Celebrate the Ever-Evolving Garden

Author: Meera, December 7, 2018

There’s nothing to rejuvenate a weary soul like time spent in a garden. Death of one season’s plants yields to new shoots the next. Because I appreciate the ever-evolving nature of a garden, I choose plants, bulbs, bushes, and trees that offer visual interest in each season. Thoughtful planting generates an ever-evolving landscape of color, texture, and visual interest.

 

Pumpkins show orange and yellow, signalling the arrival of the cool season

Pumpkins show orange and yellow, signalling the arrival of the cool season

 

 

The autumn garden has almost completely morphed into a winter landscape now. Pumpkin and tomato vines have been pulled out and perennials in the bee garden  have gone to seed or been cut back. Winter offers little color in the garden except for the cape honeysuckle, white geranium, lavender florets, and early flowering bulbs.

 

 

 

Deciduous trees have mostly lost their leaves, however, the eucalyptus and the pepper trees here on the farmette remain leafy and green. The rains have come and a dusting of snow on nearby mountain peaks is in the forecast ahead. Foliage and blooms are mostly gone. It’s that time of year to cover frost-sensitive plants.

 

 

The pomegranates that were ablaze in golden color a few weeks ago have dropped all leaves. What remains is the lovely arching pattern of branches since I’ve trained them from bushes into trees.

 

 

Pomegranate tree leaves of green but turn gold in the fall

Pomegranate leaves  turn gold in the fall

 

 

 

The showy pink flowers over summer of the crape myrtle are a memory. Gone now, too, are the red-gold leaves of fall. What remains is an interesting gray-green bark.

 

 

Autumn leaves of the crepe myrtle create a spectacle against the blooming Cecile Brunner rose

Autumn leaves of the crepe myrtle create a spectacle against the blooming Cecile Brunner rose

 

 

 

The seeds from the giant yellow-orange coreopsis that stood eight feet tall and towered over zinnias, Borage, and rows of lavender have long ago been harvested. Also, my patch of lavender is flourishing. The plants have pushed out long stalks of purple florets.

 

 

 

Dark green shoots of bulbs are pushing up out of the earth where I interplanted them with chrysanthemums. I cut back the mums and they will reappear in the spring to flower again. This is the time of year that shoots of bulbs and rhizomes are birthing daffodils, anemones, tulips, hyacinths, and, to come later, lilies and irises of many colors.

 

 

 

Siberian scilla adds a lot of color for a small grouping of bulbs

Siberian scilla adds a lot of color for a small grouping of bulbs

 

 

 

In raised beds, shoots of fall-planted onions and garlic are now pushing up. The bees are drawn to the sweet scent of narcissus bulbs that have naturalized after being planted years ago. The Meyer lemon now has lots of yellow thin-skinned fruit and also a few early blooms.

 

 

 

On the dark days and nights of winter, white blooming plants stand in stark contrast to gray wooden fences and leafless trees.  Honor roses, Iceberg roses, and climbing Sally Holmes roses have showy white blooms and may even have some this time of year unless they’ve been cut back. Winter-blooming gardenias and white geraniums have a quiet impact when grouped together in hedges, beds, or containers.

 

 

 

The "Honor" rose...white blooming roses are beautiful under moonlight

The “Honor” rose is an elegant white blooming rose that is spectacular under moonlight

 

With so many bulbs and plants available this time of year, putting interest into your winter garden is easy and contributes to an ever-evolving landscape.

 

 

 

Consider plants with gray-green or otherwise pretty foliage and colorful berries. Also plant trees with interesting bark colors, textures, patterns, or scaffolding shapes. When you think of plants for each season of the year, you’ll have a garden to nurture you throughout the year.

 

 

 

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, the keeping of chickens and bees, and other small farm topics AND you’d like related gift-giving, consider my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries or any of my health, wellness, and spirituality books. All are available online and in traditional bookstores everywhere.

 

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The Four-Year Wait for a Bloom

Author: Meera, July 26, 2014

Surprise isn’t the right word for what I felt rounding the corner today. I looked over into our rose garden and the bulbs we planted four years ago finally bloomed, sans the foliage which dried in the California heat a month or two ago.

 

Vibrant pink lilies on 3 feet tall stalks have a sweet, seductive scent

Vibrant pink lilies on 3-foot stalks emit a sweet, seductive scent

 

 

These beautiful lilies were such a surprise. We saw the long stalks shooting upward with unopened buds on the end and wondered what they were. Then they opened to reveal these dazzling lilies.

 

They were likely planted in the 1950s or a decade later on the property adjacent to ours. The old man who owned the property behind ours passed away a year or so before we arrived. His daughter gave us the lily bulbs.  Alas, she doesn’t seem to remember the flowers (except that there were bulbs) and we don’t know what kind they are either. They look like star lilies, and are born on 3 foot-stalks. There is a very sweet scent emitted from the center of the flower.

 

 

Long stems characterize these lovely pink lilies

Long stems characterize these lovely pink lilies

 

 

I’m having a devil of a time identifying them. There are so many types of lilies, including calla lilies, trumpet lilies, oriental lilies, and day lilies, to name a few. So if you know which cultivar they belong to, please email me at Meeralester1@Gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

 

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