A small old ceramic bowl filled with little offerings sits on my desk. It reminds me of a monk’s alms bowl, but instead of being filled with food or money, my bowl is full of gifts from many of the people whose gardens I visited or who shared their gardening stories on In a North State Garden this year. The offerings include things like a lacy tomatilla skeleton, a sculptural spice bush seed pod, an owl faced walnut shell, the aerodynamic shape of a winged maple seed, a fragrant California bay leaf (Umbellularia californica), a white birch bark curl, silvery dried grandfather sage leaves, a plastic baggie of Humboldt lily seeds, a pinch of paprika, a small vial of lavender oil, a heart shaped pebble….and more. These offerings add layers of meaning, the ritual of giving and the creation of memory to my garden. And meaning, ritual and memory add depth and dimension to anyone’s garden and gardening.

My gardening this month will consist of finally finishing with the bulbs. I still have snowdrops and crocus to go. I’m also working on cuttings and starts of several plants to donate to various garden club’s Spring plant sales. I am working on Nepeta, 6 different scented geraniums (Pelargonium), one variety of true Geranium, as well as some hens and chicks and several varieties of sedums. I am raking the leaves from the lawn and pathways, making piles of them in out of the way corners so that I have leaves to add to my compost bin throughout as much of the year as possible. This kind of end of year work in the garden – along with the garden’s own seasonal decorations of remaining colorful leaves, bright red Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries, snow frosting the mountains and foothills, yellow Meyer lemons and squat Mandarins – puts me in the seasonal mood.
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Recently I visited the McConnell Arboretum and Garden at Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding. In a North State Garden last toured the park with Lisa Endicott, Horticulture Manager, in February of this year when she talked to us about the history, layout and mission of the mature 20-acre cultivated display garden and 200-acre arboretum. This time, however, I was talking to Lisa about the damage caused to the gardens by a wildfire that started in the City of Redding and ran through the Arboretum and Gardens on August 26th.

The fire started in town and ran swiftly through untended green belts. Heavy winds of up to 30 or 40 miles an hour that day, coupled with extreme summer heat and dry conditions, allowed the the fire to rapidly burn more than 130 acres in downtown Redding. The area of the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens most affected was on the sundial side of the Sundial Bridge but across the main walkway running perpendicular to the bridge.”

Fire is devastating and destructive. The 2008 Northern California fires burned many acres and homes and negatively affected much of our region. If a silver lining can be found in the fire at the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens, it is in the fact that with the fire here also comes the opportunity to learn: to observe and draw conclusions about the nature of fire in a garden setting and how most efficiently and effectively to respond and go about with restoration. “Oh yes, the fire presents us with an opportunity for research we wouldn’t otherwise have had,” says Lisa, with something of an ironic laugh. “This is the first fire we’ve had since I’ve worked on the grounds (more than 10 years now) and we will be collecting information about various plants’ response to the event – short and long term. For instance how did the Mediterranean plants fare versus the native plants? How did the well-established fare compared to the juvenile or young plants?”

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Dahlias are a wonderful story of fortitude and transformation – a sort of visual rags to riches, and proof that beauty comes from within – deep within. A dahlia begins life as a wrinkled, misshapen tuber - a bit like an old sweet potato you forgot in the back of the bottom drawer of the fridge – but which, given the right conditions and care, grows up to be a stunning, long legged and confident Beauty Queen. Some dahlias could even be classified as Drama Queens. They are one of the stars of the late summer garden – coming into their own in August and blooming happily through first frost. Photo above: a dahlia tuber with one season’s growth.

Long-time members of the Chico community, Joan Eisenberg and Brian Rea grow a great many things in their garden, a great many Dahlia’s among them. And when I say “a great many”, in the case of the dahlias, I mean 91 individual Dahlia plants. Many gardens have secret nooks to discover or chance upon, Joan and Brian’s garden is in a league of its own in this way, taking the unsuspecting by total surprise. The further you move toward the back of their sweet, historic bungalow dating to 1910 in old-town Chico, the more you see the garden open before you – stretching the width and depth of not one but three historic bungalows, which Joan and Brian have purchased and renovated over the past 35 years. Photo above: a shining example of a Peony Form dahlia.

The history of the houses are stories in and of themselves, but “there had never been a fence between these three back-yards,” Joan tells me, and so it seemed natural to continue that way as she began to garden there. As she and Brian bought the houses on either side of theirs to fix up and eventually rent out, it soon became apparent that various long-term renters were happy to have Joan and Brian garden their back yards as well. And who wouldn’t be? Fruit and flowers, walking paths and peaceful seating areas, are open to all three houses. Photo above: The very uplifting site of the Gardenparty Flower cart open for business.
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