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While fall rains have already begun, climatologists predict a dry winter, courtesy of the long-anticipated La Niña conditions. Reservoirs are at dangerously low levels. There’s little chance of their being replenished this winter, according to predictions used by federal forestry and fire agencies.
Our governor has asked all Californians to voluntarily cut water use by 15 percent. San Diego County Water Authority asked residents to reduce water use by 10 percent. No matter where in California we garden, it’s time we look hard for ways to use less water.
Enjoy the view
Gardeners in other regions are taking their gardens apart and putting them to bed for the winter. In Southern California, we do the opposite; our gardens are putting on their second spring show.
Pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) decorates area gardens with its 2-to-3-foot mounds of feathery purple/pink flowers. Plant with burgundy-, blue gray- and silver-leaved plants like weeping Acacia (Acacia pendula), smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria) or octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana).
Senna bicapsularis ‘Worley’s Buttercream’ can’t quite settle on a name. Sometimes it is sold as Cassia rather than Senna, and sometimes ‘Buttercreme’ or ‘Butter Crème’ instead of ‘Worley’s Buttercream.’ Either way, this time of year, this large shrub is covered in pale yellow flowers shaped like big pieces of popcorn. Same-shade yellow sulfur butterflies flit about the flowers.
This time of year, the fleshy blades of Aloe rubroviolacea turn teal blue, edged in rosy purple. Stout flower stalks rise from the center of 3-foot-wide rosettes, each topped in a poker-shaped cluster of bright orange tubular flowers.
Fall-blooming sages take center stage: yellow-flowered Salvia madrensis, blue flowering Salvia ‘Anthony Parker’ and purple flowering Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha), along with red flowering pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), to name just a few.
The year’s bulb show kicks off with Gladiolus dalenii, a species gladiolus from South Africa. This 2-foot-tall plant grows narrow green blades. Its slender flower stalks are lined in orange blooms, each with a yellow lower “lip.”
Native bladderpod (Peritoma arborea) is heading to its peak bloom season. This easy-growing evergreen shrub is covered in narrow green leaves and bright yellow tubular flowers that morph into small, balloony yellow fruits.
Plant trees, vines, shrubs, perennials
This is the perfect time to plant nearly any ornamental plant, especially natives.
Before you go to the nursery, take a garden inventory and do your homework. Before you purchase any plant, know these factors:
- How tall and wide it grows.
- How much sun or shade it needs.
- The kind of soil it does best in.
- How much irrigation it requires.
- Whether it is evergreen or deciduous (loses its leaves).
- Any toxicity issues.
- If you have a spot that meets all of its needs. If not, choose something else.
Need a screen? Plant a screen of native plants: Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia) and sugar bush (Rhus ovata) all make great evergreen screens, are easy to grow and are readily available in nurseries.
Don’t be intimidated by a steep slope; it’s just a garden at an angle. Plant it with a combination of trees, shrubs and low-growing plants. Those bigger, woody plants grow the deep roots that hold the slope in place.
Help battle climate change by planting native oaks. If you have room, plant native oaks like coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and Engelmann oak (Quercus engelmannii). If space is limited, try small-scale oaks such as scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolia) and Nuttal’s scrub oak (Quercus dumosa). These local natives support native birds, reptiles, mammals, butterflies and more.
Planting 101
To prepare the planting hole
- Dig a hole an inch or two deeper and a little wider than the plant’s rootball; make it slightly square and rough up the sides of the hole to encourage plant roots to expand beyond the hole.
- Fill the hole with water and let the water drain out. Toss a handful (for a 1-gallon plant) or two or three (for a 5-gallon, more for larger plants) of worm castings into the hole. Do not add any other amendments.
To plant
- Water the plant in its container and let it drain.
- Turn the container on its side and gently press on it to loosen the rootball.
- Carefully slide the rootball out of the container and gently loosen the roots so they no longer wrap around the rootball (skip this step with Bougainvillea or Matilija poppies).
- Place the plant into the hole and refill with the soil you dug out.
- Wet the soil as you refill the hole and tamp the soil around the base of the plant.
- Soak the soil after you plant, then add drip irrigation and a thick layer of mulch, but leave bare dirt immediately around the base of the stem or trunk.
- Irrigate and mulch.
Plant flower seeds for early spring-blooming annuals including flowering sweet peas, California poppies, breadseed poppies, Lupine, Gilia and others.
Choose “wildflower” seeds suited specifically for Southern California. Wildflower seeds for other regions won’t thrive here.
To plant seeds
- Choose a spot in full sun.
- Rake soil smooth, then water to saturate the soil.
- Put the seeds into a 1-pint plastic container, then add construction sand in a 1:4 ratio, and mix.
- Sprinkle the seed-and-sand mix over the seedbed.
- Rake soil gently so seeds are just barely buried.
- Water again, with a very soft spray so the soil is wet enough to settle it around seeds. Continue to water every few days (unless it rains) to keep the soil, seeds and young seedlings damp.
Prune
Prune ornamental trees. Hire an insured, licensed, certified arborist who is on site with the crew while the work is done.
NEVER top a tree. If a tree is too tall, replace it with one that stays shorter.
Prune summer- and spring-flowering shrubs now, before new flower buds form. If you wait too long, you’ll cut off the flower buds so there won’t be any flowers.
Prune fig trees. Fig wood is surprisingly soft and easy to cut. Some people cut fig trees to the ground every few years. This strategy keeps the trees small so all the fruits are in reach. It isn’t necessary, but it is an option.
Give geraniums a haircut. Remove the long, scrambly branches, cutting them back to where you see new leaves forming. Plants will soon form flower buds in preparation for spring bloom.
Toward the end of the month, strip lingering leaves off pears, plums and other deciduous fruit trees, then prune.
Prepare for winter
Protect bare and spare hillsides from pounding rain by installing straw-filled wattles horizontally across a hillside. The wattles act as “speed bumps” to slow water (and mud) flowing down the slope. After winter, cut the wattles open to release the straw and let it decompose on the soil. Dispose of the plastic netting. Compost “socks” are like wattles but filled with compost.
Clean rain gutters. If the stuff that comes out of the gutter looks like compost, add it to your compost pile or use it to mulch garden beds.
Cover Plumeria or move them under the eaves when nighttime temperatures drop below 35 degrees. Stop watering Plumeria once the leaves fall off. Hold back on water until new leaves appear in March.
Move tropical bromeliads and cold-sensitive succulents under the eaves or patio cover to protect them from cold.
Cover cold-sensitive in-ground plants with floating row cover. Hold the material in place with small clamps or clothespins. Local farm and irrigation supply stores sell floating row cover by the roll or by lengths.
Refresh mulch — rock mulch for succulents, woody mulches for all nonsucculent ornamentals. Aim to always maintain a 3- to 4-inch-thick layer of mulch.
Irrigation
With cooler weather and the sun lower in the sky, plants need far less water than in the heat of summer. Run irrigation for the same number of minutes but half as often (or less), as in the heat of the summer.
Once the rains start, turn off irrigation altogether. If we get normal rains, the irrigation can stay off until March.
Install a new Wi-Fi “smart” irrigation controller. These controllers calculate watering schedules for each zone of your garden based on location, the type of soil, type of plants, etc. Set up and monitor the controller with an app on your smart phone and/or computer.
Fruit trees
After deciduous fruit trees are pruned, spray the first rounds of fungicide and of dormant oil spray. Spray one, then wait a week or two before spraying the other. Repeat two more times through winter.
Bare root fruit trees, grapes, berries and other fruits arrive in the nurseries at the end of next month. Plan now, and if your local independent nursery allows, make an order.
Bare root fruit trees are made of two parts — fruiting wood grafted onto a rootstock. The rootstock goes into the ground. The fruiting wood forms the trunk and the branches that make fruits. Pay attention to the characteristics of each so you get the fruits you love on a rootstock best adapted to your garden’s soil, drainage, etc.
Fertilize citrus and avocado just as the rains begin. Use an organic, granular citrus and avocado food.
Vegetable gardens
Harvest sweet potatoes early in the month and let them cure in a cool, dry spot so they are ready for Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s time to replace summer crops (such as eggplant and basil) with cool-season crops (such as lettuce and cabbage). Put the old, diseased plants into greenwaste (don’t compost). Commercial green waste processing destroys the pests and diseases.
Amend the planting bed with compost, worm castings and all-purpose vegetable fertilizer. Mix in the straw mulch from last season.
Plant now from seed or seedlings: cabbage, rapini, kohlrabi, spinach, peas, leeks and fava beans.
Before you plant beans or peas, set up a trellis or other support structure.
Direct seed root crops into garden beds: rutabaga, beets, carrots and turnips.
If you don’t plant winter vegetables, plant cover crops. Cover crops are “green manure” that grows through winter. Six weeks before you plant your spring garden, turn the cover crop plants into the soil so their roots, stems and leaves can break down and amend the soil.
Sterman is a waterwise garden designer and writer and the host of “A Growing Passion” on KPBS television. More information is at agrowingpassion.com and waterwisegardener.com.
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