Re: first frost

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I read Dee Ann's report on first frost with some amusement as I was out in my garden today, planting gingers and brugmansia, and admiring the grapes as they cascade over the arbor.  In Southern California, we consider this month to be our "second spring."  With the intense heat finally over, my perennials and even some of the vegetables are celebrating with a shower of flowers that remind me of confetti.  Plants that go in now have warm soil in which to send down good strong roots, even as the air cools and the evapo-transpiration pressure on leaves eases.  It is the best of both worlds, and if I have to give up the sunshine of summer to sunset before dinner time, at least my plants give me a colorful show to enjoy.

The garden, now in its 6th year, is finally beginning to look like my dreams.  Or maybe my dreams have changed over the last six years.  Or maybe I've just matured.  I have made the transition from being "flower focused," to being "foliage focused."  Okay, well maybe I am now both  flower and foliage focused.  I see the backbone of the garden taking shape and it delights me to have real trees and real shrubs (though I have few shrubs).  I look for combinations now, I find two or three plants that have serendipitously worked in combination and I try to decide how to build on that pairing.  Each time I scout a garden to write about, I take home  lessons and ideas to try in my own yard.  Public gardens, despite their overblown formality, still offer opportunities for observing interesting contrasts and combinations.

My first frost will come sometime after Thanksgiving -- last year, it was the day before  thanksgiving.  I hope to string up some christmas tree lights before that time to raise the ambient temperature around the most frost sensitive plants at least a degree or two -- probably as much as is necessary in our mild climate.  And besides, it will be pretty to see the twinkling lights out the window.

You think we have no seasons here in southern California?  To the unobservant, it seems that way.  But not to us gardeners.

Nan

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Nan Sterman
San Diego County California
Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11