THE GARDENER'S NOVEMBER

The Gardener's November

 


The book “The Gardener’s Year” by the Czech author Karel Capek (1890-1938) inspired me to write about my garden in November 2013.

In November the fall is here, the temperatures cool, and the plants begin to grow dormant. Now in November I am the lady of the fallen leaves. I have a light rake on my right and a green basket on my left.  I use the rake very little. I am mostly raking the garden with my own bony old hands.

I am reluctant to use the rake in case some tiny plants sprouted and the rake might break them or pull them out. I draw imaginary lines on the ground to divide the bed into small puzzle pieces, and slowly I gather the leaves one section at a time.

Many of the trees in my garden are deciduous, meaning that they shed all of their leaves in the winter. Leaf drop involves a complex biological process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deciduous_trees

The oak tree takes control of our front yard. Our oak is one of the valley oaks.

In the late spring the oak’s pollen covers the soil, the trails to the house, the windows, everything. The afternoon wind off the bay releases yellow clouds of the pollen all over the garden.

Then in fall the oak tree makes acorns. This year the acorns of our oak were more abundant than in any other year since we came to live here in 2006. A falling acorn can sprout where it landed. From time to time I see a seedling sprout.  It holds strongly to the ground and is hard to pull out.


In November the leaves and the small twigs start to fall and they cover the soil, the street, and the parking lot. The piles of leaves continue to rise into the winter until no leaves remain on its branches.

I love to sweep the leaves, listen to their crunching sound, and then look around me at the clean areas with satisfaction.  The beds of the flowers are cultivated and well-tended, the soil has a fresh look, the sidewalks and the street’s pavement are clean. 

Sometime as I sweep, rake, and gather the leaves into small heaps, I walk towards the garden bin and suddenly hear the stir of the wind from the bay as it flies by. I stop sweeping and see the leaves that I have just gathered fly close to the ground like a flock of small birds, making a special rustling sound, and then they land back down in the garden. It all happens just as I am ready to hold a pile of leaves and drop it into the garden’s bin. 

Oh, I sigh deep in a case like this. Now I have to start all over again.

I enjoy the back and forth movement of sweeping, the rhythm and the sound of the straw broom as it touches and leaves the pavement. The movement and the light swing give me a peaceful feeling. I sweep the parking lot slowly, beginning at the edges and moving towards the center. I go in circles around the leaves as I slowly gather them in the middle into one heap. I drop them into the garden bin and I continue to another part of the pavement.

Other times I sit on a bench in the garden and suddenly I feel a motion. No real sound accompanies the motion.  Perhaps I sense some vibration in the air and the sound waves touch my ear subconsciously

I wonder: 

“Is it a small bird or a Swallowtail or maybe, maybe, a Monarch?”

“No,” the tree tells me. “It is just a lonely small leaf dropping from a branch like a butterfly.” 

Hydrangeas will turn from pink to blue if the soil is acid – it seems rather magical

The oak tree is in control of the sky, but beneath the tree the hydrangea bushes are very impressive for most of the year. Now, in November, the flowers are still striking in their size and blaze of colors, but the leaves start fading, falling, and covering the hiding places under the bushes.

To rake the hydrangea leaves, I crawl on the ground while making myself as flexible and lean as a snake. I wind among the branches, gather the leaves into a mound, and pull it slowly outside the bed without breaking any buds.

Yesterday I did quite a good job with it. If you come and take a look under the bushes, you’ll see the almost clean brown soil and the clean stems.

“It is only the beginning,” Amos says when I ask him to compliment my work.

Yes I know, and once the bushes’ branches are completely bare, I’ll crawl again and cover the soil with manure and use the spade to turn over the soil.

 

On both sides of our house, wisteria vine is climbing on the fence. The wisteria is one of my favorite plants. The wisteria is a deciduous climber. One of ours is a cultivar that produces flowers before leaves. It is still a young plant and hasn’t yet produced any flowers. Now in November it is already bare. The other wisteria bears leaves and flowers at the same time. 

It is about six years old and it has already produced many short clusters of deep blue flowers. This one produces flowers twice every summer.  

The shape of its leaves is perfect and they are turning into yellow. A long branch of the wisteria with its leaves is like a shining cluster. In some leaves the tip has a brown patch like a tiny arrow. The yellow leaves cover the short trail with a beautiful carpet. 

As I am writing this blog, I read that different types of Wisteria vines twine their stems in different ways. They have a predictable direction of twining around a support. Predictable twining direction is a useful feature to help with identification of wisterias and other vines. In winter, without blossoms or leaves, the fruit and/or twining direction could distinguish a species. After I read that interesting fact, I ran into my garden and looked at the twining of the stems of my oldest wisteria. The youngest wisteria hasn’t twined her stems yet. You can look at the photo below.

I am not sure if the direction of the twine of the stem is clockwise or counterclockwise. The article that I read contained photos and gave advice about how to decipher the direction, but it concluded the article with the following words:

 

“When all (advice) fails, observe the plant.”

http://www.namethatplant.net/article_asthevinetwines.shtml

One more thing: After I read about climbers in general, I am now motivated to take better care of pruning and training the vines in my garden. 

 Crape Myrtle 

With Long lasting flowers

With colors white, pink and red

Are impossible to forget

J. B. LeBuert

Entering the backyard garden on the right side, one walks a short trail to the back under a row of myrtle trees. The myrtle trees are always beautiful.  During the summer they have a green fresh canopy.  Late in the summer they are covered with beautiful clusters of light pink flowers. In the fall they have the most gorgeous foliage when their leaves get a copper- bronze color. The trees shed their leaves and cover the trail with this copper-bronze color carpet. In winter their trunks are smooth and peel off a layer that looks like an ancient papyrus.

The  Persimmon is ebony, the hardest,

the most beautiful of all woods.

To the Japanese it is the symbol of life,

a heartwood that will outlast everything man can make. 

 Bryce Courtenay

At the end of the myrtle trail lives our persimmon. The fuyu persimmon has glossy, deep green leaves during the summer.  It is very difficult to detect the flowers on the persimmon tree. They are bloom close to the leaf (?). They are tiny and cream colored. Last year we had only two fruits. This year I watched the tree for the flowers. I was eager to know:

“Are we are going to have fruits or none?”

I didn’t spot the flowers, but slowly as summer progressed the fruits started to appear. In the fall the fruits ripen and the green foliage is now dotted with bright orange persimmons. Then in November the color of the green leaves turned into a dramatic copper-bronze shade. As winter approaches the leaves will fall and leave the tree bare. 

Our garden brought us many different fruits: blueberries, apples, peaches, and figs. The persimmons are the last fruits we get after months of care and toil. 

Next year I’ll inspect the tree for the flowers with better eyes and more experience.

The Cedar of Lebanon

 "I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive" (Isaiah 41: 19)

The backyard garden lies in the shadow of our neighbor’s huge cedar. It is a majestic tree. I admire this tree. It is evergreen but in the fall it always covers our garden with yellow pollen, tons of needles, cones and cone fragments, and of course seeds.

The New World Encyclopedia tells us that the process of the formation of the cone is slow and takes one year.  


http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cedar


The pollination is in autumn and the seeds mature the following autumn. The cones disintegrate in maturity to release winged seeds. I slowly collect them by hand.


I pull out the small seedlings that already have sprouted.

Sometime I forget to put on gloves and the needles or the cone fragments injure my hands. The ground underneath the tree is dry and hard, but I still managed to grow some camellia trees, kiwi vines, cyclamens, and lilies.

 

Queen of Lemon Herbs - Lemon Verbena

A huge lemon verbena bush leans on our veranda. In Hebrew, we call it Louisa. It is a convenient place for all of us who like the refreshing flavor of the Louisa tea. We can step outside the kitchen, snap several top branches, steep them in hot water, and we have delicious tea.

Lemon verbena is a deciduous woody shrub. During the summer the plant is green and tall. Its leaves release a fragrance when I touch them. The lemon verbena is perennial in frost-free areas like here in Palo Alto. Once the nights get cold, its leaves start getting brown spots and a yellow color and then drop.

The bush will not die. It will have bare branches during the winter and will start shooting young leaves in the spring.

During the summer I harvested the leaves, washed them lightly, and spread them on a towel for three or four days to dry. I collected the dry leaves into small tea boxes. Family members are waiting to get a box of dry lemon verbena leaves as a present.

I always pick up the top fresh stem and I have never seen the plant produce flowers. According to an article on Wikipedia, sprays of tiny white flowers appear in late spring or early summer.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Verbena

You can find many interesting details about lemon verbena on the following site:

http://worldgardener.blogspot.com/2013/08/all-about-growing-lemon-verbena_25.html

When I Smell the Lilac, I Smile.

In November some plants appear so wretched, you could almost think they are dead. One of these plants is the lilac. 

The lilac bush in our garden has almost no leaves in November. The few leaves remaining are crumbled and have no beauty. 

Karl Capek says about the last leaves: 

“They are the last flags flying on the battle field.” 

The lilac thrives in our zone, 9. In the spring it blooms with delicate, fragrant, purple flowers and its green leaves have almost a shape of a heart.  The lilac tree in my garden is bushy and compact and needs minimum pruning. When I planted it, I didn’t write down its specific name. I discovered that there are experts that can distinguish the scents of different flowers; maybe someone like them will help me find out which lilac is decorating my backyard.

http://www.finegardening.com/plants/articles/lilacs-time-for-fresh-look.aspx?id=80792

Clematis, Clematis, my song is to thee!
To Clematis I sing and my heart sings to me,
Richard Lynott O'Malley

Not far from the poor lilac, several types of clematis climb over the fence. Some of the clematis vines are still green and create a thick, heavy hedge. I enjoy the sight when I stand in the kitchen washing dishes, baking, or cooking.

I know the clematis will soon turn grey and then it will be bare for the whole winter.  But, I tell myself, it is only for three months and then there will be an explosion of white flowers all over the fence. I love the change that comes with the different seasons. Now I enjoy the green clematis vines with their unique seeds.

 

Yellow Cala

Under the clematis are beds with camilla, clivias, cyclamens, azaleas, begonias, perennial yellow callas and more. 
The yellow calla has big green leaves with white dots. When the fall approaches the leaves turn yellow and soggy, and slowly rot. It is sad to see the leaves in this state. I’ve captured a picture of one of the leaves just before it started deteriorating. It still has a nice sharp shape, but very soon the stem will rot and the leaf will lose its clear-cut shape.

 Lilies

Lilies are beautiful flowers. I planted many lily bulbs everywhere in the garden.

Now, the flowers are gone, the leaves dried slowly, and what remains are dry stalks with dry shrunken leaves. Now that I write about them, I realize I didn’t trim them properly as the experienced gardeners suggest. The care instructions say: “During the flowering season, trim the spent blooms, keeping at least 2/3 of the stem intact.” I didn’t trim them in this way. I will soon cut them low, but I will not pull them out as we do with other bulbs.

Lilies have variety of ways to multiply.

http://www.mikesbackyardgarden.org/lilyprop.html

I will point out only the few methods I have seen in my garden and that are relevant to the autumn:

· Be careful with these dry canes; down below there is a bulb. The bulb grows and multiplies by splitting.

· Another reason to be careful with the dry canes is the small tiny bulbs, the bulblets. They are starting to form on the dry cane almost at its contact with surface of the soil, and in the spring they produce new plants.

· Don’t cut the cane of the tiger lily before it completely dries out. The tiger lily propagates also by producing stem or leaf bulbils.

· When occasionally you pull a lily bulb and some of the scales are cut off, plant the removed scales and you’ll have new plants in the spring.

· Lilies grow also from seeds and this why lilies appear everywhere in my garden.

I’ll leave the bulbs in the ground; they will grow, multiply, and sprout in the spring.

The Grape Vine

In the backyard we have one grape vine. Its branches and leaves create a shadow over a swinging bench. It is a romantic corner in the garden. It is green in the summer and bare in winter. It is an attractive sight when you look at it through the window. During the late summer the ripe grapes fall everywhere and create sticky splotches on the bench. In the autumn the leaves fall and crumble under our feet. If we want a neat space to sit, we need to clear the leaves and the tiny grapes. I have all the intentions in the world to keep the bench clean and romantic, but one day I have too many chores, on another day the pool man dismantles the garden hose and I can’t use it, and on another day it is simply too hot or too cold to think about sitting outside.

Yuval, my youngest granddaughter, doesn’t care if the bench is clean or not. She just wants to sit there close to me and listen to an abridged story about Nils Holgersson. I even have a fake Canadian goose standing by the bench.

One of my daughters likes to sit there when she needs a quiet private place, and my other daughter likes to sit there with her father, watching her children in the pool. It is a moment when her father is solely hers and no other human being or device interferes.

 The Fig

Next to the grapes, surrounded by small English boxwood bushes, grows our precious fig tree. In the summer we had an abundance of sweet fruits which the family enjoyed. By now the summer crop ended. For a while the tree was covered with large lobed deep green leaves, but in November the leaves turn yellow and one leaf after another glides from the branches to make a yellow woven carpet on the ground. The big and yellow leaves soon become grey and crumble.  Their beauty disappears.

Peony - The Queen of the Flowers 

I have several peony trees in my garden. The flower is large and its petals are as soft as silk. I’ve already written a blog entry about the myths associated with the peony. Once the flower fades and summer goes into the fall, the leaves change their color to a light brown and then crumble. The small tree with its thin branches appears dead, but toward spring it will recover and renew its glamor.

I’ve reached the end of the description of the autumn as it is represented by some of my plants. Forgive me for not telling you about my roses and their diseases at the end of the summer, about the foliage of the blueberries, the deciduous apple and peach, the kiwi family, the angel trumpets, the amaryllis, and many other plants.

I will briefly summarize my thoughts and chores for the autumn.

The plants in the garden fight the weather’s changes every day. We don’t see their microscopic struggle and behavior.  We see only the major changes. In the fall, for example, we may see the death of a tree or of a rose bush. We can observe the change in the strength of the fall color of the trees or the delay of the fall foliage. If we could follow, record, and distinguish every tiny single step in the physiology of the plants by watching them in the garden and in the wild, perhaps we could understand better the changes in the whole environment.

My November gardening chores:

Add compost to the soil.

Apply lime to the lilac tree.

Plant 2 pineapple guava trees.

Place cold sensitive plants indoors: my plumeria and some of the begonias.

Plant daffodils bulbs.

Reduce watering if there is rain.

Aerate and fertilize the lawn.

And most important: Rake the leaves!!!

I will end with Karl Capek’s words about the fall:

“I tell you there is no death, not even sleep. We only pass from one season to another. We must be patient with life, for it is eternal.”