Winter Garden Reflections

'Roger's Red' hybrid California wild grape puts on a stunning fall display and supports pollinators, birds and wildlife.
Hazelnut leaves with sunlight patterns

The winter shadows are long across the landscape, creating dramatic patterns amongst the fallen leaves. We’ve awakened to ice on the bird fountains many mornings and felt grateful for the warmth of our wood stove at night. Even Puffball Kitty, well-outfitted in her full-puff winter coat, and not put off by a bit of cold and rain, has taken to long naps in the attic.

It’s a natural time for drawing inward, and my focus has been more on meditation retreats than my usual compulsive gardening.

This grape was planted to provide shade from hot western sun. I've lost the tag but it might be Vitus amurensis, aka Amur grape. I DID plump the color on this photo for the fun of it, so keep that in mind. But it does have lovely fall color if you are looking for that.
This grape was planted to provide shade from hot western sun. I’ve lost the tag but it might be Vitus amurensis, aka Amur grape. I DID plump the color on this photo for the fun of it, so keep that in mind. But it does have lovely fall color if you are looking for that.
Winter Harvests

Even so, some hardy vegetables are keeping us in fresh greens for dinner: kale, spinach, tatsoi, chard, and parsley. Even a bit of lettuce is still fresh and growing, though I have been shielding it from the freezes with a frost cover. I just harvested some delicious carrots yesterday, and the beets are ready too.

A mixed veggie bed taking us through early winter. I don't use mulch in the raised beds because it draws too many slugs, snails, and earwigs. I cover the lettuces with a frost cloth--I just took it off for the photo.
A mixed veggie bed taking us through early winter. I don’t use mulch in the raised beds because it draws too many slugs, snails, and earwigs. I cover the lettuces with a frost cloth–I just took it off for the photo.

Our potato harvest was disappointing–we keep trying different methods but the rodents always find them or they are just too dry in summer to do really well. Maybe I’ll try them in another area of the garden where there is less cover for rodents and more patrolled by the cat.

Happily, there was a decent harvest of winter squash and that has featured in many a dinner already. Great thanks to Fred of A French Gardener for suggesting a curried squash soup. Yum! This has become a favorite. And to lisinmayenne of This Simple Life, I look forward to trying some of your many delectable ideas! If you have a link to recipes in your blog, let me know. If any readers want to see how she cooks with winter squash, read her comment at the bottom of my October Garden post.

Hachiya Persimmons in winter--a favorite of mine and also the flicker birds. Even if I didn't like the fruits, I would plant the trees for the flickers and the foliage of the tree.
Hachiya Persimmons in winter–a favorite of mine and also the Northern Flickers. Even if I didn’t like the fruits, I would plant the trees for the flickers and the fall color.

It was also a good year for our apples. Those, along with the pineapple guavas (feijoas) and persimmons, are supplying fruits for the table.

Winter Tasks

Soon I will be pondering bare-root season and dormant pruning, as the tree branches are bare now. Leaves are being harvested and used as insulation for the worm bin, and added as mulch to the raspberries and blueberries. Last year’s tree prunings are providing kindling for wood-fires to keep us warm. (My gas heater refuses to work dependably, despite many attempts at servicing. It’s in a difficult-to-access attic space.)

Usually in winter, we cover the citrus trees. But as they are finally fairly large, I think they are providing some insulation for themselves. If we get an unusually low cold snap, we’ll put the covers on. If not, I’ll just prune off any outer cold damage in the spring. We have two lemons, one lime, and what appears to be a pomelo, although it was supposed to be a pink lemon. My spouse enjoys the fruits so I guess we’ll be keeping it. 🙂

Many of the garden veggie beds still need to be cleared of the remains of summer growth, and prepared for early spring planting. I planted out a few flower bulbs of daffodils and ranunculus, but I can’t get too riotous with bulbs because gophers eat most of them. Winter is also for dreaming and planning, and there is a design I’ve fashioned for gradually replacing the conifer privacy hedge along the road with a mostly native hedgerow.

Fall Color and Winter Bones

Some lovely fall color was given by the persimmon trees, blueberry bushes, Parrotia persica tree, and the “Roger’s Red” grape*. Usually the Asian pear trees and Japanese maples also add to the zing, but I don’t remember much of a show this year from them. Perhaps the freezes came too quickly?

*A note about the Roger’s Red grape: it was originally thought to be a red form of the native California grape. DNA testing has determined it to be a hybrid between the California native grape and Vitis vinifera ‘Alicante Bouschet’. (Fascinating info at Pacific Horticulture, UC Master Gardener of SoCo and CalScape).

'Roger's Red' hybrid California wild grape puts on a stunning fall display and supports pollinators, birds and wildlife.
I’m pretty sure this is ‘Roger’s Red’ grape. It puts on a stunning fall display and supports pollinators, birds and wildlife. Vigorous, as you can see.

In the winter garden, it is nice to have some evergreen shrubs and trees as the structural “bones” of the landscape, and for us those are rosemary, Cleveland sages, feijoas, olives, arbutus, rockroses, pittosporum and a handful of escallonia here and there. I’m probably forgetting some others. The rosemary also has some blooms now, which is helpful for the honeybees. If you are local to Sonoma County or other parts of the West Coast and wondering about gophers and these shrubs, see my gopher articles, like this one.

Protected spaces also give some life to the otherwise dormant season. We don’t have a heated greenhouse, but there is a small porch with panels, and that stays just warm enough for a couple of hardy fruiting bananas. We only got fruit set one year, but we gardeners are optimists…yes?…and I hold out hope for more one day. And then there is the indoor garden of houseplants that I’ve fallen in love with. And that reminds me of the new shop I wanted to mention.


The Online Shop Is Now Live–with some hiccups

After much ado, I finally managed to add a little shop to my site for my crocheted, natural fiber houseplant cachepots and baskets–with a few handbags too. Alas, not being a techie, the shop addition seems to have messed up some things on my gardening site and posts, so I hope any of you reading this will tell me if you see anything wonky. My focus is the gardening blog. But I love to create and if anything I make could help to offset the expenses of my garden blogging habit, that would be a dream. 🙂 (I had ads enabled for awhile, but found some of them annoying, so I turned them back off. I never got a cent from them anyway. If any of you more seasoned garden bloggers have advice, please share.)

Cozy wishes from Puffball Kitty and myself. -lisa

She's napping next to my computer right now, snoring. Yes, snoring. It's so cute it could melt the hardest heart.
She’s napping next to my computer right now, snoring. Yes, snoring. It’s so cute it could melt the frostiest heart.

Extra: sharing with you a wintery, but altogether enjoyable, day trip that we took to a Northern California beach this week:

A wintery day at a beach within driving distance. I love going in winter when it's nearly empty. I don't mind clouds or cold. It was a glorious afternoon with a retreating tide.
A wintery day at a beach within driving distance. I love going in winter when it’s nearly empty of humans. I don’t mind clouds or cold. It was a glorious afternoon with a retreating tide and I had a great time watching seabirds and being mesmerized by the lavender highlights on the water.

11 thoughts on “Winter Garden Reflections

  1. Wonderful photos, as always. So much going on there! We’re under 17 cm of snow at the moment! I tried all your post links and all worked fine. I wish you every success in your shop. Great creativity and use of fibers. Your houseplants are surely the best dressed!

    1. Thank you so much Kate! Glad you liked the photos. I miss snow—I grew up with snowy winters before moving to the Pacific coast over 20 years ago. I would love to see some snowy landscapes from your area if you were inclined to share any in a post. It was kind of you to test the links … I really appreciate it and am glad they worked. Whew! For awhile, I was so frustrated that I almost gave up the entire blog. Wishing you a cozy winter and verdant garden dreams!

  2. Such beautiful photos, you still have so much colour in your garden. Thanks for the mention, you have a great squash harvest to enjoy! Like you, our potato harvest was poor this year (too dry) but we happily use squash as a substitute all winter, it’s a great comfort food in cold weather. I love a winter beach, too, so much more enjoyable and atmospheric than a crowded summer one!

    1. Thanks so much! The Rogers Red really was a big splash of color. At this point, the bright orange persimmons hanging on bare branches against the blue sky are capturing the attention. I wish us both luck in growing potatoes next year!

    1. Thanks Amelia! Yes, it’s that time of year to stuff ourselves with persimmons, winter squash and hearty greens. ☺️ We’re expecting some rain this week and I hope it comes through. We just got our large rainwater catchment barrels hooked up.

  3. I also really love the pictures. How far are you from the sea? I also love being on the beach during the winter – which is probably a lot colder than where you are. But still we also have some veggies in the garden, but they are not as nice as yours since they get frozen once in a while… still quite a few survive and we can eat them until March and in June the first new veggies and fruits are ready

    1. We live about 35 minutes from the ocean but it’s a pretty trip mostly along backroads in the countryside. I don’t get there as often as I wish to. I’m enjoying reading your blog about your garden and your recipes.

    2. Thank you, I am also enjoying your blog. Sounds absolutely lovely with the small country roads. We are only about a mile from the water, but you can’t really get to it from here. There are other beaches and harbors close by, but we usually also go to the beach we like best, which is also half an hour away. It’s one of the nicest beaches in Denmark and endless. But again, we also don’t go there as often as we would like to…

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