acquired Veteran’s Honor in front of the front porch as our tribute to the soldiers we lost in the Blackhawk crash as well as the many soldiers we adopted through Soldiers Angels while they were deployed.  We also are planting our Strawberry Hill, which has resided in a pot for a couple of years now,  against one of the posts on our front porch as well.  While not a true climber, (it’s a David Austin shrub rose), Strawberry Hill has very long canes and can be grown as a short climber.  We are going to train it up the post but keep it pruned to just below the roof line of the porch.  We also put a planter on a small plant stand and our fountain and fern on the front porch.  With a wreath on the door, it looks welcoming and homey.

The white camellia is currently blooming and we set it temporarily next to the front door in its pot but it will also be going into the ground in the backyard once the blooming season is over.

Also still in pots in the back are Sugar Moon, a gorgeous pure white climber. some perennials, and our lemon and key lime trees.  The lemon tree is sporting three luscious lemons ready for harvest and new blooms and new baby lemons and the key lime also has some limes growing.

The garden came with what looked to be a dead citrus tree of unknown variety and we were surprised to discover that it's now leafing out and blooming.  It has the largest, sharpest spines of all of our citrus trees and we are wondering if perhaps it might be a grapefruit tree.  

Hopefully, we'll have some fruit on it this year that can help identify it.  

The spines on this little tree are enormous.  If they are reflective of the size of the fruit, we are wondering if we are dealing with a grapefruit tree.

Our first major project has been to plant some grapes.  Yes, surprise!  It’s been the standing joke that we moved to wine country to plant roses, not grapes.  And what do we do?  We plant grapes!  No, the wine bug did not bite us.  These will be used strictly as table grapes.

Shortly before we moved to the house, the spring newsletter arrived from our local garden center, Mid City Nursery, with the news that they had a limited number of muscat grapevines for sale.  We couldn’t get there fast enough. If you’ve never tasted a muscat grape (the grapes that are used to make moscato wine) you simply must.  The season for muscat grapes is short and here in California, we can find them at the end of the summer in Whole Foods. They are simply the sweetest, juiciest, most flavorful grapes we’ve ever tasted. We had the staff at Mid City help us choose the best looking vines and then they potted the six of them up into a 5 gallon pot and stored them for us until we moved and could plant them. (Just one of the many reasons they are our favorite garden center.)

We have no large shade trees on the property but there is a very large pergola over the patio off the kitchen. It covers almost the entire patio and has 6 large posts supporting it.  We initially thought about climbing roses and jasmine, but deadheading roses and pruning them would be a huge challenge, not that pruning the grapes and keeping them manageable isn’t going to be challenge enough.  But the idea of our own ready supply of muscat grapes was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up and once the pergola is covered with vines, it should be a wonderful shady place to sit and relax. Our biggest concern at this point is having to share a limited harvest with the birds!

We acquired some wine barrels from a gentleman in town who works at a local winery. He purchases their discarded wine barrels and turns them into planters.  He plugs the bung holes, cuts them to the desired height, and drills drainage holes in the bottom.  We had him cut just the top off and leave them tall as we needed to find the largest planters we could find to sustain the grapes in adulthood.  We got one barrel to place next to each post and last month, with the help of our housekeeper’s husband Tony, Steve planted the grapes.  Already they are leafing out and have started their trek skyward.

Because they are in containers and require a consistent supply of water to thrive, we installed an irrigation system tthat can be set to run on a timer a couple of times a week or however often we need during the dry summer months.

Some of our other upcoming projects include raised beds for vegetables, herbs, and possibly some strawberries; planting the remaining potted trees and roses (and some more roses, especially) in the ground along the fence; and filling our empty patio pots with seasonal annuals to provide pops of color on the patio.

One of the things that recently arrived with our furniture from Massachusetts is a beautiful vintage style conservatory planter that I used to plant with mini green leafy plants and African violets.  Here in California I plan to fill it with succulents to bring garden color indoors as well. I have several of Debra Lee Baldwin’s wonderful books on succulents and hope to find some interesting minis at our garden center.

Just before we moved here, we had turned an old fountain into the most amazing succulent planter with the few hardy succulents that survived harsh New England winters. Here, we have so many interesting varieties available to us and I am excited about the prospect of choosing some interesting ones and planting them in this conservatory.

Be sure to sign up to follow our progress in the garden over the spring and summer!  We’ll also be sharing some gardening and cultivation tips for chemical free gardening over the next few months.

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.

Sour Grapes

 

Mommy, I feel sick.

For the past month, two-year-old Katie, one of our Cavalier King Charles Spaniels,  has had sporadic bouts of unexplained vomiting.  

Although her activity level and appetite and even her bowel pattern remained completely normal, in between eating and playing, Katie has had several episodes where she brought up large amounts of basically nothing… clear liquid and little flecks of nothing recognizable, but nothing that looked suspicious or problematic either. 

Typically, she will come in from playing outside, be very quiet for a while, and then without any warning, vomit once or several times.  

We hadn’t been able to identify a cause or a pattern, and once she vomits, she is generally back to her normal self, appetite and all.   In fact, more than once, she raced right back outside to play, rolling around in the grass or playing "chase" with the other dogs.

She was scheduled for her annual routine physical examination with our family veterinarian three weeks ago.

Although she had not vomited in the two days preceding the appointment, I mentioned it to the vet as it had happened often enough to be concerning.

He checked her over pretty carefully and found her to be in excellent health with no sign of a problem.  He was as mystified as we were and told me to call if she had any further problems, but he found nothing at all abnormal or unusual in her examination or lab work.

 

The answer came unexpectedly when I was out photographing the briar patch last week.   The golden raspberries are ripening and I wanted to get some photographs.   The dogs went out with me and were running and playing under foot, all except for Katie, that is.

When I noticed she wasn’t with the others, I went to check and found her under the grape arbor, standing on tippy toes, snagging clusters of grapes off the vines.   Suddenly, everything made sense.

I scooted her out of the arbor and into the house.  Just inside the door, she vomited up clear fluid and essentially whole grapes.   That was followed by another round of vomiting a half hour later,  with nothing showing in her gastric contents at that point. Clearly, I had my answer.

Grapes and raisins have long been known to be poisonous to dogs.   The earliest sign of a toxic effect from eating grapes is vomiting, and if the dog continues to eat grapes or ingests a large number of grapes, symptoms can progress rapidly and dramatically as kidney failure develops.

The toxicity caused by grapes and raisins can be serious - even lethal.  While one grape is probably not going to be an issue for any dog,  you certainly don't want your dog to develop a fondness for them.   And if they do have a penchant for them, it's one habit you want to nip in the bud.

Katie is a gulper and I think the fact that she didn't really chew them much if at all was her saving grace.   The miracle is that her tummy rejected the grapes almost as soon as she would eat them.   She was probably vomiting the grapes outside before she ever made it indoors, since we never saw any grapes or grape fragments at all in what she brought up before that instance.

It's  exceedingly fortunate that given the number of grapes she was eating, she never developed any other acute gastrointestinal symptoms or signs of kidney involvement.

Steve and I clipped all of the grapes that were within her reach and carefully raked up and picked up the stragglers that had been knocked to the ground by birds and squirrels.   

Prior to this year, none of our dogs ever gave the grape arbor much thought.   They love other fruits and will nibble on strawberries and blueberries and figs, but none of them have ever shown any interest at all in the grapes or any of the other wild berries that the birds like to eat.

Until recently, the grapes that have been produced have been high enough on the lattice to be completely out of their reach.   This year, we added some new vines that produced some low growing sweet green grapes. 

We’ve resolved the problem for the time being, but we will be alert to this in the future.   We are planning on putting a short fence around the arbor in the spring.  At the very least, we will be sure the vines are tied up and that grapes are out of reach,  but a short fence is an inexpensive extra pound of prevention.

When we were shopping earlier in the season, we saw some pretty metal fence sections that have stakes that push into the ground.  That would be an effective, decorative solution.  These dogs are very short and  even a 12-18 inch fence is an adequate barrier.  It's something we can easily step over, but it will keep them safely away from any grapes that might fall on the ground.

Determined not to miss out on her current favorite treat, she snuck over to the arbor and headed straight for where she hoped to find some grapes.   We had been watching where she headed and gave her a stern warning to stay away.

We've had to monitor her carefully, but after three days of being sent up to the deck or brought into the house every time she went near the arbor, she finally has decided that it is probably a good idea to stay away from that corner of the yard.   We don't dare let our guard down though; grape toxicity is nothing to fool with in dogs.

My mom is such a meanie!

She’s not happy that we’ve come between her and the mother-lode of sweet, and her facial expression says it all.

There is no question that the phytonutrients in brightly colored fruits and vegetables are beneficial antioxidants that serve a protective function in both humans and dogs.  But like chocolate, grapes and raisins are definitely off the menu for our furkids, much to Miss Katie’s dismay.

This experience brought us up short.  We are generally pretty  careful pet parents but she was so stealthy, she escaped detection for quite a while.  

But that reminded me that not everything in the garden is either appetizing or safe to eat.   While the birds might be enjoying the berries of the bittersweet, that is another berry that would not be healthy for Katie to snack on.   Before she even got the idea to sample the colorful berries, I went  around the yard, pulling up the bittersweet and relegating it to the compost pile. The birds who enjoy the fruit can get it there, but I don't want Katie to decide to try that as well!

If I were only just a little bit taller.... I can dream, can't I?

But Mom, I was only looking at them. I wasn't going to try to eat any more, honest! It's not fair to make me sit on the deck!

Autumn Approaches: Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, September, 2011

Autumn came early, first in the form of our preparations for Hurricane Irene and then with the arrival of the monarchs and dragonflies as they make their way south for winter. And living in New England, we can look forward to vividly colored foliage as the number and variety of flowers in bloom dwindles with the changing seasons.     

With the days getting shorter and cooler, we are harvesting the last of the summer herbs, squash, eggplant, and cucumbers. But autumn is also here in the form of ripening grapes, apples, and dogwood fruit.

The apple tree is an unknown variety that has been growing next to the house for decades. This is the first year that we've had an adequate amount of summer rain for the tree to produce apples that are large enough to cook with.

The dogwood fruits are ripening and I've been experimenting with them in different recipes. The fruit is creamy, the seeds are easily removed, and the flavor is mild, sweet, almost reminiscent of mango.

We had some early grapes a couple of weeks ago but the birds made quick work of them. We are eagerly awaiting these to ripen to a deep purple.

The stars of the late summer garden are the Sweet Autumn clematis, Autumn Joy sedum, tall phlox and evening primrose, and Japanese anemones.

Sweet Autumn is fragrant, late blooming clematis. It forms a delicate backdrop for the Rose of Sharon. In front, basil (blooming white in the left front) and spikes of sage add dimension to this corner of the herb garden.

Sedum Brilliant is a cooler pink than Autumn Joy and they clashed so much, I moved Autumn Joy to a different bed. . As the dogwood tree has grown and created more shade, the color of the blooms of Brilliant have gotten somewhat subdued. Growing on the berm among the boulders behind the pond, it remains a gorgeous pop of color just the same.

Sedum Autumn Joy and Frikart's Asters give a pop of fall color on the rose island. The asters are the same color as the catmint blossoms and the sedum is the same color as the columbine that blooms earlier in the summer, keeping the color palette consistent from season to season.

The low growing burgundy chrysanthemums contrast perfectly with the pearlescent pale pink anemones.

Planted en masse, the anemones float delicate blossoms across the front of the perennial bed where peonies held court in the spring.

The purple cranesbill continues to make a statement. Midsummer, when the plants became leggy and spindly, we trimmed them back by more than half.  They responded with enthusiastic growth and a cap of shiny dark green foliage is covered with rich purple blossoms that contrast perfectly with the anemones and evening primrose.

We had not planned to prune the cranesbill back so hard, but in retrospect, it was the best thing we could have done.

Yellow evening primrose and purple cranesbill.

Our roses are still blooming with enthusiasm - we're hoping to be able to bring some award winning blooms to the rose show this weekend. We stopped deadheading the rugosas and the resulting rose hips are as colorful as the flowers.

Top Row:  Pretty Lady, John F. Kennedy, Sea Foam; Middle Row: Mother of Pearl, Lady Elsie May, Grandma's Blessing; Bottom Row:  Blushing Knock-Out, Rose hip of R. rugosa "Rubra"

The second bloom of the Munstead lavender, which forms the hedges around all of the formal beds, came early and lush. We usually see a sparse second bloom in early September, but this summer, the re-bloom began in mid August and has produced nearly as much lavender as the spring bloom.

The Rose of Sharon shrubs have been blooming since mid August and remain covered with blossoms and buds. The coneflowers, hardy hibiscus and balloon flowers are winding down, but still manage to hold their own in terms of late summer color. 

Many of the coneflower blossoms are travel weary, but they still brighten the perennial beds.

This ruby throated white Rose of  Sharon has been blooming for weeks and has never been so heavily festooned with blossoms.

This double rose blooms of this Rose of Sharon have deep burgundy throats.

This rudbeckia and another that is planted in the same bed were both mislabeled as white coneflowers. I had thought the white blossoms would  work well with the deep pink hardy hibiscus as well as the astilbe that grows in front of the pagoda.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the rudbeckia has complemented the hardy mallows and veronica that also grows nearby.

Balloon flowers, phlox, and the occasional coneflower in the right perennial bed.

The magenta of these white and magenta tall phlox is echoed in the spirea.

The lavender phlox are sweetly fragrant. This year, all of the phlox have produced thick masses of flowers on reasonably strong stems that withstood the winds and rain of the hurricane.

The caryopteris and hydrangeas are also doing their part to provide late summer color while indoors, bowls of cosmos and zinnias from the deck garden bring the gardens into every room.

The blue mist shrub "Snow Fairy",  Caryopteris dvaricata, has variegated foliage that makes a striking contrast to the dark glossy green peonies, the dark red blooms of Betty Prior, and the burgundy barberries it is planted with.

The gracefully curved stamens give the delicate amethyst blossoms remind me of  butterflies.

The blossoms of the Pee Gee hydrangea open white and then gradually take on a pinkish green and then pink hue.

 

The blooms eventually become a peachy bronze and will hold this color when dried for wreaths or dried arrangements.

A benefit of buying large shrubs and trees late in the season is that they are often heavily discounted. A drawback is that quite often, their tags have been lost and it's impossible to determine the cultivar. Such was the case of this hydrangea tree which we acquired last summer at a bargain basement price.  This unnamed hydrangea which helps shade the deck,  is covered with blooms that, like the Pee Gee, open white and then gradually turn a deep peachy bronze. The individual blooms are much larger than those of the Pee Gee.

The kitchen garden on the deck provide herbs, vegetables, and plenty of blooms for cutting. The hollyhock roots have grown into sturdy plants that will hopefully bloom against the rails next summer.

The water garden is also showing its fall colors in the form of cat tails and water mint, which attracts bees and dragonflies.

Unexpected re-bloomers, chief among them, the spirea and the hostas, continue to surprise and delight. We've never seen the hostas re-bloom.

This week, the hostas in the blueberry garden and secret garden are all blooming for the second time this summer. These had bloomed in July (see the July GBBD photos here) and we trimmed the flower spikes back, which we usually do. We were amazed to see them send up new scapes over the past two weeks.

Along the border of the blueberry garden angled under a tall pine, these hostas bloomed in July and are blooming again now.

This is the large fragrant hosta that anchors the "secret garden".  It's also blooming for the second time this summer.

Usually when plants re-bloom unexpectedly, the flowers are sparse. Not so with the hostas.

The spirea is also blooming again, and I can't even credit pruning for this. In the photo below, you can see the dried flower heads from the earlier bloom.  I decided to leave them to provide some textural interest over the fall and winter.

I don't have mich experience with spirea but we planted this shrub last spring. We had pulled out the Asiatic lilies from this corner of the perennial bed because the red lily leaf beetles were almost impossible to control. We chose this spirea for its color and to provide some height and contrast for the penstemon and tall phlox.that also grow in this part of the bed.

From a small shrub in a gallon pot, it has grown four feet wide and more than three feet high, and has proven to be the perfect choice for this corner. Since planting it, I have learned that like buddleia, heavily pruning it back in the spring should result in thicker growth and more prolific blooms (hard to imagine after the way it was covered in blooms earlier in the season).

Pruning again after the spring bloom gives a second generous bloom this time of year, although we didn't prune and are still enjoying late summer color. We'll definitely prune it back in the spring, and perhaps split the clump and transplant some of the stems to the other side of the bed as well.

One of my "weed" books lists malvas including this Zebrina (Malva sylvestris) as potentially invasive weeds. Yes, they do self sow liberally, but I've also had great luck getting them to grow in large clumps where I want them. They resemble their cousins, the hollyhocks and their height adds color in the late summer to the back borders in the perennial and cottage gardens. 

The boughs of our pine trees are weighed down with pine cones. The beauty of the telephoto lens is the ability to see the green seed pods in exquisite detail.

Young, still green pine cones of the Douglas Fir.

Young, still green pine cones of the Norway Spruce

We recently reviewed the book Weeds of the Northeast by Richard H. Uva, Joseph C. Neal, and Joseph M. DiTomaso (you can see the post here) and I remarked then that "...one woman's wildflower is another woman's weed."  While all of the plants shown here were identified (as weeds) with the help of this wonderful book, we enjoy them in selected areas of the garden.

The dark green leaves of the Virginia Creeper camouflage an otherwise unattractive length of chain link fence and the berries, which turn dark purple this time of year,  attract many birds to the yard.

This sprawling vine is the blue Asiatic dayflower, Commelina communis. have the most vivid blue flowers of any "blue" flowering annual or perennial I've seen. It meandered in from the conservation area and grows along the fence behind the grape arbor, underneath the Virginia creeper.  We have found it in the front yard as well, where it has spread from an area of underbrush that separates our property from our neighbor's.   So far, it hasn't become invasive or a pest, and especially in the back, has confined itself to one area where it surprises us with a brilliant pop of blue whenever we are checking on the grapes or the eggplant that grows under the arbor.

Thistles have become a real thorn in my side, pun intended. They quickly develop heavy duty tap roots and spread quickly through our beds and the grass. We have a spade shovel that effectively removes them, but staying ahead of them is hard when they are growing so freely in the adjacent field.

Both wild morning glories and wild buckwheat are members of the bindweed family and we have both growing here and there in our beds. The buckwheat is more a problem in the perennial beds and we do try to stay on top of it. But the climbing bindweed is a lovely addition to the fence and relatively easy to keep in check. When we see it wandering into the beds near the fence, we trim it back, but I do enjoy watching it cover the fence and bloom with flowers that are so luck cultivated morning glories.

I hope you've enjoyed spending some time in the garden today. Do drop by and visit May Dream Gardens for links to other bloggers posting what's blooming for the monthly Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.