Note: My Web pages are best viewed with style sheets enabled. |
Unrated |
Many years ago, when I first started my Web site, I created an online diary of my gardening activities and observations. However, with work and the commute from Hell, I was often so tired I had to choose between maintaining my garden and maintaining my diary. Sometimes, I did neither. In 1998, I stopped my diary and removed the pages from my Web site.
Now I am retired. I am well-rested and have plenty of time to both garden and maintain a diary. This diary is primarily for my own benefit, so that I can look back upon what I did and when. But I thought others might also be interested, so here it is.
Also see What's Blooming in My Garden Now?
Entries are in reverse order (latest at the top). Daily, I might stoop to pull a weed or use a hose to water some potted plants; however, I don't consider those significant gardening activities. Thus, you will not see daily entries. Also, I might accumulate a few entries before updating this page on the Web.
When plants have well-known common names, their scientific names are given only the first time they appear on this page (entry closest to the bottom). There, the common name is in bold.
Dates refer to other entries in the same year (but perhaps a different page) as the entry in which they appear unless a different year is given.
Date and Weather | Observations and Activities |
---|---|
30 Dec
Clear, sunny, and cold Temp: 36-52
Rain —
|
Picked and juiced some lemons from my dwarf 'Eureka' lemon tree. Unlike most fruits — unlike even other citrus — lemons are everbearing; that is, they have no season. My little tree flowers and then produces lemons year round.
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.) |
27 Dec
Clear, sunny, and cool Temp: 48-65
Rain —
|
Raked more leaves from the back lawn. Leaves are piled high on the patio and on the walkways surrounding the lawn.
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. |
25 Dec
Thin clouds, hazy sun, cold Temp: 49-57
Rain —
|
Started pruning my roses. Except for the climbing '4th of July', all roses in front have been cut. I also did the 'Arizona' in back.
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. |
24 Dec
Clear, sunny, and cool Temp: 46-67
Rain —
|
Despite a long-lasting rain storm ending in a downpour, my garden is still in bloom.
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. |
21 Dec
Cloudy, rainy, and cold Temp: 46-51
Rain —
|
Rain, rain, and more rain. Since early in the morning four days ago, the longest break without measurable rain was less than five hours. Fortunately, it has been a slow rain, often little more than a drizzle. I have not seen any damage in my garden.
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. |
12 Dec
Clear, sunny, and warm Temp: 66-80
Rain —
|
Winds have stripped the colored leaves from most trees in this area. They also scoured away some of the mulch I laid on the parkway in front (8 Dec).
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. |
8 Dec
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 60-74
Rain —
|
My liquidambar tree finally got its fall color. The first photo was taken from my front yard, with my neighbor's Italian cypress behind my tree; overhead branches from my zelkova (24 Nov) are at the top of the photo. The second photo was taken from my neighbor's front yard, showing my tree's branches through the cypress; The Tree can be seen in the background. Again, while the sizes of the photos have been adjusted, the colors have not been retouched. (Photos have been archived and are available upon request.)
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. |
24 Nov
Clear, sunny, and cold Temp: 39-56
Rain —
|
Had frost last night and two nights ago. Although the temperature did not dip below 39°F, some roofs gave up enough heat into the cloudless sky that frost condensed on them.
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. |
18 Nov
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 62-79
Rain —
|
Applied gypsum to the back lawn and to the parkway in front. I had just enough of the Home Depot gypsum (17 Nov) to spread some around the rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) in front.
Located two sources of good quality powdered gypsum. I will go and buy some to treat the lawn, shrub beds, and roses in front. |
17 Nov
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 46-78
Rain —
|
Broadcast gypsum in the east, rose, and west beds in back. I still have to do the back lawn and all of the 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. |
14 Nov
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 65-81
Rain —
|
At this time of year, raking leaves is a frequent activity. I have already filled a barrel from which I will add to my compost pile. Today, I also mulched part of the east bed in back from leaves I collected in front.
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. |
7 Nov
Cloudy, gray, and cool Temp: 50-66
Rain —
|
Broadcast soil sulfur around the liquidambar (L. styraciflua) tree in front, around the gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides 'Veitchii') in back, and across the teardrop and camellia beds also in back. By spring, soil bacteria should be slowly converting the sulfur into sulfuric acid to prevent chlorosis.
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. |
Weather data are from the Cheeseboro (CHE) weather station, about 2 miles ENE of my house (reported in prior diary pages as 1.2 miles).
The high temperature (°F) is daytime for the indicated date; the low temperature (°F) is for the night ending on that date.
The relative humidity is at noon. (In my garden, it is likely higher than reported, a result of regular irrigation.)
Wind speeds (mph) are average (not peak) low and high, midnight to midnight (subject to later correction for diary entries posted before the end of the day).
Rain is in inches. Rain amounts are omitted after 60 consecutive days elapse without any measurable amount.
Season is the cumulative amount of rainfall since the start of the current rainy season, which began on 2 Oct 2010 with the first measurable rain in 137 days, until noon on the indicated date.
Week is the cumulative amount of rainfall from noon seven days ago until noon of the indicated date. If no rain fell in that period, Days since last is reported.
Characterization of the weather (e.g., Clear, sunny, and warm) is purely subjective; for example, "warm" might occur with higher temperatures than "hot" if the former occurs with lower humidity and more breezes than the latter. Also, a day that would normally be characterized as "mild" might instead be "warm" if the immediately previous days were quite cold.
The signature line I use when writing messages about my garden includes the following:
Main gardening page |
Current month's diary page |
David Ross home |
|