Sometimes I stand at that magic circle near the center of my garden and admire the complex perennial borders overflowing with colorful, the glistening fruit and vegetables resplendent on their vines, and cooling sight of a lush well-managed lawn: I think to myself with pride - now this is a fine garden.

Of course - this grandiose moment of smug self-satisfaction lasts just a little longer than 30 seconds. It does not, I repeat: does not, take place anytime from 11 am to 5 pm any day in July or August. If it happens at all - which is a stretch of the imagination - it occurs fleetingly in the forgiving light of early May or possibly during an afternoon in mid-November. It certainly was not my sensation on returning to my garden after two weeks away in mid-July. Rather there I stood - feeling fairly defeated, surveying the damage wondering does a gardener live here??? I tried to remember the advice of a friend’s father: In the hot months you just have to hold on for dear life - the heat will subside and reasonable hope for easier gardening will return. Until then, water and wait. Photo: Vitex agnus-castus, or chaste tree, loves the heat.

Some bright spots exist: Black-eyed susans and crepe myrtles love this time of year, my cucumbers, tomatoes and basil all taste good, even if the plants themselves are not going to win any beauty contests, and the mid- to late-summer blooming bulbs – lilies and tuberoses – are coming on.

Few dedicated gardeners looking at their gardens in the harsh light of mid-day in August, feel confident they are doing everything right. The searing heat bleaches all color and vigor from us and our many of our plants. In this yearly crisis of confidence I think to myself: I should know so much more. Photo: Fragrant herbs such as these scented geraniums, like regular water but love the heat.

Maybe if I became a real Master Gardener I would know more? The good news is that despite a fear that the Shasta College Master Gardener Program was in danger of being cut due to the budget crisis, the program will run as usual this fall. Furthermore, the Butte County Master Gardener program is now accepting applications for their next training session. Call 530-538-7201 for an application package. Applications are due by mid-September, candidates will be chosen by mid-October and classes will begin Thursdays in January of 2010. Photo: Tuberose buds about to open into very fragrant blooms.

If you can’t commit to an entire Master Gardener Training program - we are a region blessed by botanic gardens, garden clubs, plant societies and good nurseries who do all they can to help us the home gardener continue to learn more about gardening. While many of these groups take a hiatus from regular meetings in mid-summer, they are all gearing back up and have great fall programs planned.

On August 15th the UC Davis Arboretum has a guided tour of California Native Plants for the garden, on August 22 The McConnell Arboretum and Gardens at Turtle Bay has a talk on drought resistant plantings with Horticulture Manager Lisa Endicott; The Red Bluff Garden Club resumes regular meetings on August 25th as does the Butte Rose Society. PLEASE NOTE: due to ongoing budget cuts, take careful note of where your gardening or plant groups are meeting in the coming months. I know for instance that both the Chico Horticulture Society and the Butte Rose Society have made changes to their meeting locations or times. Photo: Most succulents love the heat.

More details and many more gardening related events around the region can be found at the Monthly Calendar of Regional Gardening Events. If you have an event you’d like to see posted: send me an email Jennifer @jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is positively North State.

Like gardening itself, the field of Botanical Illustration dates back to ancient times and is a combination of both art and science. Surviving examples of ancient botanical drawings include detailed sketches of plants dating to 1500 BCE found on Egyptian temple walls. Until the advent of the camera, microscope and other instruments used for copying and storing information, botanical drawings served all manner of purpose for the fields of Botany, Medicine, Pathology and Geography among others. Early botanical drawings served as teaching tools for students of these fields and drawings were often compiled into “herbals” or collections cataloguing the medicinal uses of plants. Today, Botanical Illustration continues as marriage between art and science and is becoming increasingly interesting to gardeners. Classes in Botanical Illustration specifically for gardeners are offered at display and botanic gardens, nurseries, and herbaria around the region. Photo: Susan Bazell in her studio.

Susan Bazell is a Botanical Illustrator who lives and works in Paradise. While she says she is not a “professional botanical artist,” Susan’s work can be seen in several books, including the newly released Cacti, Agaves and Yuccas of California and Nevada (Stephen Ingram, Cachuma Press, 2008), Conifers of California (Ronald M. Lanner, Cachuma Press, 2002), and The Life of an Oak (Glenn Keator, Heyday Books, 1998), among others. Photo: Books in which the work of Susan Bazell appears.
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Several weeks ago, when I wrote “Let the show begin!,” I certainly did not intend to invite the aphids. Nevertheless, the show has begun and the aphids are here to enjoy it along with us. So are the weeds. I am not much of a believer in death-by-chemical, and so I am once again enjoying my spring morning ritual of pulling a few weeds and squashing as many aphids as I can. The aphids are mostly clustered along the stems and young flower buds of my clematis vines and rose bushes, so I am able to squash quite a group with one gesture. Soon enough the beneficial bugs (Aphid wasps, assassin bugs, lacewings, ladybugs,praying mantis, etc.) and who feed on the aphids will be along to help me in my work and until then the morning squashing is oddly satisfying. If I lose my zeal for squashing, I can always pull out the hose and give the plants a strong spraying,w which helps to dislodge a large portion of the aphids as well. Photo: Aphids very happily covering a clematis stem and bud.

To escape our spring gardening reality of aphids and weeds, (and other gardeners’ reality of late-winter snow and frost), we have spring Flower & Garden Show season followed closely by Early Summer Garden Tour season. Unlike aphids, garden shows and garden tours at their best are all about fantasy and possibility. They are - dare I say it - sexy and seductive with the garden temptations and promise they hold out to us.

In the past two weeks I have attended two good garden shows: The world-class San Francisco Flower & Garden show this year was in its new location at the San Mateo Events Center. I was duly impressed with the display gardens and duly overwhelmed with the plant and garden vendor booths (every garden thing you can think of from books to orchids to garlic presses) and next year I hope to go for two days so that I can take advantage of some of the speakers and seminars offered. The Soroptimists Home, Garden & Antique show in Chico last weekend had some nice floral competition displays and several very good plant vendors sales and demonstrations - regional plant groups including the Iris Society, the California Native Plant Society, the Orchid Society the Bonsai Society, the Audubon Society and Chico Horticultural Society were there with displays, information and even plants for sale. Several other regional Home & Garden shows and the first of the regional garden tours are coming up in the next few weeks. Photo: while my home garden does not have space for a fountain quite like this one - I so admired the design of it, I had to take a picture for my files.
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Every year – about this time in the North Valley - the big spring bloom begins. And every year I think – it’s even more miraculous – even more lovely this year. Narcissus, hellebores, daphnes, camellias, magnolias, the first of the fruit trees – the beauty is abundant. And now that we’ve had some real rain and snow, I can actually enjoy the bloom with less worry. Close to 11 inches of rain – that’s how much rain I measured in my home garden in the month of February. The rain was so inspiring to me that some days I had to go check my rain gauge 2 or 3 times. I then ran inside, reported the newest numbers to my family and rushed to record the numbers in my journal. I know one good month of rain and snow will not reverse the past seasons’ unusually low precipitation. I know we are still in a drought – but this one good month sure doesn’t hurt. And when the March mountains are decked with snow and the valley is greening and damp, life in my garden feels just right. Photo: White Hellebores.

Although the first official day of spring is March 20th – hurray! - average last frost dates are still a ways away for most of us (early-April for the earliest of us) so don’t get too excited too quickly. Now is a great time for continuing to sow cold hardy vegetable seeds or planting out cold hardy perennials and shrubs to begin establishing before true spring. Now is also the time for feeding a balanced fertilizer to your trees, shrubs and lawns that are starting to show signs of growth. March 1st is a traditional date on which to feed citrus trees. And don’t forget that March 8th, we spring our clocks forward one hour. Photo: Looking across snow covered mountains from Mt. Shasta in mid- February.
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Diane Stout loves Prickly Pear (Opuntia spp.) cactus - all kinds of them. She likes them in artwork, she likes them in pots, she likes them in all shapes and sizes all around her Orland garden. She likes them so much she named her nursery in Orland after the plants. The home garden that she shares with her husband Dave is home to nearly 40 individual Opuntia plants, comprising 16 different species or varieties. Opuntias are quite hardy, very low-maintenance and, extremely drought tolerant. In general, they prefer full sun, lean rocky soil with sharp drainage, and once established, they need almost no supplemental water.Photo: Diane began her colllection in earnest by asking for cuttings from mature stands of Opuntias in the area, for instance from old farmsteads or churches. Here an established stand of Prickly Pears complement the side of an old industrial metal quonset hut in Los Molinos.

Opuntia is a genus of close to 200 species of cacti originating to North, Central and South America and the West Indies. The genus can be divided into what some people call the Prickly Pear cacti – with round but flatter pads, and the Cholla or Teddy Bear cacti – with heavily spined, oblong sausage-shaped pads. California beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris), Teddy Bear Cholla (O. bigelovii), Pancake or Dollar Joint Prickly Pear (O. chlorotica), Silver or Golden Cholla (O. echinocarpa), Old Man Prickly Pear (O. erinacea), and Buckhorn Cholla (O. acanthocarpa), are all considered native to California – mostly to the desert scrub and desert woodland regions of the state. Photo: A purple-fruited Opuntia.
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The California Native Plant Society is hosting a Conservation Conference; Strategies and Solutions, January 17 – 19th at the Sacramento Convention Center and the Sheraton Grand Hotel. On January 20 and 21, immediately following the official meeting, 13 native-plant related workshops are also being held. Regular registration ends Monday January 12th. Photo above: Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica, Sunset zones 4-9) is a native, evergreen shrub that grows from 3 - 15 feet tall, has attractive berries and takes pruning well for smaller garden situations. Its evergreen foliage with frost adds nice winter interest to a mixed border.

I recently talked with Catie and Jim Bishop of Oroville about the upcoming conference. Catie and Jim are on the Chapter Board of the Mount Lassen Chapter of the CNPS and are on the CNPS state Chapter Council. They are both longtime gardeners and plant enthusiasts themselves. Their interest in native plants and conservation grew exponentially after moving, in 1990, to their one-acre foothills property outside of Oroville, where they are working to garden with and regenerate the native Blue Oak Woodland habitat. Based on a good deal of work in National Forests over the past decade, they will be making a presentation on the fens (montane peatlands) of Northern California at the upcoming conference. Photo Above: Catalogue of Offerings at the Conservation Conference, focusing on Strategies and Solutions for conserving our California native plants and their habitats.
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New Year’s in the garden is the same as in the house, same as in the heart. It is full of renewed purpose, determined resolutions and good intentions. For me – and for many – this resolve is all about setting things in order. Not from any grandiose hope for perfection, but simply as a way to at least start things off on the right foot. Before the winter pruning of roses, grape vines and fruit trees, before top-dressing vegetable beds or herbaceous borders with fresh compost, before the spraying of dormant oils, “starting off on the right foot” for me means sorting out my tools.

Late December and January will include cleaning, sharpening and - as needed or if possible - mending my favorite tools. We gardeners are particular about our tools and every gardener I know has their own set of favorites. Mine include the following:
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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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October in the Northstate garden is a sigh of relief. A deep cleansing breath. It’s a wonderful in between time of year - the heat has subsided, the rains are returning, but the garden is not yet done. It’s colors are deepening and mellow, the softening sun warms the days long enough still that I don’t yet feel clipped by waking to pitch dark or early nightfall. Turning the clocks back is still one month away. I am happy to be out in the garden but no longer so pressured by it. Plenty of garden chores want doing - but they lack the do or die urgency of Spring and Summer. Watering, weeding and planting are once again relaxed, and contemplative. You can see the forest for the trees again and think ahead about your bigger plan.

It is easy to see from the Gardening related Events happening in October that other gardeners also feel this reduced urgency in their own gardens. Their excess energy and enthusiasm is clearly going into the many upcoming gatherings, festivals, tours, and lectures. As a gardener, you could be attending events from one end of the Northstate to the other almost every day in October and not get to them all.

Some of these events include the following: The Paradise Garden Club is organizing an effort to plant 10,000 daffodil bulbs in areas of the ridge burned in the summer Fires. The club will have a table at the Johnny Appleseed Days celebration in Paradise this weekend October 4th and 5th. A donation of $25 will help them purchase 100 bulbs. October 4th in Redding the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens at Turtle Bay is hosting a Walk This Way! free day in the park as well as their Fall Plant sale. On October 11th, the Red Bluff Garden Club is hosting their annual luncheon - open to the public - this year entitled Fall Fantasy and featuring floral designer Nancy Colvin. The Sierra –Oro Farm Trail Weekend will also be October 11th and 12th featuring a slow food lunch at two sites. On October 18th, in Redding the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens at Turtle Bay will have an Ornamental Grasses in the Garden workshop as part of their on-going Core Gardening series. For a detailed listing of garden related events in the Northstate in October, click here. Photo Above: Daffodil illustration by Paradise Garden Club member Sally Lee. The original drawing will be raffled off at Johnny Appleseed Days.

Also in October - I am proud to announce the release of the In a Northstate Garden 2009 Wall Calendar. The calendar has a lovely art-press feel to it and is full of the advice, anecdotes and images from a range of the stunning Northstate Gardens we visited and the Northstate Gardeners we met over the past year. All proceeds from the sale of the calendar go to help support the production of In a Northstate Garden’s weekly program. The calendar can be yours as a thank you for donating to Northstate Public Radio at kfpr.org or kcho.org. The calendar will also be for sale in many fine nurseries and shops throughout the region by October 20th. For a full listing of the Wonderful Northstate establishments carrying the 2009 Calendar,click here.

The Farmers Almanac tells us that the full moon this month falls on October 14th and is called the Full Hunters Moon or the Full Dying Grass Moon – although I am hoping some of my grass will be greening up again soon. Photo above: Moon over an Orland Farm.

Until next week, enjoy October in your Northstate Garden.

Gardening, and the planted environment, is part of our cultural literacy – I am convinced of this. And local independent nurseries are the equivalent of the local library for this particular (and in my mind critical) aspect of our literacy. Local nurseries are gathering, learning and socializing places that help us live productively and happily in our communities.

Recently, I was visiting the Prickly Pear Nursery in Orland, chatting with Diane Stout, the owner, when three local Garden Club Ladies came by. Their hands were full. One had a large fresh green stem from what looked like a shrub, another had a pot with a small dead-or-dying specimen and the other had black plastic plant pots to recycle. Diane knew the ladies by name and they were hoping she could help them identify the first item, diagnose the second item and make use of the third. She was able to do all three, and the ladies stayed a while, chatting with us and comparing notes on what their gardens were up to just now. Two of the ladies bought something and they said good-bye. The interaction left me with this powerful feeling – the feeling you get when an experience transcends itself and comes to represent something larger. Photo Above: Diane Stout and her dog Bullet.

Diane Stout and her husband, Dave, moved to Orland from Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, in 2003. Diane had for many years owned Hollyhocks Gardens, a small independent nursery in Carpinteria. When she moved north, she knew she wanted to continue in the nursery world, but was not sure she wanted to dive right in to owning. She spent her first few years in the Northstate working at the Red Bluff Garden Center, followed by Mendons Nursery in Paradise. “Suzy Brooks and Jerry and John Mendon were all great people to work with and learn from,” says Diane. But eventually, she was ready to start again at a place of her own – and in her home-town of Orland. September marked the one-year anniversary of the nursery.
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