My heartbeat quickens as we begin to sense the end of the “Fifth Season,” as Judith Larner Lowry so poetically calls August through October in Gardening with a Wild Heart. She writes, “That long luxurious warm spell with no rain, when a hammock, a book, and a glass of lemonade” are the gardener’s tools. Lowry continues, “With no moisture, the weeds will be at rest as well, so the gardener can make his leisurely way through the garden, watching pollinators at work, watching flowers turn slowly to seed.”
November is the ideal time to plant natives, after the first rains have moistened the dry soil still warm from the summer sun. So prepare yourselves–it is almost time to plant. Once you plant, roots will be invisibly established over the first winter, and you may not see much change in the growth above ground until the second year. But a deep, developed root system allows for a healthier plant. Patience is difficult in the first years of native gardening, but the reward is worth the wait. Water in the dry season is necessary every three to four weeks the first year of the native garden, but then you can let these plants adapted to our Mediterranean climate bloom and set seed without much fuss.
Map out your planting plan: dig the hole, plant, and let the rains take over. If we have a long dry winter, you will have to mimic the rains with hand watering. You may have to protect the young plants with deer-proofing materials, as there is no true deer-proof plant. Don’t fertilize, since natives are adapted to our clay soil. Pesticides are likewise unnecessary.
Watch the bees, beetles, butterflies, and spiders come to your garden as it grows! They won’t harm the plants; rather, they provide food for the birds that will find your native neighborhood oasis. For inspiration, take a walk in the watershed along Sausal Creek in Dimond Canyon or elsewhere, where we at the Friends of Sausal Creek have restored the banks with plants native to the watershed. Look closely, and you will get ideas about plant combinations, exposures that mimic your garden, and an idea of what things will look like with time. The time has come to prepare for the rains, so get ready to abandon your hammock.
Quotes from Gardening with a Wild Heart by Judith Larner Lowry, U.C. Press 1999, a truly inspiring and thoughtful book about restoring California’s native landscapes in the garden. |
