It’s that time of year again, when everything changes fast - the light, the leaves, the weather. We are enjoying fall colors (as much as we can in California) and the increase of ‘cozy’ with the early darker evenings. I’m baking bread again, weekly, and there are lots of hearty soups on the menu. Since it’s just me and Tom around the house these days, we keep it pretty simple when it comes to supper.
I’ve had a few folks ask me about the garden. I decided to plant the entire North section in cover crops, to help improve the soil. I’ve seeded both rye and crimson clover, and there are now other things coming up as well - cilantro, sunflowers, and also some tithonia. These are all seeds I put in over the summer and they never germinated. I just couldn’t keep enough water in the ground to support them. Now that we have cooler weather (and some rain - more on that in a minute), they are all popping up. It’ll be interesting to see what survives the winter frosts.
On the South side of the garden, I amended the soil, then planted: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, snap and shelling peas, chard, kale, several kinds of lettuce, leeks, garlic, and spinach. Everything has germinated well (or was transplanted from our greenhouse plugs) and I expect slow growth from now until early Spring. Hopefully we’ll have some winter greens and lettuces, at least.
I’ve recently cleared out some areas in the ornamental beds that just weren’t working well, and have bought some new native plants to fill them. I’m especially excited to try our native California clematis - pipestem clematis - Clematis lasiantha - on our front fence by the driveway. We saw this lovely plant all over Mt. Diablo during our summer hikes, and it always looked amazing in the arid heat.
You may have heard a little something about the ‘bomb cyclone’ and/or atmospheric river we experienced here last weekend. In one 24 hour period, our weather station’s rain gauge recorded 5-1/2” of rain. For us, that is unprecedented. My folks in Orinda had 9-1/2” over that same 24-hour period. Crazy! In front of our house, there is a drain that takes all the runoff from about a quarter mile of road (our neighborhood was designed and built in the 1940s, clearly inadequate infrastructure for today). We (and our neighbors) are careful about keeping it clear of leaves and debris when it is raining, because we’ve had flooding in the neighborhood when the drain is clogged. Tom and I both took very wet and windy walks on the 24th, and enjoyed seeing all the little creeks near our house fill up and run at top capacity. In those conditions, it is easy to imagine the watershed the way it used to be before people lived here, with a broad river flowing down from the Mt. Diablo foothills.
As I’m sure you’ve heard, all this rain put barely a dent in our drought conditions. We need ten more storms just like this one (and frankly, that is highly unlikely to happen) to take us out of danger. However, these rains quenched all the fires in the northern half of the state, so that’s really great news.
As you know, I’ll be graduating in December with my BA in Environmental Studies, an accomplishment 30 years in the making. This photograph was taken from Merritt College, in Oakland. I’m proud to say that I have been hired as an adjunct professor in the Natural History and Sustainability department at Merritt, and I start teaching Urban Argroecology courses in January. Part of my position is a separate requirement to mentor students, particularly those that have been historically underserved by the academic community. I am super excited to get started, and also terrified - which I take as a positive sign that this is a correct new trajectory for me. I will be sad to leave my current internship with Friends of Sausal Creek. I have learned so much in my time with the organization, and forged relationships that I hope will last a lifetime. I still have two months with them, though! Between that, my school load, and gearing up for the new gig, I barely have time to miss my kids. Who, by the way, are both rocking it at their respective colleges. We sure enjoy hearing about their adventures in our weekly phone calls, and we look forward to having them back for the holidays.
How are your winter gardens coming along? I’d love to hear about your urban farming adventures.