The Garden Sirens: A "To Do" List For Winter

My front yard has lost the ability to speak to me. Its lawn and shrubs stand mutely as if turned to stone by some horticultural Medusa. The wind and sun don't bother them. Birds and insects have no reason to visit them. They speak to the lawn service, however. They say, Mow me, shear me, spray me. And the landlord says, Bill me.

My backyard, on the other hand, speaks clearly. It speaks the language of annuals whose voices rise and fall with the seasons. In the spring, when the plants were small, they whispered and said, Protect me. And in bright summer, tall and glowing, full of lizards and birds, butterflies and bees, they shouted, Fertilize me, harvest me. Now, as winter approaches, they whisper once again and say, Bury me.

So I spend the shortening days gathering the last of the ripe fruit, cutting and chopping stems, turning them into the soil or carrying them to the compost pile. It's a solemn task, saying farewell to plants that have worked so hard for so long for my family and me. I collect green fruit that will never reach its peak and compost it along with fruit that's long past its prime. "Behold this compost!" exclaimed Walt Whitman. It is the sink into which this season's aspirations fall and from which next season's will arise.

But there's more than composting to be done. It's time to plant perennials, especially California native plants. UC Davis researchers recently documented that hedgerows consisting of native shrubs and perennial grasses provide habitat for an abundance of beneficial insects. The drought-resistant shrubs ceanothus, coffeeberry, California buckwheat, toyon, elderberry, and coyote brush, have successive bloom periods that provide year-long pollen and nectar for beneficials while the grasses provide winter habitat. If these plants are growing naturally near your garden, consider yourself fortunate. If not, consider getting an edge on future garden pests by integrating a few into your landscape.

usually has a decent selection of natives. Until December Tilden Botanical Garden has native plant sales Thursday mornings from 9 to 11. If you're interested in natives and haven't yet visited Yerba Buena Nursery on Skyline Road in Woodside, you owe it to yourself to make the journey. In addition to an excellent selection of native plants, the nursery features an extensive demonstration garden where you can see the plants in action. Yerba Buena is right across Skyline Blvd. from the Thomas Fogarty Winery. 15 miles downhill toward the ocean is Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero. These could be the ingredients for a lovely autumn road trip.

The soil is still dry enough to be workable but it's getting close to last call for planting spring flowering bulbs, corms, and rhizomes. And since the soil will likely hold its warmth for a few more weeks, the optimistic or adventurous gardener might sow carrot, beet, spinach, arugula, lettuce, and radish seeds and set out lettuce, broccoli, kale, cabbage, and cauliflower plants.

Make sure perennials are mulched. I like to throw down a handful of water-insoluble organic fertilizer such as alfalfa, cottonseed, feather, or fish meal on the soil before mulching. Since it takes biological activity to make such fertilizer available to the plant, when the soil warms in spring the nutrients will be there waiting for the microbes to come back to life.

Take advantage of breaks between rain storms to get weeds while they're small. Wild mustard has already established a beachhead in my garden.

I enjoy letting some plants complete their life cycles in the garden. It's always a pleasant surprise to meet the offspring of plants I watched grow from seedling to senescence. When I have a plant I'd like to see naturalize, I scatter their seeds all around the garden. I can always edit out any unwanted plants later. Seeds of plants that are expensive or hard to find or that did especially well I bring indoors to dry. When they're completely dry, I separate the seeds from the chaff, put them in jars or zip-lock bags, label them, and keep them in a dark dry place until spring. This year I'm sprinkling Love-in-a-mist and False Queen Anne's lace seeds around and saving Bells-of-Ireland seeds indoors.

The weather tells me to stay busy. My achy joints tell me to take a break. But next year's garden is already talking to me. It says, Dream me.