Weather

It's been cold here – we had several nights in the 30s, with a low of 31. I know, my friends in Boston don't feel sorry for me, but for my baby citrus trees, that's cold! While I was away this past week in San Diego Wolfi got lots of things done. One of those accomplishments was setting up our weather station. We have 3 spots we monitor - indoor (kitchen), outdoor behind house under the back covered patio, and about 20' lower elevation down where the stone fruits are going in. I wanted the latter

because when we go down the hill we almost always notice how much cooler it is, and it is interesting to me to keep track of the difference. I am curious why we have these temperature layers. The reading I've done so far leads me to think that the canyons channel the colder air down from the mountains (or in this case hills). Often in the evening we feel a real stream of cold air rushing out of the mouth of our canyon. The 31o reading was in the low spot; the low at the house was 39. It seems I am fortunate my greens germinated before this cold spell.

 

House is above to right, stone fruits are down the hill, right side of driveway

As for other weather, we have had several lovely rainstorms. I don’t have exact readings on those but will keep track in the future on the rain gauge Wolfi installed for me. Becki and I sowed our wildflower seeds on the hill above the house by sprinkling them down from the top, so I have faith that they have germinated and will establish themselves with the winter rains.

This week we got the Cara Cara orange, royal apricot and Santa Rosa plum in the ground, and the holes for the persimmon and peach are dug. A friend told me of these fruit tree planting instructions

from the late 1800s:

The instructions were to “dig a deep cavity in the ground, then put in rich dirt, then stones, then rich dirt. After this…put in layers of earth and dressing [compost] until the hole was filled.” (Ellen White, 3SM 328)

Yes, this was describing trees in Australia, but she had also done it that way in “the rocky soil in America”. This advice evidently pertains to bare root stocks, and our trees are in 5 or 15-gallon tubs, so I will be leaving the earth intact as much as possible (except for any ingrown roots, which will be gently pried apart). Even more details with instructions from the Rodale organic gardening book can be found here.

Thus I may plant these last 3 fruit trees a bit differently than the first. Until now I have been following Mike McGrath's instructions not to amend the hole at all, so that the tree's roots will enter the soil surrounding the original hole. Hopefully whichever trees were planted sub optimally will forgive and grow anyway!

Planting...and tough decisions

My first gardener left much too soon, but lucky for me Becki stayed over a week. We were eager to get some plants in the raised bed so the harvest would be quick. We planted lots of lettuce (I cannot fathom buying lettuce plants but it sure is fun to have an instant garden!), radicchio, arugula, broccoli, Swiss chard, and Chinese cabbage.

Most herbs went in their own pots – peppermint all by itself so it doesn’t have a chance to take over; thyme, oregano and basil in a pot together; but chives and cilantro are in the raised bed.

Once the plants were in, we could seed to our hearts’ content. Mostly I used old seed – some from as far back as 2007 (Nuesslisalat) and many from the years since. I finished up the Fedco Chioggia and root grex beets, mokum carrots, and added to the salad section with buttercrunch, arugula (wonder how Ice-Bred will do in SoCal?) green deer tongue, lollo rosso, and petite rouge lettuces (several from Baker Creek). We need LOTS of greens, so added tatsoi, blues Chinese cabbage, spinach (again a cold weather variety) and Fordhook giant chard. Topped it off with Zefi Fino fennel, Afina cutting celery, and cilantro.

You have no idea how luxurious? Counterintuitive? Just plain backwards? It feels to be planting all of these things at the end of November! I was getting better at cold frame gardening in Boston. If things were at the right stage, I could harvest kale into December, and the dormant spinach would revive in April, so I was learning how to extend the season. But to be warm while planting the seeds and plants, to actually see them germinate, and to not worry about basil being nipped by the cold – these are truly wonders of the South. Granted, I am not yet
so secure in these cozy warm thoughts – the basil is in a pot that I will bring inside when the weather forecast threatens. Becki and I also made a raised bed in the back yard by putting hardware cloth on the ground, then mounding up our 1:1 mixture of compost and dirt. We then put the brussels sprouts and tuscan kale there, and a few arugula plants. At the end I made a home for the Heuchera 'Wendy' - coral bells.

I also splurged and bought a 6-pack of pansies! They are providing a splash of color to several corners and are super cheery.

I am thrilled to once again have a compost pile, since I got an Earth Machine at the county, and 4 wonderful bags of leaves from a nearby yard.

Becki and I kept digging tree holes. But before we tucked the Gold Nugget tangerine and the Moro blood orange in for the winter, we built cages to protect their delicious tender roots from the evil gophers. We chose a design basically consisting of an ‘L’-shaped piece of hardware cloth, so that the four sides and bottom are each about 10” x 10”. By cutting close to the intersections, we had long enough pieces of wire ends that we could pull them through the adjoining sections with needle-nosed pliers and twist, to form a sturdy box.

We managed to plant the above citrus in the previously planned spots without incident, then added the

Sweet pomegranate. However our tree-planting progress is at a standstill due to an as-yet unresolved conflict between the powers that be, one of whom prioritizes Fruit Trees and the other of whom does not wish to compromise his View. Soon the remaining trees will not doubt find a home, but for now they remain above ground.
I did transplant the Meyer lemon and Mexican lime into bigger pots; their home for now is as part of our patio border.





We planted the bigger Mexican fan palm, and one we moved from next to the driveway, up on the hill close to the Queen palms.

Little avocado grew from one we ate from Jean Hildebrand's tree, and I've just put it in soil.

Raised bed

11/22/13

What a week for gardening! My two master gardeners arrived on Sunday. Heidi gardens on a steep slope in Nashville, and Becki, aside from her own lovely vegetable and flower gardens, has planned and executed lots of more public gardens. We looked at all the raised beds we could find online and

came up with a sketch of what we wanted to build outside the kitchen window. We went to Home Depot and debated between pressure treated lumber and natural redwood, and decided to go with redwood. We used many of the ideas here. The sides are 2x6x12' (2 high in the first layer), and the ends 2x6x4'. That means the outside dimensions are 12'x52"x12". The second tier is 2x6x8' wide by 2x6x2' deep. 

We (which in all cases means Wolfgang, who improved the design, figured out the realization of our wishes, and added features that made it more robust) used 4x4s to reinforce the corners in the lower level, 2x2s above. The inner wall is the 

top level only, with vertical supports down to the ground. We think the Sunset idea to line the bottom of the bed with hardware cloth was clever - our hills are unfortunately riddled with gopher holes and I'd love to not share the juicy roots with them. 

We got a pickup load of compost from our local county recycling facility for $14/cubic meter (the load cost $30), and had to mix it 1:1 with dirt. That will last us quite a while and supply the beds in back of the house as well as this raised bed. It's rich (and stinky - smelled like a dairy farm!) stuff! The smell lasted for a few days and we were quite relieved when it dissipated.

We piled a huge plastic bag of leaves into the bed before alternating wheelbarrows of dirt and compost. They should break down nicely over time and provide more organic matter. I am hoping there were also some worms in the leaves, some of which were already breaking down a bit at the side of the road. Otherwise we'll be looking for an alternative source.

The only photo of the 3 sisters together;
evidently our focus was elsewhere

While planting the queen palm was heroic,
it wasn't until we saw the photo that I was
reminded of this.

We picked up plants at Alan Hall's nursery and planted 4 of the queen palms on our upper hill. Before putting them in their hole, which was just as deep as the root ball and twice as wide, we filled it with 

water and let it seep in. Thus we were convinced that the drainage is good. We found the big palms were quite pot bound, so took some time to separate the roots, even chopping some with an ax to be sure they could grow outward. 

The bougainvillea is in the ground too, but lots of plants are still awaiting their turn. 

Native plants

We have a few ideas of how to farm this bone dry land, but we're just in the beginning of the design or evolution phase. We need to accomplish several things here. The most important goal for us is to stabilize our hillside.

http://www.thinkwalks.org/2010/01/12/main-gallery-434w350h/

It's misbehaved in the past, and it's not a given that the repair will keep the geography constant. Therefore, we want plants proven to prevent erosion and keep the dirt where it is. When we were first considering this challenge, we considered the usual suspects - around here, traditionally steep grades are planted in landscaping plants like ice plant, ivy, vinca, or juniper. A neighbor warned us that planting was not a good idea since when the ground gets waterlogged the plants add to the weight and increase the danger of a slide. As I read up on it (here and here, for example), I learned that, indeed, these alien plants (e.g. ice plant) do not help - their roots are shallow and they are heavy. But there are strategies that work, and there are plants that form extensive root systems while remaining light above ground - and that's what we want.

A second consideration for us is that our hillside will need to be drought tolerant. We haven't gotten our first water bill yet, but we're told it's the most expensive utility.

But there is another important factor for us: we need to avoid plants that will burn. We did manage to get homeowner's insurance but not on the first try - our location in the hills on the edge of town means that wildfires are a threat.  

What works best to solve all of these problems? Native plants. This region is hilly - there are plants that know how to cling to the slopes. here is a list of plants known to be beneficial in the erosion control department. Out of necessity, these natives have figured out how to live on minimal water, too. Plants that grow here naturally will do best here - seems obvious, doesn't it?  Of course, some native plants are high fire risk - so we'll avoid this list (p8). Yikes, we have several California pepper trees, and I love them. Evidently they will burn. Eucalyptus is also not good.

With all of this in mind, we headed to Ranch Santa Ana Grow Native Nursery and I came hope a happy camper with Salvia apiana (white sage), Artemisia tridentata (great basin sagebrush), Salvia mellifera (black sage) are the 3 at the left; Ceanothus hearstiorum (mountain lilac) and Eriogonum fasciculatum (California buckwheat, below) are already in the ground. There's a penstemon, evidently a good hummingbird feeder, and the remaining three (fescue grass, Heuchera/coral bells, and a sedum) are for planters.

One more thing - I want to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Here, I am relying on the Salvia species, penstemon, coral bells, and I intend to find some Zauschneria (California fuchsia); once again Las Pilitas provided great info.

The buckwheat is really native - if I had known what I was doing I would have observed the thickets of it within 20 feet of where I planted it! These are the seeds, I guess; white to pink blossoms, also great for butterflies, bloom spring to summer.

Here they are, hard at work already, pushing their little roots out to stabilize our slope. The arrows will help you find them! Clearly a lot more plants are necessary, but this is a start, and it's a pilot project of sorts - if we find that certain ones do especially well in our microclimate here, we'll get more. 

Starting out

We just moved into a home in southern California. It's on a steep hill, up above the valley floor. At the moment it's a bit of a blank slate, as far as the surroundings are concerned, and I will use this blog to document what becomes of it. After many hassles, FNMA (aka Fannie Mae) finally decided to finalize the transaction on October 22, just over 2 weeks ago. Here's what we have to work with.
Did I mention there's a slope involved? Here you get an overview of the large driveway, upper retaining wall and hill above the house.

Here's a closer look at that repaired hillside. A landslide in the famous rains of December 2010 brought this hillside down into the house. It was repaired last spring with this reinforced vertical railroad tie wall, landscape fabric (heavy burlap), and baffles. Evidently it was hydroseeded...and evidently it was not watered thereafter. We're strategizing how to control erosion. My intrepid husband, who is used to life in a mountainous country, is confident the erosion can be dealt with.

From the back of the house there's more hill to deal with.
















The backyard is truly empty. The steps on the right lead into the master bathroom.

As we continue around the house, this is the front (east-facing) aspect. To the left the land slopes precipitously.














Looking north, the San Bernardino mountains create a dramatic backdrop.

However, a closer look reveals a very dead patch of sod. Imagine our surprise when, just after collapsing exhausted into our bed around midnight the first night there, we heard a loud hissing noise. The sprinkler system worked flawlessly, twice per night, irrigating this crunchy piece of turf.

This is where we are beginning. The only existing "added" landscape is a half dozen or so lily-appearing plants on the east side at the front of the house.

Our work is cut out for us!