Through the Garden Gate

Build a rock garden
What loves the moist soil and sunny warm weather of autumn as much as we do? The weeds, which of course, are just the “wrong plants in the wrong place.” The rains and warm sun have germinated grasses and other little plants in our newly planted gardens.
Hoe them out quickly before they set deep roots, and then cover the soil with 2-3 inches of mulch. Newspaper or cardboard is great if you cover it with mulch to keep it from blowing. It provides a fairly impenetrable weed barrier and will ultimately rot away under the mulch. After it’s wet, you can dig right through it to put in other plants.
This fall is a good time to create a rock garden. There are many small native California plants to use in this specialized kind of garden, be it a shady woodland rock garden, or a sun-filled rock garden.
Choose a sunny or shady area, hopefully on a slight slope so it will look natural. The basic plan is to have a mound of rocks that you ultimately partially cover with soil. Start with the larger rocks at the base, and then add more rocks as you go up, using stones of smaller sizes. Slant them back as you go to retain a natural appearance and to aid in water drainage. “Cement” the rocks together with soil, making certain you fill in the crevices with soil. The soil should drain well but also retain moisture.
Which plants you choose will depend on the garden’s setting and exposure. Bulbs can be tucked in anywhere. Go to larnerseeds.com or theodorepayne.org for suggestions for them or for wildflowers. Rock gardens bring to mind succulents, such as dudleyas or sedums (try Sedum spathulifolium); check calfloranursery.com for ideas. Another sun plant is Lewisia cotyledon or our native iris (Iris douglasiana). Yellow-eyed grasses are sweet-flowering, as are the little species tulips and fragrant freesias. Look for Indian pink (Silene californica) for sun; it’s a perennial from the foothills of California and blooms with flaming red flowers. Water it carefully, if at all, in the summer. Coral bells, columbines, ferns, and wild ginger work for shady spots. There is an endless variety of plants to choose, and most will depend on the size of your garden. A bit of research will help you decide.
Autumn is the perfect time to plant individual cloves of garlic, ready to be harvested in early summer. Plant them pointed end up in rich loose soil that drains well. Note: gophers like garlic! Large cloves make larger heads of garlic. You can put the small cloves close together and harvest as green garlic in the spring. Keep the bed well weeded and not overly soaked. Mulch with rice straw when the garlic is up.
For lots more on vegetable gardening, check out Wendy and Sara’s gardening blog at: igrowsonoma.org. They are experts.
Occidental Arts & Ecology’s nursery is open weekends through November 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Then it’s done ‘til next spring.
The November meeting of the CNPS is on Tuesday, November 20 and features a talk by Peter Warner, a local botanist, plant ecologist, and teacher at SRJC and Pepperwood. He will be discussing plant name changes in the new Jepson Manual just published in 2012. Last publication was in 1993; the Jepson is the “Bible” of plant compendiums of plant diversity in California. Meetings start at 7:30 p.m. and are held at the Luther Burbank Art & Garden Center at 2050 Yulupa in Santa Rosa.
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