What Blooms after the Frosts in December around Paso Robles?

Poinsettia in Mid December at Fat Cat Farm

Spring and summer are bursting with colorful flowers and blooming trees. In autumn, the deciduous trees dress in shades of yellow, rust, red, and  gold. It is a season of splendor and sadness, as it precedes the stark bleakness of winter.  After the first frosts in December, as I walked through my usual haunts in Paso Robles and looked at my own garden in Templeton, there was little color to be seen, so I went looking for it. I wanted to see just what does bloom here in the second half of December.

My first stop was Fat Cat Farm, about a mile east of me on Highway 46 West. I was sure if anything was blooming anywhere, I'd find it there in the herb garden. I found the last poinsettia (in top picture) on display, and remembered the one in my childhood home that was quite tall, growing in a bed beside our driveway.  I also found the plants below, most of which were in the pansy / violet family. Of the herbs, only the rosemary was blooming. Here are the pictures I got at Fat Cat Farm. I am very sad that Fat Cat Farms has had to close. I will miss it.

Rosemary after First Frosts

Pansies always add a happy face to the garden and provide winter color. 

Violas also add cheer -- especially these yellow ones. 

Pale Violets at Fat Cat Farm

After leaving Fat Cat Farm, I went home in search of color and was rewarded by my faithful calendula plants. They add brightness to my garden all year, but in winter they and the rosemary are the only things beside the white flowers of the coyote brush and the red berries of the cotoneaster that provide any color other than green.

Calendula adds color all year. 

I let the fallen leaves protect my gazanias in winter.

Coyote Brush in Bloom

Cotoneaster Berries 

On December 19, I was convinced there must be something else in bloom as winter was about to descend upon us, so I visited the garden at Veris Cellers on Bethel Road, not far off Highway 46 West. I was not disappointed. Although the frost had killed most flowers, some winter flowers were still blooming -- even if some on the same plant were brown. I don't know the names for all these. the leaves on some look familiar but I can't place them. If you know them, please let me know in the comments.

Mums with Sweet Alsyssum at Veris Cellars

White Roses at Veris Cellars

Pink and White Roses at Veris Cellars

Mystery Plant One at Veris Cellars

Mystery Plant Two at Veris Cellars -- Could it be a mum?

White Snap Dragon at Veris Cellars

After leaving Veris Cellars, I was convinced that I might find still some other source of color at the city park in Paso Robles. Here's what I found there. There were some wimpy red roses, but they were gradually changing into these lovely red rose hips. So, even though they don't count as flowers anymore, they do count as color. I also found these red trumpet shaped flowers, but I don't know what they are.  

Red Rose Hips at City Park in Paso Robles

Mystery Plant Three at City Park in Paso Robles

If you have some flowers blooming here in North San Luis Obispo County that I haven't mentioned here, please feel free to tell us in the comments what they are, since I'm hoping this can be a resource for people planning gardens with some color all year. 

A Change in Focus

As you can probably tell, the squirrel attack left me pretty discouraged. I have no plans for a real garden on the Templeton property this year except for a few herbs and flowers which are already there. I don't have time to feed the squirrels anything that doesn't grow on a tree, and I have a lot of web projects that are mandatory this year. I may grow a tomato or two in Paso Robles if I can prepare the soil, but I simply haven't the time and energy to put in a big garden. Farmers Market, here I come

That does not mean, though, that I won't be observing and appreciating the gardens of others or trying to have producing fruit and nut trees. I have learned much about the power and creativity of God through gardening, and now I will look for his creativity on the land that surrounds my land, the trees and vineyards my neighbors grow, and anywhere else I'm in  a position to observe nature. I will be sharing my reflections on God's power and creativity as seen in nature and life as the new focus of the blog and will be changing it's name to more clearly define that focus. The calendula flower in the picture above is the only thing blooming on my slope. It was able to survive the squirrels and gophers, as well as the cold temperatures this January. It brings glory to its Creator. I did not plant the seed. He did, from the parent plants that bloomed last year.

New Life in the Garden

It's been a long and cold winter. On New Year's Day it was beautiful and I planted some seeds for winter vegetables like radish, lettuce, Oriental greens, and more. And about the time they should sprout we had a hard frost for several nights. I still have some of the radish spouts, but they never grew. I'm waiting to see if the Oriental greens that sprouted will grow. Meanwhile, on Feb 4, I planted another batch of everything. Still no new spouts. I think I may have dampening off in the raised beds. I planted some brussel sprout plants in Feb., but they have not grown much. Five went into the raised bed with a row cover. The other went into a pot with no covering. The one in the pot disappeared. The five in the raised bed are still there -- just not any bigger.

The January frosts seemed to kill eveything -- even the gazanias which I transplated in January -- just before the frosts. I had taken the plants from my other house in a neighborhood. Almost everyone in the neighborhood had them. And after the frosts the neighborhood was a depressing place. It seems most of the plants were heaps of dead leaves. There's not much that looks worse than mounds of dead gazania leaves.

Today, after about two weeks doing very little in the way of garden care except laying papers and cardboard to block weeds before the rains, I decided to hoe some of the weeds I couldn't get covered. I could only handle about three minutes of that before wearing out, so I decided to hand-weed my herb bed where I had planted all the gazania transplants. Almost everything in that bed had looked pretty dead except the irises and the rapidly growning weeds, and the carnation I had planted in a pot. At least I could kneel to do the weeding. And when I got close, I saw some fresh green shoots coming from almost all the plants I thought were dead. (See picture above.) I cut away the dead parts, pulled the weeds and noticed a few new poppy seedlings popping up. So far one borage plant remains from last year. The frost didn't kill that. But a gopher knocked out the other one last week, so I have a feeling my borage, about to bloom, is not long for this world. I'll have to plant one in a pot if I want it to be able to reseed, I guess.

After I finished the bed by the kitchen window, I moved to the bed by the pumphouse wall. Most of what was planted there survived. When I saw how destructive the frost was in the other beds, I covered almost everything in this bed with dry leaves. It seemed to work. And I also got my first daffodil blossom there today, with another about to bloom. All the daffodils I planted in the fall are started to emerge.

There still may be a few weeds in my beds I didn't get out, but I got the worst of them and gave the other plants breathing room. Now the big project is to hoe weeds before they get too big to hoe, spead all the cardboard I can get to block as many as possible, and start vegetable seeds indoors. The garden centers already have leggy tomatoes, but I wouldn't dare put them out until I know what the weather will be doing. So I guess I'll grow my own. I hope to grow at least tomatoes, sweet peppers, cukes, squash, and lettuce. I'd also like to grow root vegetables, kohl rabi, and chard. And, of course, flowers.