incremental approach

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Fall (yes, really!) in southern California

People say we don’t have fall in southern California.  I beg to disagree.  Oh, people will disparage what they see as our lack of seasons; in fact, I recently observed a raging Facebook debate on this very subject; the natives were insisting that we do have fall here, while the transplants from other areas disparaged our Octobers as “just more tepid than summer.”  And then they went on to wax eloquent about New England.

Now, having grown up in the Blue Ridge mountains, with its famous fall foliage displays, I do understand the yearning for home and the fall colors.   And I also understand the profound sense of displacement when your surroundings don’t match your inner calendar.  That happens a lot out here, and mostly we’re used to the complaining about it.

But fall does happen here, and I thought I’d devote the next couple of posts to an appreciation of what Helen Hunt Jackson (herself a transplant to California) called “October’s bright blue weather.”  And that is indeed the first sign of fall:  the right-on-schedule, deep blue sky.

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This parking lot liquidambar shows off our October sky.

Then the temperatures drop.  Yes!  It’s a cool-ish 70 degrees on my patio right now!  And—get ready—it can get even colder.

Other seasonal markers are there once you know what to look for.  Below, a native erigonum (buckwheat) in the late afternoon light.  The Chumash made pancakes from it—I just like to look at it.

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While we don’t have the flamboyant, in-your-face displays of fall foliage that other regions have, a number of trees here (which, okay, are all transplants) put on a lovely and reliable seasonal display.  The following are worth looking for, and perhaps deserving of a spot in your home landscape:

Crape myrtle--yellow

The Crape myrtle (above) is one of my favorite trees; I can devote a whole post to their graceful structure and four-season interest, but for now, I’ll just focus on their fall foliage–which can be beautiful.  If you’re planting this tree for fall color, it’s a good idea to pick it out in the fall so you can see what you’ll be getting.Tall liquidambar

Liquidambars (above, called sweetgum in other parts of the country) can turn a startling red in the fall, and in the winter, the bare tree will be covered, if you’re lucky, with the flocks of goldfinches that come after the seeds in the sticky balls.  (These balls eventually make their way to the ground below, so do choose your location carefully—I notice they’re often perimeter trees, so that passers-by, rather than the homeowners, have to deal with the treacherous balls underfoot.  Nice.)

Red chinese pistache

Chinese pistache, above, is a lesser-known superstar; it blends in with any landscape in the summer, but in fall, look out.  It turns the most amazing shades of red-gold, and will light up its location.

Birch tree shower of goldBirches, those landscape staples so beloved and so often stuck in the middle of lawns, turn a spectacular gold color this time of year.

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Pyracantha (firethorn, above) and chrysanthemums (below) add a lot of seasonal color; pyracantha berries redden in fall and continue to brighten up the landscape all winter long. And instead of composting your Costco or Home Depot mums when they’re done blooming, stick them in the ground, cut them back in January, and prepare to be amazed next October.

Crysanthemums

Above, an example of both crysanthemum’s fall color and my poor planning–these guys are reaching for some sun owing to the great success of the shrubs planted nearby.  Some of the mums have decided to take a nap.

So, yes, we do have fall, and it has arrived.  Like the song says about love, it’s all around you.  Let it show.  And enjoy!

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Now is the winter of our Santa Ana event

I know the weather people like to call our episodes of high wind a “Santa Ana event,” but that always sounds to me as though it should be a giant sale:   “Come on down for our Santa Ana Event!  Stock up now on our huge inventory of uprooted trees, broken tree limbs, flattened shrubbery!  Don’t miss our special purchase of fallen palm fronds—downed power lines at selected locations.”

Calling it a “Santa Ana event” makes it sound like a lot more fun than it actually is.

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A familiar sight in our neighborhood in Santa Ana season.

If you’re a gardener, a Santa Ana event can be vexing, because there’s not much you can do outdoors besides duck, cover and hold.  You can’t even clean up the piles of debris shaken down from the trees, because more is Continue reading →

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Piecework

Often when we think about going sustainable, we picture tearing out everything we have and starting all over again.  The prospect can be so exhausting that the project simply never begins, and so we just keep watering our lawns and cursing the water district.

We imagine that changing our landscape will be like organizing our closets, another large chore that no one leaps to do because it seems so monumental, so overwhelming, such a Hercules-cleaning-out-the-Augean-stables undertaking.  For this myth, I blame the shelter magazines and their photo spreads featuring makeover magic—the spaces utterly, and sometimes unrecognizably, transformed in the final reveal.

The truth is that you don’t have to take a closet or an outdoor space down to the studs; doing so is enormously time-consuming and expensive.  You can instead take it one corner, one bed, one patch of ground at a time.  You can chip away at the lawn without the chaos and rumpled look of a work in progress.

One way is to consider putting in big things (plants, pots, hardscape) where once there were thousands of little things (blades of grass).   Taking out a few feet of lawn and replacing it with a bed of larger, waterwise plants can be strikingly beautiful and will reap benefits almost immediately (do keep in mind that plants have to establish first).  If you have money and the inclination for hardscape, it’s another way to take up large amounts of space that won’t require water.  Covering an area with bark, mulch, or gravel is another option.

One of our neighbors is taking the little-bit-a-time approach by cutting big curved beds into what used to be lawn, and planting the new spaces with New Zealand flax (phormium), grasses, and succulents.  You can see by the photo that the owners really have a good eye for what works; as a person who doesn’t necessarily have that same gift, I look, and remember, and try to incorporate the principles into my own little-at-a-time planning.

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Beds of flax and grasses occupy space that was formerly lawn,
and soften the front of the house

These artistic neighbors, Matt and Denise, very generously let me take pictures and told me how they’ve gradually gone more sustainable over time.  Matt says the reduced lawn requires almost 50% less water, and the beds of flax and grasses (obtained for free from a friend—my favorite kind of plant shopping!) get no supplemental water at all.  Water-wise, money-wise, and still beautiful–that’s the best kind of sustainable.

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New Zealand Flax, fountain grasses, myoporum (ground cover) and strategically placed rocks require little to no supplemental water (especially the rocks).

The benefits of walking your neighborhood really can’t be overstated.  You get ideas of what to do (and the occasional insight on what not to do); you see for yourself what really works in your immediate location, and you realize you can change to a more sustainable gardening style a little bit at a time.  And best of all, you meet the nicest people.