Winter 2012
Boy this is a weird winter. It got so cold last month we had a lot of damage on our oranges, lemons, and grapefruits. The cold froze all the buds on the Grevellias just as they were about to flower in all their humming bird-love glory. It killed the above ground parts of the pineapple sage and my salvias from SF Botanical Garden. It sure didn't seem like we live in Western Garden Zone 9. The inner courtyard of the house proved itself to be a good ten degrees warmer than the outside outside. The picture above shows the Yolla Bolly Wilderness that is to the west of our farm. We don't often see it covered in a snow like this. It was awful pretty.
But even after the resounding cold, my Acacia baileyana bloomed a few weeks later in a spectacular display of yellow puffs, and hummed with the sound of hundreds of happy honey bees. In the first picture you can see the tree in reference to the south swale bottom. I have waited a long time to see this sight again and I was not disappointed. The trees gave the bees much needed nectar and pollen after the cold. The soldier-like calendula also suffered casualties but continues to bloom profusely despite the cold and offer much to all manner of insects.
And let me take this time to high-light another hard worker that gets far too little credit here on my little blog. The queen of the Mediterranean, the Rosemary. I planted this evergreen shrub out the second winter we were here from a tiny pot. It is on a drip but in the southern herb garden which has terrible soil and blistering sun. But right now we have the canary yellow explosion of the acacia flowering not far from the brilliant periwinkle towers of the rosemary. And the bees are in heaven. For a much smaller plant, the rosemary has almost as many bees as the acacia. So three winter bloomers for our farm: Acacia, rosemary and calendula.
I planted four more Silk Mimosas and finally pulled out the pine fern tree that was hopelessly tippy and unhappy on the west. Today we have a biting cold wind coming from the northwest at about 30mph but the day is clear and bright. The California Pepper trees planted from liners are finally big enough that they won't get lost in the grasses which are taking over as they always do. But oh, the grass is slow to green up the hills this year. Some places it's only two inches high. Looks like Dec. grass instead of mid-Feb. When I had to remove the ringed persimmon tree last month I got a chance to see what is going on in the soil profile on the south swale. And I am happy to report that much activity was found there, even some worms!
Just gotta keep encouraging Life.
Came across your little blog here a while back. Good to see a new post. As a Los Molinos gardener with permacultural aspirations, i'll be checking in.
ReplyDeleteEncouraging life, in this playdough trainwreck of a soil, can be a challenge indeed.
ReplyDeleteYes you can only truly appreciate our clay soil if you have it yourself, although Los Molinos does have some sweet spots if you are by the river at all. My Dad lives in Los Molinos and I would love to have his soil. But not his mole problem so there are advantages to rock hard soil.
ReplyDeleteAnd this summer I realized the distinct advantages of clay soil versus the other extreme, sandy soil. The short version: clay holds water (duh) and sandy does not (double duh). But apparently I needed to learn this the hard way. ;/
I find some plants take my very compacted airless soil in stride like African Sumacs and others need almost three years to adapt like the Acacias. And then there are the outright deaths but we don't like to talk about those. I would say that I think since our fruit trees are almost all on soil that was raised to form the swale, this helped tremendously with the compaction and filtration aspects of the soil.
I am a conflicted blogger so the posts are sporadic. But local people like you are why I write at all so you just lessened the conflict somewhat. So thanks!