News from The Garden Fixer
Just a reminder: I'm available as a plant doctor and garden consultant, covering the SF Bay Area. I can either advise, help with the work, or both; I offer reasonable rates. (925) 338-1349.
What on Earth, you ask, can anyone do with the garden at this time of year? Well...
This is one of our two typical dormant periods in the Bay Area (the other is very late summer). It means this is the time to do cleanup to prevent several diseases from coming back next year (such as rust and blackspot on roses, blight on tomatoes, and petal blight on azaleas and camellias). Mulch helps with that too, and cool weather is perfect for the heavy work of distributing and spreading compost or wood chips. Mulch helps keep the mud down, and reduces the amount of dirt that gets into your lettuce and chard.
You don't have lettuce or chard? It's not yet too cold to put them in! Both are frost-tolerant, along with a wide range of winter vegetables. If you get them started now, they'll be in place and ready to take off as soon as we get any warmer weather. (Even the odd heat wave in January.) Vegetable beds can be attractive as well as productive, so consider adding even just a small one, or a few pots on the patio.
You can also plant flower bulbs, so they get rooted and set up before spring -- brighten up your garden with daffodils, tulips, or the less common Ranunculus or Gladiolus. If you're thinking more about structural plants, you can still put in hardy California natives (once the soil has dried out for several days). They use cooler weather as an opportunity to expand their root systems, so they're set for summer drought later on.
Erosion has turned into a big issue in the last week or two. Now that it's drying out for a bit, this is your chance to take a look at erosion problems, retaining wall stability, and drainage issues you may have (such as boggy spots). Shoveling dirt and hauling cement blocks back into place is heavy work, but I can help.
Pond and fountain pumps can be turned off now, which gives you the chance to give fountains a good cleaning. It's not just leaves; a lot of sludge can accumulate in the pump area, and after a few years it builds up and may interfere with the pump in the spring. If you aren't happy with the performance of the pump, or you want to run new output lines for a pond feature, now's the time to think about what you want to do, even if you aren't going to put your plans into action until March.
Weeds! We all have them. You can pull them every year, but this is also a good point to take a step back and plan for long-term weed abatement. Rework those old, underused weedy patches and turn them into something good looking -- and low-maintenance! The best way to eliminate weeds for good is to break their lifecycle, then plant things you really want that can out-compete them. That means heavy mulch and a good landscape plan.
Finally, we're just a few weeks away from bare-root and pruning season. You can technically prune fruit trees and roses as soon as they lose nearly all their leaves, so it's time to start planning. Also look at where you might want new beds or lawns, because the infrastructure and grading necessary to do a good job can add quite a bit of lead-up time. Winter is the time to dream of a newer garden, even in California.
Happy gardening!
I have an account as Torquill on Dreamwidth, and that's where I posted this. You can sign in with OpenID to comment on the original post, or you can go ahead and comment here; either way works.
What on Earth, you ask, can anyone do with the garden at this time of year? Well...
This is one of our two typical dormant periods in the Bay Area (the other is very late summer). It means this is the time to do cleanup to prevent several diseases from coming back next year (such as rust and blackspot on roses, blight on tomatoes, and petal blight on azaleas and camellias). Mulch helps with that too, and cool weather is perfect for the heavy work of distributing and spreading compost or wood chips. Mulch helps keep the mud down, and reduces the amount of dirt that gets into your lettuce and chard.
You don't have lettuce or chard? It's not yet too cold to put them in! Both are frost-tolerant, along with a wide range of winter vegetables. If you get them started now, they'll be in place and ready to take off as soon as we get any warmer weather. (Even the odd heat wave in January.) Vegetable beds can be attractive as well as productive, so consider adding even just a small one, or a few pots on the patio.
You can also plant flower bulbs, so they get rooted and set up before spring -- brighten up your garden with daffodils, tulips, or the less common Ranunculus or Gladiolus. If you're thinking more about structural plants, you can still put in hardy California natives (once the soil has dried out for several days). They use cooler weather as an opportunity to expand their root systems, so they're set for summer drought later on.
Erosion has turned into a big issue in the last week or two. Now that it's drying out for a bit, this is your chance to take a look at erosion problems, retaining wall stability, and drainage issues you may have (such as boggy spots). Shoveling dirt and hauling cement blocks back into place is heavy work, but I can help.
Pond and fountain pumps can be turned off now, which gives you the chance to give fountains a good cleaning. It's not just leaves; a lot of sludge can accumulate in the pump area, and after a few years it builds up and may interfere with the pump in the spring. If you aren't happy with the performance of the pump, or you want to run new output lines for a pond feature, now's the time to think about what you want to do, even if you aren't going to put your plans into action until March.
Weeds! We all have them. You can pull them every year, but this is also a good point to take a step back and plan for long-term weed abatement. Rework those old, underused weedy patches and turn them into something good looking -- and low-maintenance! The best way to eliminate weeds for good is to break their lifecycle, then plant things you really want that can out-compete them. That means heavy mulch and a good landscape plan.
Finally, we're just a few weeks away from bare-root and pruning season. You can technically prune fruit trees and roses as soon as they lose nearly all their leaves, so it's time to start planning. Also look at where you might want new beds or lawns, because the infrastructure and grading necessary to do a good job can add quite a bit of lead-up time. Winter is the time to dream of a newer garden, even in California.
Happy gardening!
I have an account as Torquill on Dreamwidth, and that's where I posted this. You can sign in with OpenID to comment on the original post, or you can go ahead and comment here; either way works.