My Garden Diary

One of the lemons had split. This is caused by excessive soil moisture as the fruit ripens. No, I did not over-water the tree. This was caused by the very wet December we are having.

With temperatures predicted to drop into the 20s (Fahrenheit), I moved my Cymbidium orchid indoors. (Actually, the low at nearby weather stations was in the range of 31°F to 36°F.)

I don't bother raking the beds. The ground cover — pink clover and cinquefoil — and perennials will easily grow up through the mulch, which will keep the soil cool and moist during the long, dry summer. Right now, you can't see the edges of the walkways around the lawn with leaves covering both the walkways and the beds.

You might think that, having pruned seven of my 14 roses, the task is half done. However, I did not do any of the climbing roses. The effort to prune the climbing 'Peace' in back equals the effort to prune three bush roses.

The Tree dropped more leaves on the back lawn. I'm going to wait until after tonight's predicted rain storm to rake the lawn again.

So far this season, we ate two very good oranges from the dwarf 'Robertson' navel orange tree. Only 44 inches tall, the tree produced 11 oranges this year. This is the first time since I planted it in 1992 that the tree has had a crop two years in a row.

Raked more leaves from the back lawn. While I was able to put the mound of leaves from the front into the green trash bin, which was collected this morning, there are still mounds on the patio and walkways in back.

During a break in the rain, I raked more leaves, both in front and back. Wet leaves can be quite heavy. I didn't even have to pack them down in the green trash bin; their weight was enough. In back, I cleared the lawn so the leaves would not smother the grass, finishing just as the rain started again. Those leaves are now in mounds on the patio and walkways.

Raked leaves and then raked some more leaves. After filling a large metal barrel with leaves from the driveway — mostly from my valley white oak (Quercus lobata) — I then began to fill the garden trash bin that is collected weekly. I filled the latter bin by raking the sidewalk and brick walkway. Most of those leaves were from my liquidambar.

Used some of the leaves to replenish the mulch on the parkway. Afterwards, I briefly ran the sprinklers in front to wet the leaves and thus make them less likely to blow away.

The oak leaves in the barrel will be added to my compost pile after some of the leaves I added last week (8 Dec) have started decomposing. 50-60 years ago, oak leafmold was a pricey but common soil amendment available at most nurseries. While current gardening advice still cites its use, it no longer seems commercially available. My compost, however, is primarily leafmold; and I make a special effort to maximize the presence of oak leaves.

Mulched part of the parkway in front with the output from my office shredder, placing the shreds over any fallen leaves that were there. Then I topped the mulch with some compost. This seemed to work well in getting the pink clover to fill empty patches in the main part of the front lawn (31 May), so I hope it will work for the cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana) in the parkway.

Stirred the compost pile, adding leaves I accumulated while raking in front. Because much of the existing plant matter in the pile had decomposed and was ready for sifting, the pile had shrunk significantly. However, I already have enough compost for my immediate needs. Since compost is rich in the micro organisms that convert plant matter into compost, I left the completed compost in the pile, making layers of leaves, compost, leaves, compost, etc. I sprinkled a little high-nitrogen urea (45-0-0) on top to speed the composing since the pile is mostly low-nitrogen brown matter.

People who complain that southern California has no seasons — especially at this time of year — are really jealous that we don't have to deal with snow. Sometimes, they are complaining that we have no fall color. They just don't know where to look. Today, I used a Canon A550 to take photos of two zelkova trees (Z. serrata), one in front of my house and one down the block. While the photos have been resized, the colors have not been retouched. (Photos have been archived and are available upon request.) Soon, my liquidambar tree (L. styraciflua) will be in full, glorious color; I will then post photos of it.

Squirrels have been getting my pineapple guavas (Feijoa sellowiana), leaving pieces of the skin all over the back yard. Today, I caught a squirrel in my cage trap. As usual, I drove about 5 miles across the Ventura Freeway to the Paramount Ranch unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to set it loose among hungry coyotes and hawks.

Raked leaves in front. Although I used some to mulch the parkway and the oak (Quercus lobata) in front, most of the leaves wound up mulching the east bed in back.

Broadcast gypsum around the roses in front, on the front lawn, and in the adjacent shrub beds. This was a fine, white powder that is 92% gypsum and contained no stones. The gray junk from Home Depot (17 Nov) was only 70% gypsum.

Located two sources of good quality powdered gypsum. I will go and buy some to treat the lawn, shrub beds, and roses in front.

My prior source of gypsum now only carries gypsum pellets. I much prefer powdered gypsum. The pellets take longer to dissolve and do not readily sift down through heavy mulch or ground cover. So I went to Home Depot and bought two 40-pound sacks of gypsum, a mistake I will never repeat. Today's application used all 40 pounds in one sack. I found small stones mixed with the gypsum. Since it is sold by the weight, that means I paid for stones that were not gypsum. Furthermore, gypsum is usually white. The sands at White Sands National Monument are actually gypsum crystals. But the gypsum from Home Depot was gray, which makes me question what else was mixed with it, possibly further reducing the actual gypsum for which I paid.

Trimmed the pink clover (Persicaria capitata) in front away from the brick walkway to the front door, the wax leaf begonias along the walkway, and the stepping stones that connect the walkway to the driveway.

Broadcast a generous amount of gypsum over the camellia, teardrop, and circular beds in back. My goal is to apply gypsum throughout my garden — front and back — before the end of the year. This means that I now have to buy more gypsum since I used up all I had on those three small beds. The gypsum will make my heavy clay soil more porous, thus making my sprinkler system more efficient.

The oranges on my dwarf 'Robertson' navel tree are starting to show a little color (other than green). I hope the squirrels leave them alone.