November Light

I walk through the garden now and notice the changing light of November.  The sun shines lower in the sky.  And with this change comes the glow of November.  Even here, where the leaves are not changing, but the temperatures are now in the 50s at night, the quality of the light changes. It is like transparent honey which is spread over the objects it finds.  Sitting in the garden this afternoon as the sun moved toward sunset, I could see the shadows offset the golden yellow light streaming through the leaves and my bamboo fence.

The chrysanthemums changed color as the fading sunlight fell on their blooms.

I remember many Novembers for this kind of light. One in particular, I was recovering from a serious illness and had time to look at the November light. The light became the focus of my days, as I would wait for it to fall upon plants, corn stalks, red tractors, fallen leaves. It changed the objects it met, leaving them with the same glow.

Here the fronds of an Australian tree fern change color in the rays of this afternoon's sun. And I begin to notice a rose's glow, bedding plants set apart by the light and pansies' bright faces.

 

 

 

English Daisy 'Bellis'

 

Some of the new plants in the garden take on this light and look renewed and transformed.

 

Echeveria

 Sedum 'Golden Carpet'

Such looking brings me a great sense of peace and tranquility.  Does the light enter me?  Or does the concentration bring me to this state?  I think both. Observing the garden rather than working in it can bring some new revelations.  So I found myself sitting and letting the light move and change about me. And the mood followed me inside.  Gifts of the garden and the gardener who observes.

I have trouble sitting and observing the garden without wanting to do something to improve the plants-- pruning, sweeping, picking up debris. There are always so many tasks that ask to be done. But to learn to sit in the garden and observe is a fruit of taking more and more photographs for my blog.  I cannot be so busy when I take a picture. I must move slowly and observe more closely. Then I see the subtle changes that can fill my spirit.

I remembered today how much I love November light.  Nature offers such simple gifts. I must just pause to notice them.

"And to see takes time. Like to have a friend takes time."  Georgia O'Keefe

Halloween and Remake

It's that time of year. Halloween almost here. And time to remake beds in southern California. They do well if started in the late fall, can winter over in above-freezing temps and then grow into the spring. This gets plants established before the hot summer.

I am an informal gardener, so it's not always so easy to see the form in the way I've planted. But I like to plant where it seems to fit in my own quirky style. It can make for mess to the eye, until things get planted and grow. There's a method to my madness.

I certainly don't fit the organized gardeners of the first few categories in Nell Jean's post What Kind of a Gardener are You?  The plan you see below is for record only. I made it after I got all the plants in place and like where they were.  I knew generally what I wanted before I went to the nursery, but let my intuition be the guide once I got there. It seems to work for me.

One of my beds had an unusual number of plants on the wane this summer, so I've opted for more succulents and drought-wise plants. I did quite a bit of internet research before going to the plant store.

Here's the bed before I got any new plants in it. No pruning or transplanting done yet and some pots in places I think they might go. The bed is remade in three stages. This is the first.

Here is my drawing of the bed with the new additions and the legend being a list of the initials spelled out into words. The form of the bed has a rock bed on the left and right of a central rock with a crystal on it. The plants are interspersed in this structure.  I often intersperse according to color and texture, balance and creative license. Not your formal garden here.

 Hope you can read the legend. I did print. Skeletal map above with S's marking the newcomer succulents. A few other new plants came into the plan during planting.  I never could make a good outline of a paper until after I'd written it. This was the same. I made the plan after I tried out the plants in their pots on the bed.

Here's another photo before I planted.

 The rock bed is made with Arizona Travertine. It's related to porous limestone, but is a little harder. You can really see the orange, yellow and whitish colors of the stone, which I love, as well as the layers and porous character. That's what makes this rock so interesting.

Now for some photos after I got the succulents planted, the bed pruned and other plants removed or moved.  This is the second stage of my remake of the bed.

Here you can see one hen and chicks. Later I add another to focus the area. It's not so easy to see the burgundy aeonium and echeveria behind it to add contrast.

 

The full bed with sprinkler going. I wanted to get this shot before the sun hit the bed and make the photo too bright.

Now for the final touch done today, with a few more succulents and the annuals-- pansies. This is the third and, dare I say, last stage, of the remake.

 

Full bed with lone yellow pansy in the middle waiting for a place.

  Now I'll take you through the bed from the Bird of Paradise progessing to the plants by the door.

 Purple pansies and golden sedum with silver edged horehound to back.

Rock garden with sedum and thyme interspersed. Native penistemum in back left.

 

Both hen and chicks by the central garden crystal. Pansies in forground. The zinnias are still popping.

Next rock garden with pansies and sedum. The dried flower stalks are from the yarrow.  Chartreuse ornamental sweet potato wending its way through the bed at the back.

The rest of the rock garden the echinecea and rudbeckia on the far right.

This bed is not easy to photograph, but I wanted to give you an idea of a garden bed remake in my style.  Hope it's been possible to follow and even enjoy.  As it fills in I'll show more photos.

I have such fun doing this sort of thing. Really brings out the creative juices. I get so into the garden that I overdo it. After the second stage I had to rest with all the bending and stretching. I've had some pinched nerves in my neck, affecting my arms, and all that work got them inflamed again. But I didn't feel a thing as I was working. Only after the fact. And I do have plenty of dirt ground into my hands and fingernails, despite quite a few scrubs. All worth it as I step out the door and look on my handiwork. Gotta love a remade garden bed. All that potential waiting for time to pass.

Dog Days

I've just gotten out to water in hopes of saving some of the plants that were seriously wilted in the hot bed.  Hope they perk up.  The others will get a good watering in the dusk hours.  It was so hot here today that the heat came off the pavement in waves. They're predicting a few more days of this, so I will do my best to keep anyone in the garden from flagging.

I've really gotten into sedum of late.  I've used succulents other than cactus in the garden.  They don't mind the watering and survive the summer in great shape.  Sedum is another kind of succulent I'm very excited about.

This one is one of my favorites.  Besides being variegated, you can barely see the pink showing on it's branches.  And it is really growing in the heat. 

 

This one is also interesting, more in gray tones with leaves that look stickery, but are so soft to the touch.  Sedums are also really easy to root. I want to start making gifts for friends from the sedums and other succulents, arranged in small pots.  They're so easy to take care of.  This is one of my first tries.  I put a small statue in it that scares away bad spirits, as do the gargoyles on gothic churches.  I'll try some other such pots for friends.

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One other very interesting development for sedum is that they are being developed into what are called sedum mats to replace parts or all of the lawn.  LA Times has a nice blog about it with photos.  In our water-hungry land new ideas for saving water are au courant.