Winter is typically the time of year gardeners drool over seed catalogs. I know, I used to dog-ear, bookmark, and highlight plant after plant, page after page of every kind of veggie that I’d planned to grow. Squash, radish, green beans, corn, you name it, I planned to grow it. Alas, as the time neared to order seeds, I had narrowed my list to a few favorites, since it seemed my green thumb wasn’t what it used to be when I gardened at the little home I once lived in on Big Canyon Road decades ago. My current garden, south of Middletown, always requires soil amendments galore.
Knowing that I could help my garden succeed by creating better soil led me to begin composting. But when BEARS visited the property and hauled our trash across the creek, leaving a mess for my husband and me to clean up, we did some rethinking about the logistics of our trash and compost bins, and I even gave up composting because I was worried about attracting bears. I’d heard of bears in the area prior to their visit to our home, but had not yet witnessed the closer-than-I-thought proximity to the critters.
There was a lot of bear activity three or four years ago after the 10-year drought, when bears’ normal stores of food and water were scarce, leading them to stray further out than usual. Our critter cams showed a mama and cub at the front of the house, a big bear by the back patio, and one took a “selfie” by the pottery barn! If I’d been thinking, that monster-sized scat they left around may have boosted my garden’s production!
Since my compost was scarce and I tired of purchasing soil amendments for the serpentine soil I have in my garden, I decided I needed to rethink my veggie garden and its serpentine soil. Serpentine, or serpentinite, our California State Rock comes in a variety of tones and colors from black to yellow. It’s often green and shiny here in Lake County, and considered a rarity on our planet.
Serpentine was created millions of years ago as one of Earth’s plates slid under another during the geologic process known as subduction. Here in Lake County, we sit around two hours driving time to the Pacific Ocean, but once upon a time, these lands resided under the sea. I needed to quit fighting my serpentine soil and find a different way to garden. Why not look around at nature to see what is growing naturally that attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies?
I thrive most on attracting pollinators now, and watching them as they busy themselves on native manzanita’s lovely flowers, wild iris, sage, yarrow, and toyon. I still grow a few veggies, but now I prefer to visit the farmer’s markets for most of my fresh food.
The website called Bloom! California (catchy name, right?) is a website belonging to the California Native Plant Society that explains why native plants matter, and allows you to ‘meet the plants’, eleven of the top contenders, to inspire your gardening needs. Through their section called Garden Inspiration, they walk you through just where to plant native plants with tips and tricks, and tell you just what you’ll need. For example, if you want to try growing their Sunny Pollinator Patch with purple clarkia, white sage, toyon, deergrass, California fescue, common yarrow, etc., they have great ideas to help you succeed.
If you prefer to grow plants in pots, visit the Pots + Planters page, where you will be encouraged to plant Douglas iris, coyote mint, white sage, and more. You can sign up on the website for updates on where to locate native plants that you would like to try. Here is the website.
